Football and Music

Here you go:

That’ll be $250 Million please.

Derek was so excited by that goal that the first thing he did after he was subbed was to post an update on his blog:

“Hello everypeeps,

Speaks soon
Derek”

This is it. This is the reason why I started the website up to go with the predicts.

Well actually it’s not the reason but it’s a reason.
(How this got started was that I was looking for any YouTube clips of any footie teams singing their FA Cup final songs. That idea then spun off into doing a site about Footie and Music.)

Anyhoddles… One of the Prediction League players, MickMills played a blinder yesterday and found a couple of clips which I’ve saved for future use.
And they are good ones. Stay tuned to this station for publication of those. But it isn’t those which put me on alert, it was because - as these things always seem to happen - I was searching for something else in relation to Mick’s find and stumbled on something else quite unexpected but it is a gold mine. Pure footieandmusic gold !

Boot Sale Sounds is…

“A music blog , mainly featuring records and tapes found at boot sales, charity shops and flea markets. Mainly comedy, novelty and odd items that are hard to catagorise.”

What he has created here is a curious archive of some collectable things. (Currently on the blog is some clips of Tommy Cooper and Max Wall - both singing some tunes.)

And what got me excited was from a forgotten footie and song-related CD released in 1991.
Now these sort of CD’s have been released before. Cherry Red Records have CD’s for sale with songs from or influenced by nearly every footie team. But they don’t have this diamond in the rough.

What the Boot Sale Sounds found and posted on their blog is a CD called “Bend It ! 91″

Bend It! 91 cover

Bend It! 91 insert

On the disc you don’t find the usual early 90’s ravey-disco-ravey samba acid tunes, but old and very classic recordings including Peter Osgood and the 1970 Chelsea team. But it’s not just footie players. There’s a recording of Gracie Fields singing about football.

But the one stand out song for me, which Boot Sale Sounds provided, was a track recorded in 1953 by artists unknown. On the record they are doing a Football Calypso !

Listen:

(Ah man some quality lyrics there…)
» Unknown Artist - Football Calypso

I can guarantee that you are singing along with the chorus right now. It is that catchy.

The other songs that Boot Sale Sounds provided…

» MSV Duisberg - Zebra Twist
(At the very end you’ll hear a clip of an advert from that bloke who did the air attack warnings doing a plug for the 1970 World Cup and then somebody saying: “pass…pass.. always pass…”)

» Peter Osgood and the 1970 Chelsea team - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep
(The song is introduced by Alan Hudson. Unfortunately it is not the whole song, only 2 mins of it.)

» Gracie Fields - Pass, Shoot, Goal !
(Really old. Recorded in 1931)

Additionally…

Whilst trying to find out more information about the CD I found a Japanese website which scans of the CD, the track listings and some of the text. Lots of details there.
Plus if you are fluent in Japanese there is a link to the Amazon Japan website where you can still buy it ! Oh if only I could… This looks like a collectors item.

…football football…

[Aug 16th] Derek finally scored which will get all the haters off his back. Good news for England too knowing that the one-trick pony is back on his feet. But with Gerrard and Lamps also on form how is Ste McL going to fit all of them into the midfield ?

Busy Wednesday (Aug 15th) with quite a few EPL games and some qualifiers for the Champions League. Rafa is rotating (his squad) again. Celtic have a hard task away in Russia. The Arse have a couple of injury worries.

Trubble for….

Curbs and the Hammers, who didn’t even trubble a new Man Citeh team who’s back four have been playing together for less than a week. It was Kasper chip off the old block Schmeichel’s debut Premier League match too !
The West Ham players were booed off the pitch at half time and at full time. I bet the bookies have shortened Curbishley’s odds for the chop.

Carlisle Utd sacked Neil McDonald… E i e i…oh.
Got the boot after the first match (which was a 1-all draw with Walsall) I don’t think it’s a new record. I remember reading about some other boss getting his cards even earlier than that.
What is going on with the sheep shaggers Cumbrians up there ? They’ve just been promoted up to the old Division 2 and this is how they start their campaign ?

Worrysome times for the Engurland too. With a report the other day that bumbling idiot Ste McL hasn’t got enough choices to fill in at the back, including the goal and is thinking about recalling Sol Campbell and Calamity James !
If we are that desperate how about giving Michael Duberry a shout too. He (might have) put the kybosh on our Euro qualifier by taking out Dwayne Looney before half-time last Sunday, why not shove him in attack ?

Hey don’t laugh, Lord Ferg had to shove O’Shea up front for the rest of the match, which begs the question of why did he spend that much on a defensive midfielder and another forward who like Rooney likes to play outside the box. Where are their goals going to come from ?

Meanwhile over in La la land Derek continued his tour of the benches and sat out of another game. But the respective owners of the away teams (Toronto & Boston) must be happy because each venue was sold out with people coming to watch Beckham watch a football match.

Talking of ankles… (We wern’t ? Well we are now.) Amazingly even with Becks collecting the splinters he still says that he’ll be ready for the England friendly v Germany on August 22nd ! You think this is not going to happen, but it did with England’s last outing when Derek was just getting back into the Madrid team, still lacking match fitness and as we saw against Estonia last June he was needed.

Over at the swamp Roo is out with My Left Foot, up at the Barcodes little SuperOwen wasn’t named in the squad for their opening game. Neither was the BeanCrouch at Lidipool, who looking at all the new signings looks like he’s down to third choice now.

So as with Man USA I have to ask again - Where are our (England) goals going to come from ? Who is going to be up front on August 22nd ?
Well actually that doesn’t matter that much… alright it’s Germany but the more important dates are on September 8th and 12th with the Euro 2008 Qualifiers which we have to win…

Edit/Update: Martin Jol - Played 2. Lost 2. Predicts player Nelkna has uttered his first “bollocks!” already.
It’s not all that bad. Yet. Yes it is a bad start but if they can get a good performance (and obviously a win) under their belt against the Prem’s new whipping boys Derby County on Saturday…

- - -

…And with all that foreboding of doom sounded I’ll leave you with links to a couple of footie podcasts where all the chaps talk about the opening day of the new season.

Have a listen to:

» Guardian Unlimited Football Weekly.
(Lighthearted banter with James Richardson, Sid Lowe, Barry Glendenning and co.)

» The Times Online footie podcast.
(Bit more of a serious discussion with Gab Marcotti, Martin Samuel, Mark Chapman and co.)

Both worth a listen if you’ve got an hour to kill.