Football and Music

After this breaking news I’m sure that there will be many google searches for the original curly perm. Below are links to KK’s musical output plus a couple of other interesting related posts:

» KK - Head Over Heels In Love

» KK - Move On Down

» KK - In England

- Here’s a tribute after he left. » Busker - Thank You Kevin
Time for a follow-up welcoming him back again I think.

- Finally a visual feast of video and photographs for you to drool over: » KK In Pictures

Edit & update: One more and that’s it. Enough already. » Don Juan - Wor Kev

On a personal note I would like to emulate Busker’s words by thanking you Kevin for making this stupid return. It is partly because of your musical output that I got the idea for F & M.

I hope that some enterprising record company will leap onto this bandwagon and gather all his material together - I’m still looking for his appearance on Little and Large in which he sang with them on the show, there was also a little know single released in 1973 called It Ain’t Easy. If anybody out there spots these then give me a shout.

A big thanks to Jim York who spotted these on the TSBB - Scarborough FC Fanzine.

In what is turning into a series (starting with Coventry and then Luton) we move next to another club which did actually meet their doom.

The 128 year old Scarborough FC ceased to be on June 25th, 2007.

But let us not be down-hearted ! A supporters trust was set up and as soon as the old club was wound up Scarborough Athletic Football Club was born.

A quick history of their demise and rebirth for those of you too lazy to click the above links »

Scarborough FC are… sorry were, one of those lower league clubs who were either skirting with relegation from the league or trying to get back into it.

They were playing in the old 4th Division from 1987 onwards, but on the last day of the 1998/99 season… Jimmy Glass. Remember him ? The on-loan goalkeeper at Carlisle finally doomed them back to non-league football.

From then on in, apart from an FA Cup run in 2003/4, they struggled to find any form. Then a couple of seasons later they finished bottom of the Conference, were relegated to the Conference North and during that time it was the beginning of the end. The club were in administration and they were docked 10 points, finally they finished 20 and were looking at dropping into the Northern Prem but the debts were too large and eventually they ceased to be.

As mentioned they have returned in the form of Scarborough Athletic currently playing in the Northern Counties East League Division One. At the moment they don’t have a ground, their home matches take place at Bridlington. They are hopeful though that one day they can return to the Theatre of Chips.

Music-wise and thankfully for us Scarborough recognised their mediocrity and took the first opportunity to record something.

This is what I like, this is what I want to see. Luton did it back in 1974 for what as far as I can tell was just for the fun of it and Leyton Orient did for something for Chrimbo.

This is a note for all over lower league teams - Don’t wait for an FA Cup final appearance. What are your chances of getting there ? Just get yourself in the studio and celebrate something… anything.

As Scarborough did when they were promoted to the League:

» The 1986/87 GMVC Winning Scarborough Squad - We Play For Scarborough

and the (instrumental) B side - listen out for the quality keyboard-does-the-chant/crowd noise near the end :

» Scarborough FC - Supporters United

Finally a half-decent punk tune recorded in 1998 from a band called Mr Bruckman :

» Mr Bruckman - Boro Till I Die

You’ve seen all the recent article about Luton Town. Latest news is that there is a glimmer of hope in the form of that dull TV-AM jumper wearing presenter Nick Owen. He’s not coughing up any of his own cash mind, he’s doing the recently popular thing of “heading up a consortium”. Either way it’s good news for the Luton players, never mind the club, who thanks to the FA Cup match at home to Liverpool last Sunday got another wage packet. Last one before this was back in November I think.

This is the third time since 1990 that Luton have gone into administration. Hopefully everything will be sorted in time and they will be still in existence come the replay.

After reading about their current troubles I looked at the Wikipedia entry for Luton Town FC and was reminded of their troubled past - especially in the 80’s when their then chairman banned all away fans from visiting. (The decision to do this was made after Millwall fans invaded the plastic pitch.)

This action got them thrown out of the League Cup and ironically a few seasons later then went on to win it.

Further back in their history - back to into the 1970’s and for some reason it was all comedy back then. The late great Eric Morecambe was on the board of directors from 1970-1979 and before the above silly actions a decade later, people fondly remembered Luton because of big Eric’s occasional mentions *cough* Luton in some of their sketches.

Whilst researching their past I also stumbled across a bit of undocumented information in relation to a footie/musical moment at the club. Nothing to do with their League Cup Final appearance. So far still no luck with that. But with a single released in 1974.

Why 1974 ? I have no idea. Nothing of note happened to them. They were promoted from the old Division 2, but usually this is not something you would go and sing about.

The song they released was a collaboration - one that you’d never expect and wouldn’t imagine. Again I don’t know why or how this came about but the Luton Town players got together with The Barron Knights.

Yep you read it correctly. There’s another thing from the past you probably forgot about I bet.
Quick history for anybody too lazy to click the above link: They were a comedy musical band who did spoofs of current songs of the day. Weird Al does the same thing.

They first found success in 1964 with “Call Up The Groups”. Then after a couple more singles disappeared onto the cabaret circuit only to resurface again in 1978 with “A Taste Of Aggro”.

A few years before that - as mentioned in 1974 they did this with the Luton Town squad:

» The Barron Knights & the ‘74 Luton Town Squad - Hatters Hatters

Sample lyrics: “Hatters, Hatters what a great team / Let’s show the others we are the cream.”

Edit/update: Found some info about the single via Netsounds music. It says: “With Gatefold And Inner Sleeves Inside Of Sleeve Shows Eric Morecambe In Bath With Players”

EXTRA TIME: A reminder of some of their more famous spoof singles »

» THe Barron Knights - The Chapel Lead Is Missing

» The Barron Knights - Little White Bum

(A spoof of Tommy Steel’s - Little White Bull)

» The Barron Knights - A Taste Of Aggro

(Songs spoofed: Boney M - Rivers of Babylon / Father Abraham - The Smurf Song / Brian and Michael - Matchstalk Men & Matchstalk Cats and Dogs.)

As for Luton… personally I’m not bothered if they survive or go under. (Apologies for any fans reading this). It will be sad to see it happen, but these days these things do. Thankfully though are still a rare occurrence.
If they do go I’m sure like Aldershot they will return in another form.

, Lea

I was going to post this no matter what the outcome of the Ipswich/Pompey match.

Originally I was going to, as I did with the Coventry post, talk about their one and only FA Cup win.

Then that one moment happen which changed it and I was going to focus on how Ipswich were playing against 12 men. But in the end it wasn’t the ref that lost the game for them, it was a slip up in the defence and a well taken goal by David Nugent which became that one moment.

Ipswich before the sending off could have forced a replay, but from what I saw I don’t think would have progressed any further. They didn’t really create that many opportunities up front and they need to invest in the January sales.

So after all that I’ll go back to the original plan - The 1978 FA Cup Final with the all conquering (at that time) Ipswich Town with their manager - the legend that is Bobby Robson and of course his team:

You never see football players with moustaches any more.

Mick Mills and the film star John Wark were a couple of notables ones playing for the same team which also included George Burley, Kevin Beattie, Paul Mariner and the scorer of the only goal that day - Roger Osborne.

Osborne was so overcome with the emotion of that moment that he feinted and was immediately subbed. Can you imagine the special needs kid doing that.

Thankfully for us the team ventured into the studio before the final and recorded the following for posterity:

Ipswich Town 1978 FA Cup Squad - Ipswich Ipswich (Get That Goal)

At least they didn’t use “blues” in the lyrics or title. I’ll give them that.

The 1984 FA Cup Final. Remember it ? No nobody does.

It wasn’t a particularly memorable one but when I impart some information about who played you will be surprised that you don’t recollect something from that year.

Music wise I am very disappointed by the two teams. They both had massive opportunities to capitalize on their musical connections but for some reason the one team did a half-assed job and the other didn’t even bother.

Everton played Watford and the final result wasn’t a surprising one. Everton at that time were the dominating club. Winning all the time. They had big Nev Southall, Gary Stevens, Kevin Radcliffe, Peter Reid, Trevor Steven, Adrien Heath and the scorers Andy Gray and Graeme Sharp. Mullets as far as the eye could see.

Watford at that time had a couple of decent players back then. Their manager, Mr Graham Taylor, was one who we saw after this who flattered to deceive. A bit like Big Sam now.

Didn’t we learn the lesson from Taylor’s time. All the planets aligned for him and the Watford players - including Mo Johnson up front and in midfield… John Barnes. Then he went to Villa for a SteMclaren average type of time before the FA made one of their many excellent choices and we know the rest.

But back to Everton and Watford:

You’d think with Everton coming from a city with such a rich musical background that they’d find some act that could help them with the FA Cup Final single. It’s not as if there wasn’t a shortage of bands at that time. Liverpool was going through their 2nd musical explosion. But no. We are alright, we’ll do it ourselves. And after listening you’ll hear that it wasn’t a wise move:

» Everton Cup Squad ‘84 - The Boys In Blue

Yet another unimaginative title. But at least they bothered. Watford - who’s Chairman back then was one Elton John - not a thing.

Extra time: Kevin Birdseye from the Blind, Stupid and Desparate - a Watford FC website, writes about their defeat.