But we here at F&M dare to ask and also dare to not only answer, but give you evidence too.

*ducks flying objects*

It’s been mentioned before on why he sings. Click on the above links to read more. For you lazy arses though to summarise:

“…as a teenager he sang with band leader Joe Loss. At 17 he had to choose between football and singing. “I won the week’s talent contest at Butlins, and was invited back for September. I said to [the manager] Tommy Docherty, ‘Look, I’ve won this competition, I need to go back in September, if that’s all right with you’, and he said, ‘No you can’t do that ’cause you might be in the team’….”

Then finally in 1974 (he was playing for QPR at the time) Venables could hold it no longer and released a single, a cover version of a song made famous by Emile Ford & The Checkmates and Adam Faith amongst others.

So how did this single do in the Top 40 ?

It didn’t.

He must have been furious with Keegan, who actually did bother the lower end of the charts. Once.

But like the original perm this never deterred El Tel and even though nobody listened, he kept on crooning.

So to his 1974 chart attempt… come on play through the pain… run it off now…

[See post to listen to audio] » Terry Venables – What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For [See post to listen to audio] » Terry Venables – Lucy

Well at the moment they are… but after some recent performances poor old Warnock got the hook and the ambition seeking Mark Hughes is now in his place.

The ex-Man City boss has a decent talent pool now under his command, including ex-City players Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton. Plus he’s been given a transfer budget and rumour has it he’s looking at the City players Nedum Onuoha and Wayne Bri…

Oh.

But a team of players he signed at his previous clubs will work. Just look at what he did with Roque Sant…

Ah.

Anyways I’m giving a token mention to the events happening now because I’ve little to say about a single released way back when.

- The record label tells me that it was produced by Max Hole and Wayne Bardell, written by Bruce Thomas (later of Elvis Costello and The Attractions), but apart from that there’s no more info.

So the questions are who are/were the Loftus Roadrunners and why should they come to record this in 1977 ?

I looked on Wikipedia to find a summary of that period to see if there was a particular cause of celebration, maybe a cup or a league title or something. But it was more of a nearly something season of just missed out:

…”In 1976-77, QPR failed to recreate their fine form of the previous season in the league, but the cup competitions saw some success. The side reached the semi-finals of the League Cup but lost in a replay to Aston Villa and in their first entry into European football reached the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup losing to AEK Athens FC on penalties. In 1977 Sexton moved to Manchester United to be succeeded by Frank Sibley and Steve Burtenshaw and two years later QPR slipped into the Second Division.”

Still though, the quarter finals of a european cup. Nothing to be sniffed at there. Sadly they haven’t hit these sort of heights ever since.

But maybe with Hughes it could again. I mean look at what he did in europe with….

I’ll stop there.

[See post to listen to audio] » Lofus Roadrunners – Queens Park Rangers [See post to listen to audio] » Lofus Roadrunners – Drive Me Down To QPR

Next up: Some tunes from an ex-QPR player who liked to croon. Yes know know who it is.

Years before there was a third one – that of running a pub – but this was in the day when the footballer player wasn’t the rock n’ roll star that they became in the 70′s. These players were in the limelight and nearly all of them wanted to stay there.

There was an option of taking up management, which meant after spending much of your twilight years sitting on the bench you ended back there yet again. But this time it was in a suit and this time you controlled who gathered the splinters. Upside to this was that you are once again in the public eye. Everybody was looking at you again. Downside obviously is getting your team to win matches.

Some liked this pressure. All of them loved still being in the game. But for some others.. well they could talk a good game…

…As well as play it of course, but when they came to that fork in the road they decided to head towards the bright studio lights instead of the flooded ones.

Side note: Rodney Marsh did some coaching of a few American teams, but never took up the reigns this side of the pond.George Best went the same way as Lineker and Hanson did years later – straight to the comfy sofa.

One of Best’s most notable televisual appearances was with his old mate Rodney Marsh on a Granada TV programme presented by Tony Wilson (some time TV presenter, some time record company mogul, full time big mouth). The show was called “Best and Marsh – The Perfect Match” and featured Wilson taking to Georgie who reminisced (on that sofa) about their time playing football in the 1970′s.

Now usually You Tube is the place to find clips for these sort of things, but sadly this time it has let us down. » There is a TVS (Television South) version of the same format, this time with Mick Channon and Alan Ball, done a couple of years later which you can watch here. It was called… teeth grindingly… “The Channon and Ball Show”.

(For those who don’t get that – there was a comedy double act who were big around that time called Cannon and Ball, so as you can see… the title was a terrible pun on their name.)

As for clips of Wilson with Best & Marsh there’s only this tiny snippet which has Tony Wilson signing off from the show and introducing some clips of Marsh in action:

- Additionally I just found this site: Classic Football DVD’s which has a description of the programme:

22nd Jan 1988 - 18th March 1988 Tony Wilson hosted this eight part series, prompting George Best and Rodney Marsh to reminisce on two 1970′s matches plucked from the archives in each half-hour programme. Although this was a non-networked Granada production, the footage was not exclusively concerned with North West clubs and some other region’s screened it the following year.

The shows were themed as follows: Show 1. George & Rod, 2. Goalkeepers, 3. Great Teams: Derby & Leeds, 4. The Liverpool Years, 5. Local Derby’s, 6. Goalscorers, 7. British Clubs in Europe, 8. The FA Cup.

As it says it was originally just shown in Granadaland (the North West) but eventually and because of the subjects it was seen elsewhere around the country and as mentioned above the format was replicated by TVS with Alan Ball & Mick Channon.

In fact the viewership of the Best and Marsh programme got so high that there was a demand for more. So in the early 90′s the two of them went on the road and did some live shows.

Title music:

The programme needed some music, so who was the producer – and presenter of the show – going to find for this…? Hmm…
It just so happened that he knew of this struggling indie band who owed him a favour…

[See post to listen to audio] » New Order – Best and Marsh [See post to listen to audio] » Best and Marsh (Perkowitz Remix) The track was a B side on… [See post to listen to audio] » New Order – Round And Round (12″ Mix)

Additionally I found the following clip from Best and Marsh which show the band in the process and talking about the of recording this tune. It was this track which led them to do the Englandneworder song…

A quick bio, selected text from Wikipedia:

Rodney William Marsh was born on the 11th October 1944 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. His father named him after the battleship HMS Rodney, on which he served.

Like George Best, Stan Bowles, Peter Osgood and Frank Worthington – Marsh was one of a generation of highly talented “maverick” players that emerged in English football during the 1960s and 1970s and never quite fulfilled their potential.

…Began his career with Fulham but after a dispute with manager Vic Buckingham, he moved to rival QPR.

… In 1972, he signed for Manchester City and at the time of signing City were top of the table and four point clear, but by the end of the season had slipped to 4th. Marsh himself has since claimed that it was he who cost the club the league title that year, with his style simply not suiting that of the team. He nevertheless became one of City’s star players. He left the club shortly into the 1975-76 season after disagreements with new manager Tony Book.

After this Marsh went to play for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, which was an enjoyable time for him… Florida became a second home… There was a move back to Blighty and a one-season spell back at Fulham, playing alongside Georgie Best and Sir Bobby Moore before he returned to Tampa for two more years.

Never short of an opinion, never far from controversy is our Rodders.

Upon retirement…

Upon retiring Marsh became a pundit, earning a reputation for his outspoken views on the game.

- He was involved in a long-running banter with Bradford City and its supporters in the 1999-00 season, in which he flippantly dismissed their chances of survival in the FA Premier League. Confident as he was in his prediction of their relegation he offered to shave all of his hair off if they stayed up, which they subsequently managed. Marsh honoured his bet and had his hair removed in the centre circle of Valley Parade.

- Marsh was one of the pundits/commentators on $ky Sports Saturday but was sacked after he used a very mistimed pun, not long after the Asian Tsunami.

Quote: “‘David Beckham has turned down a move to Newcastle United because of trouble with the “Toon Army in Asia”.

- He took a job at Talksport but this too didn’t last very long and he got the old football managers heave-ho:

“Rodney Marsh parts company with talkSPORT by “mutual consent” and leaves his role as co-presenter of Drive with Adrian Durham. It is understood that Marsh wants to spend more time in Florida with his family. “

- In 2007 he took part in “I’m A Celebrity…” and was disliked by the other contestants before having to leave with an injury.

- In January 2008 Marsh threatened to return his nine international caps in protest at the Football Association’s appointment of an Italian, Fabio Capello as the manager of the England national football team rather than appoint an English coach.

More quotes:

* “You mumphead!”
* “That’s a nonsense!”
* “I wasn’t the white Pelé, he was the black Rodney Marsh”
* “This gong was given to me by Phil Collins.”
* “If I wanted it licking,I would’ve asked Biggins!!”
* “Christopher Biggins could take us to the World Cup.” (When asked whether Fabio Capello could lead England to the World Cup.)
* “I like it salty………but this is too salty!”
* “To all those who voted me to do this…….bollocks” (During a bushtucker trial on I’m a Celebrity…)
* “He’ll struggle to score six goals…” (On Kevin Phillips preceding the 1999-2000 season, in which Phillips scored 30 goals and gained the European golden boot.)

The Music…

Have this ’70′s freakout – Don’t know who is having the freakout though:

[See post to listen to audio] » Unknown – We Want Rodney Marsh

Extra Time:

As they mention in the comments on Freaky Trigger about this song – some people used to sing: “Ohhh, Rodney, Rodney, Rodney Marsh…”

Additional Links:

- A mini-interview with the Guardian’s Small Talk.

- I’ve skimmed over his time with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, but there’s an excellent in-depth look at Marsh and the team themselves, all by somebody in the UK – get yourself over to the Tampa Bay Rowdies Appreciation Blog.

I don’t know what it was with footballers in the 1970′s, drinking, gambling, punch ups, sleeping with someone else’s birds… you never see that with the modern day players.   Oh.

One of these so-called rebels was like the next player I’m going to profile, somebody with exceptional talent but was called up by England only a handful of times. Those times though were the mid 70′s when the type of football being played in England wasn’t exactly one of skill. There was a time when players such as Tommy Smith, Norman Hunter and “Chopper” Harris dictated how games were played. Usually with a leg breaking tackle or two.

But there was Stan Bowles, who leapt over these challenges.

Bowles started out with his hometown team of Man City, but after three seasons because of constant falling outs with…well anybody who was close enough…he was eventually released. After a brief spell at Bury, Crewe and then (2nd Division) Carlisle, it was here that he caught the eye and joined QPR in January 1972.

Wikipedia:

He replaced in the team another QPR folk-hero, Rodney Marsh, who had been transferred to Bowles’ first club Manchester City six months before. Bowles took over Marsh’s number 10 shirt, which other players had been reluctant to wear in fear of being compared to Marsh. Bowles had no qualms about taking the shirt, primarily because he said that, coming from the North, he had never heard of Marsh.

His rebelliousness and misbehaviour continued when in 1973 his QPR team were away at Sunderland, who had just won the FA Cup.
Before the match kicked off the trophy was paraded around the ground and then placed on a table at the side of the pitch.
Bowles spotted this, took a ball and kicked it towards the cup, knocking it flying off the table.

Even with his most successful period at QPR, he still had differences with the management. As seen below when Dave Sexton, the boss of QPR was trying to sub him in a match against West Ham:

Eventually he left QPR to be sold to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest and I don’t have to tell you how they didn’t get on and… he was on the move again to Leyton Orient before his final club – Brentford.

He retired in 1984 and went the usual after dinner speaker/pundit route before once again replacing Rodney Marsh (more about that in another post) this time on Sky Sports.

Bowles is still mouthing off and is still not short of an opinion. Ever the rebel even in his old age.

Related:
Now you’ve read all that take the Guardian Football quiz.

The Music:

The Others, who are a sort of Razorlight/Libertines wanna-be released a single in 2004 which they used the ex-QPR legend as the title and as the chorus. It reached number 36 in the charts:

[See post to listen to audio] » The Others – Stan Bowles

Video:

Another run out for Dagenham Dave and his penchant for belting out the occasional tune.

I don’t have anything to add what I previously wrote so I’ll repost the quote from an article about him:

“… He’s [Venables] not new to crooning. As a nightclub owner he used to treat the punters to a regular SingalongaTel, and as a teenager he sang with band leader Joe Loss. At 17 he had to choose between football and singing. “I won the week’s talent contest at Butlins, and was invited back for September. I said to [the manager] Tommy Docherty, ‘Look, I’ve won this competition, I need to go back in September, if that’s all right with you’, and he said, ‘No you can’t do that ’cause you might be in the team’. It was a good way of finding out if I was in the team, really. Hahahaha! If he’d said, ‘Go and sing the song’, you knew you was in trouble.”

It mentioned about him recording tracks for an album but I’ve not found any further evidence.

One thing that is evident from his musical ventures that El Tel likes big band and swing. Defiantly sees himself as a Frank Sinatra type.   Update: Just remembered that he appeared as Antony Newley on Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes in 2000.

[See post to listen to audio] » Terry Venables – I’ve Got You Under My Skin

- Next we have a short video: Venables and Robbie Williams who are guests with Jonathon Ross.
At the time Williams was plugging the swing album he had out. Ross shows everybody an appearance by Terry and the QPR team on the Russell Harty show in 1974. In the clip we can see Venables serenading his teammates and we can see some very embarrassed and bored looking face in there:

Sadly that is only a glimpse of the song. I don’t have the full version by him, so here are some others:

» Betty Hutton – What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For (1945)

» Emile Ford and the Checkmates -What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For (1959)

» Ray Peterson – What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For

» Johnny Earle – What Do You Wanna Make Those Eyes At Me For

Babyshambles man commits cardinal sin at Liverpool gig

Pete Doherty played a surprise gig in Liverpool last Friday ( August 8) – but upset much of the crowd after a choosing controversial setlist.

Playing at The Studio – an Everton venue – Doherty launched into a version of Liverpool’s anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.

But despite the crowd erupting into a chorus of boos and even throwing drinks at the singer, Doherty, a fan of Queens Park Rangers, still persevered and performed the song it in its entirety.

Doherty also took the opportunity to play The Libertines’ ‘Breck Road Lover’, a song that takes its name from an area of Liverpool where the singer spent some of his childhood.

» Full article

[See post to listen to audio]
» The Libertines – Breck Road Lover

Hard-up German football club seeks Doherty’s help
By Iain Rogers

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German football club struggling to avoid financial collapse has asked rocker Pete Doherty to help publicize their plight as he supported the side as a boy, Doherty’s manager and club officials said on Friday.

The lead singer of Babyshambles, famous for his relationship with supermodel Kate Moss and a series of widely-publicized drug problems, spent part of his childhood on a British army base near the western city of Krefeld and developed an affection for local club KFC Uerdingen, Doherty’s manager Adrian Hunter said.

Uerdingen Marketing Director Stefan Hoffmann said he was hopeful Doherty could help raise awareness of the former Bundesliga club’s difficulties and boost ticket sales.

Doherty had been invited to visit next week when he will be in nearby Cologne for a concert, he added.

“I know he has some affection for the club and he would be happy to do something if he has time,” Hunter said.

Uerdingen, which now plays in a lower regional league, was founded in November 1905. They won the German Cup in 1985, beating Bayern Munich 2-1 in the final.

Hoffmann said that Doherty, who was born in March 1979, had watched Uerdingen’s UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final, second-leg against Dynamo Dresden in 1986 which Uerdingen won 7-3 having lost the first leg 2-0 in Dresden.

They were beaten 4-2 by Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals.

» Full article

This gives me a pisspoor excuse to post some stuff from his previous band:

» The Libertines – What A Waster

I wonder which particular player he was singing about… I know he wasn’t but I like to imagine it was.
Go on, I dare you to name whoever you are thinking of right now.

I’ve got Wayne Bridge v Croatia. Yes the hurt is still there.

Next up are some with a tenuous connection to footie. In my mind anyway.

» The Libertines – What Became Of The Likely Lads ?

That episode is on my wish list. I’d like to see it again. Plus the note-for-note remake done by Ant & Dec.

» The Libertines – Road To Ruin

TV journo’s: There’s something that you can play over a report about any struggling or facing doom club.

» The Libertines – Time For Heroes

Havant and Waterlooville I’m looking in your direction.