Football and Music

Today is Radiohead day but I can’t find a tenuous link to footie with any of their tracks, so this one is about a single released in 1996 from another ‘contemporary’ artist…

I say contemporary but looking back on it now “something they did whilst ripped off their tits” is probably a better description.

At the time the shambolic mess that was the Happy Mondays had imploded. In 1992 they had successfully seen to the end of Factory Records by deciding to record the album Yes Please! in Barbados, but spent more of their time (and the budget) ingesting every hardcore drug they could get their hands on.

A summary of the album from the Wikipedia entry:

It is reasoned by many that one of the reasons for the album’s failure was the change of producer between 1990s Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches and this one. Paul Oakenfold, that album’s producer was unavailable to produce Yes Please! The new production team, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, drastically changed the band’s sound from that of the previous album. Whilst before the Happy Mondays sound had been grounded in a fusion of Rock and Acid House music, here it was changed to a rather more out-of-date style of ’80s Synth Pop combined with Caribbean influences. With grunge-rock becoming more mainstream at the time, parcicularly through Nirvana, the Mondays sound was seen as becoming increasingly out of date.

While the band had previously enjoyed almost universal critical approval for their music, the change of sound on this album garnered a huge critical backlash against the band. One reviewer writes of the album: “In the hands of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, the group’s music loses much of its distinctive, thuggish edginess, as well as its reliance on current dance trends, becoming faceless, undistinguished dance-pop sludge.” Even more cruelly, the now-defunct UK music paper Melody Maker gave the album a two-word review, namely: “No thanks.”

After this disaster the band split up and Shaun Rider took his mate Bez and a backing singer called ‘Kermit’ and together they formed Black Grape.

Notable memory: Shaun and Black Grape appeared on TFI Friday and sang a cover of the Sex Pistols’ ‘Pretty Vacant’.
Before this ITC had warned Channel 4 because of previous guests using the F word on live television before the watershed. Ryder dropped a couple of them during the song and as a result was actually named in a Channel 4 compliance manual banning him from appearing live on the channel ever again.

Their first album was very well received and went straight to number 1. A year later, in time for Euro ‘96 they recorded and released the track below, which got to number 6.

Another notable and something I forgot about : Joe Strummer and Keith Allen appeared on the single too.

The track actually has nearly everything for that perfect storm of a footie song. But listening to it again and looking at the lyrics though, in my opin this is something that should be put in Room 101.

» Black Grape - England’s Irie

Next up - More ‘contemporary’ artist, this time for Scotland.

October 11th is the next John Peel Day.

This post is to commemorate a man who was as passionate about his football as he was about his music.

Peely was a hardcore Liverpool fan but in his later years and because of where he lived, John wandered down to Portman Road and watched them play too. (Don’t know why, must have been punishing himself for something).

There will be the Third Annual John Peel Memorial Football Tournament and Concert taking place at the Liverpool Football Club Academy and later on at the new Picket.

List of links that you should go and explore even more:

» Radio 1 - John Peel Day

» Right Time, Right Place, Wrong Speed. The life of John Robert Parker Ravenscroft

»John Peel Everyday (an excellent blog with loads of related items and links to other John Peel blogs, some of them which post entire Peel Sessions)

My contribution to the Peel Sessions is by a band that came from Liverpool that were football mad. In 1986 whilst on tour in the USA they all watched England play in the World Cup in a hotel room on a Spanish language channel. Apparently the room was packed and the American road crew were puzzled at these guys going mental watching some weird foreign language sport on the TV.

Two of the band were actually born in Yorkshire and the lead singer still follows dirtyLeeds. The drummer (his brother), even though he was from Beverley and then lived in Liverpool, for some reason which still escapes me to this day, supports Spurs.
The lead guitarist was a born and bred Evertonian. The bass player weirdly for a Scouser, didn’t like football. But this was probably done on purpose to irritate the others because they did.

Peel Session recorded on 6th of May 1981, broadcast on the 12th:

» Messages From The Rings Of Saturn

» Talking (It’s Not Me Talking)

» I Ran

» Committed

I was planning to post this and a sequel to it to coincide with some future predictions, but news of Willie Donachie getting his cards have changed that.

I’ve been pondering for a while about what to do about certain songs I’ve found, certain teams and things associated with them. What I want to do with F & M is to post items which give a positive view of football, about the teams and their fans. My policy is to try and find any footie-musical items that sing about the love of a certain team and about the game itself. I am not and I will not post anything that ones set have fans have composed about another set or an opposing side. I’ve found already quite a few done by Man USA fans, some by Rangers fans which are not good natured ribbing but border on hateful.

As mentioned there are teams which when you hear or read their name you immediately know of their reputation. This particular team which gives me a pisspoor excuse to post today’s track is Millwall.

See. You’ve already thought it.

When you hear about them it is nearly always about their fans and about violence.

Side story: In the mid-90's I was in this hotel and one of the guests was somebody sent there by his company for some training thing/seminar or something. He wasn't a suited and booted bloke, but somebody who worked elsewhere in that company, again I don't know where, but obviously not in the offices. What made this obvious was the skinheaded haircut, the tattoo's and the cut-off denim jacket he always wore with Millwall FC patches all over it.
This bloke... I say bloke but he was only a youngish kid really, wasn't the stereotypical footie hooligan. In fact when we talked to him he was the friendliest, nicest guy you could meet. But he wasn't exactly the brightest.

When the hotel bar closed our boy wanted to keep drinking and the only place still open at that time in the early hours of the morning was a dodgy bar not far away. Even though it was obvious he'd get into a bit of bother with the locals he still wanted to go and went he did.

Didn't stay there very long obviously. He sat there quietly and had a few drinks but a few in the bar didn't care for his presence and after slapping him around (nothing serious) they chucked him out. The kid came back to the hotel and told us this story and yes... he was puzzled as to why they objected to his being there. He genuinely didn't or couldn't understand.

So it doesn’t matter if you are a pacifist. If you decide to dress to look like a skinhead to fit in with your culture or surroundings you have to accept the consequences.

I’ve wandered off from my main point… Oh yes, the sort of songs posted here.

I found a band who have recorded a couple of footie-related songs, but this band’s type of music is associated with Oi!
Because there is a possibility that this band is neo-nazi, but so far I haven’t found any solid evidence of such, I’ve been asking myself if I should post their song or not. I need a 2nd opinion on this, so if anyone wants to volunteer and read about what I’ve found then please contact me.

Finally we are back to the beginning subject and the team associated with the song.
I am posting this one because despite their public image of them, this song isn’t about any form of hatred against anybody. It sings about the pride in their team and about being a Londoner.

Despite all this though… when I went searching for more info about the track I found via Google’s new book search excerpts from two books : One is The Changing Face of Football: Racism, Multiculturalism and Identity in the English Game and the other is: No One Likes Us, We Don’t Care: The Myth and Reality of Millwall Fandom. Both which quote the lyrics to this song to demonstrate (as far as I can tell) that Millwall are not as biased as you think.
That saying though there always going to be that hooligan element associated with the club. Unfortunately it will never go away.

» Roy Green - Let ‘Em Come

A sequel to this will be posted next week

Today’s post looks at two troubbled English managers who were at one point mentioned, or in one case actually had temporary custody of The Big Chair.

In both cases their flight in the top tier was fleeting and afterwards both spent time rebuilding their reputations lower down before taking positions with teams which both had an outside chance of making it back up to the toppermost of the poppermost. But after some recent dismal performances they have now returned to sitting next to Alan Green for a midweek game away at Coventry.

A few hours ago Peter Taylor was sent to see the Headmaster and a few days ago John Gregory was given the vote of confidence.

As mentioned both managers had their moment in the sun.
I’m sure that Gregory’s name was brought up when they were looking at the next England Manager a few years ago. At the time he was doing all right at the Villa and the FA, obviously not remembering how the last Villa boss worked out, were giving him the glad eye. But back then Gregory couldn’t handle the pressure of managing Aston Villa and resigned, so it was never to be.

Another one named Taylor - Peter this time, was given the keys to the Rolls for 1 match. Before this he was running the Under 21’s and had a good record. He was also looked at, but after the disappointing performance of the England team in that one game minds were changed quickly. Because of the distraction of the England Under 21’s and seniors, the club form as the boss of Leicester suffered and eventually he was mutual consented. After this he went to Brighton and then Hull before having a crack and failing with Crystal Palace.

As we know though, these two will bounce back when the management merry-go-round stops again and we’ll see them at some other old 2nd division clubs.

Our musical interlude comes from the Palace. Nearly every team has some music they run out to, which eventually becomes their theme and the song most associated with them. If you find yourself down Selhurt Park (you might, don’t say you won’t, those FA Cup draws might curse you) then you’ll hear the Dave Clarke Five blasting out, plus the fans singing/chanting it.

In fact this so is so popular with Palace that they released it as a single when they appeared in the 1990 FA Cup Final. (Significance of this one - The final score was 3-3 [Ian Wright, Wright, Wright - scored 2] and it went to a replay 5 days later.)

I’m not posting their cover version, we’ve had enough horror on here, but the original recording:

» Dave Clark Five - Glad All Over

The worst dive in history ? Everyone has seen the Celtic fan/Dida slap ? If you haven’t and can’t watch at werk: Celtic scored the winner in the Champions League game midweek, a fan gets on the pitch as he is running past Dida in the goal gives him a playful slap. Dida initially goes after this fan for a couple of secs but then decides to drop to the floor like he’s been shot. Milan were 2-1 down at this point and his thinking was like a previous time when he hit the deck - to get the match called off. But it didn’t work and now UEFA are investigating AC Milan and Dida the prick.