Football and Music

The football club that is, not Bill and Hillary’s daughter.

You ever seen somebody wearing a Chelsea shirt round your way ? If you live around SW6 you have obviously but what about other parts of the country..? Other parts of the world in fact.

Chelsea have a big following as seen with their sold out home games, but it occurred to me (apart from one time) I haven’t seen anybody wearing their replica shirt outside of the Fulham Road.

You’ve seen people down your way, wearing a shirt from xxx club walking around the shops with his/her signifigant other when that particular team and playing a match right at this moment. You think to yourself; “If he’s a supporter why isn’t he/she in the pub or at home watching it on the telly ?”

There are two types of away from their place/in your town shirt wearers - The hardcore fan who always wears the colours no matter where he is, and the obvious bandwagon gloryseeking seen them play on $ky Sports type of fan.

I’m not going to have a jab at the ManUSA shirt wearing “fans” at this point. It’s too easy a target.

If you did spot a premier league shirt wearer down the shops on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon then obviously a fairweather fan, but sometimes there can be other reasons such as a midseason game against Derby or Sunderland or he’s under the thumb. (Which I’m occasionally guilty of here. I hold my hand up.)

I’ve spotted many a ManU shirt, a Liverpool shirt and the occasional Arsenal one.
Even in far off lands I’ve seen Spurs, Newcastle and Everton, but only once have I seen a bloke wearing a Chelsea shirt.

As mentioned they have their fans but it seems that they don’t travel far and wide, they don’t have any living in … Carlisle for example.

Where are you the Chelsea “away” fans ? Are you there ?

This is a shout out to any of you not living in London to post a comment and let me know that you proudly wear the shirt wherever you are.

I know that they are loyal and somewhat obsessional fans from the evidence I’ve gathered for today’s musical postings.

The first one though I suspect is more of a cash in than loyalty to the club.
I’ve posted a song previously by this artist where he waxes lyrical about Gazza.

I can’t find any more info about “Mr Martini”. It’s got to be a footie mad studio created persona or producer. If you spot anything…

In this one the aforementioned Mr Martini sings of his love of Ken Bates…

» Mr Martini - Why I Love Chelsea

…and now it gets weird.
In this one it part of that footie & music perfect storm with snippets of match commentary and crowd noises. But it also has some bloke reading out the names of previous Chelsea players/straight after the crowd either chant “Chelsea !” if it’s a well loved player and laughter if isn’t. Another curiously is when Blaster Bates name is read there’s neither a cheer or jeer.

» True Blue Crew feat Cael Chapman - Chelsea Heaven… Chelsea Hell

What do you make of that ?

With apologies to the late great DNA

It was only a few weeks ago when it was high flying Arsenal. Leading the Prem, in the Champions League and on form to take it all…

But the wheels slowly came off.

They put their FA Cup embarrassment behind them, vowing that this wouldn’t happen again and focused on the double.

Then another hit to the body with a Champions League Quarter Final 2nd leg in the fierce atmosphere of the Anfield Stadium. They fought back in that game, playing some of their best football all season, but it wasn’t enough.

Finally the win or bust match last Sunday and the promise from only a month ago finally disappeared.

So what happened ? What should they have done differently ? How could they have continued with their campaign ?

One major factor was with their comparatively small squad. Wenger didn’t spend in the January sales and when the injuries hit them Arsenal had very few options left to them.

This season has turned out to be a long harsh lesson for them, one which they will be sure not to repeat come next August.

Arsene has said that the trophies will come, and next season will probably be the biggest and most pressured one for him.

- Trying to find an appropriate tune to go with this was difficult. Usually when a team or related record a song it is in celebration of being in a cup final or with winning something. But I do have a few that just sing of their pride and I found one that has a doo-wop style:

» Tina and the North Bank - Come On You Gunners (The Arsenal Doo-Wop)

Plus to accompany it - an original 50’s doo wop with a vaguely sporting/footie title:

» Tommy Edwards - It’s All In The Game

I wanted to post this when they finally got the drop, but Derby beat me to it by being the first Prem team to get relegated in March.

Now they have six 5 games left to get five point in order to avoid taking Mick McCarthy’s Sunderland record of scoring the lowest amount of points in one season.

But let us not be downhearted. One total catastrophic season like this is only the beginning.

They’ve been bought out and are officially now a Mickey Mouse club.

But their plans for a pre-season tour of the USA had to be cancelled. They are going to Holland instead.

One very good thing though is they are taking Robbie Savage with them. So always look on the bright side eh ?

The related music today comes from Rockin’ Johnny Austin who sings on this old and rare recording which mentions Kevin Hector and young Roy McFarland. Guessing by the name checks the song is from the late 60’s when these two were playing for them.

» Rocking Johnny Austin - Going Back To Derby

When the Vinyl Villain posted this item it helped me stumble upon and complete a footie-musical theme.

Apart from the first one, the other two are not actually about footie, but they do have familiar terms and phrases in their titles (thus giving me a pisspoor excuse to post them).

But before those an instrumental released in 1966 which I think could have been the first one especially recorded and released to cash in on the World Cup.

The next two - one from a FootballandMusic stalwart and another from a beat combo straight outta Leeds:

» Half Man Half Biscuit - Mathematically Safe

» Artic Monkeys - Settle For A Draw

Again thanks to the Vinyl Villain for the inspiration and song.

Sadly it doesn’t include Dida’s spectacular shot-by-a-sniper dive.