Hard News: It was 20 years ago tomorrow ...
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Seeing as it's Friday - here's the football chant sung by the Liverpool crowd in 1965:
I wish that was part of our sport viewing culture. I'd pay a hundred dollars to watch tiddly-winks if it was amongst 50,000 people who sang.
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I'd pay a hundred dollars to watch tiddly-winks if it was amongst 50,000 people who sang
One of my favourite things in London in the early 90's was going to the football & joining in with all the singing & chanting. Pre all-seated stadiums.
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Heh. Particularly with the joyful experience that is English regional accents...
Case in point: I used to go and see West Brom play occasionally (before it all got too violent), and as their home turf is smack bang in the middle of the Black Country (near Birmingham), with its exceedingly strong accent, my favourite chant was:
yaw'r gaowin' 'ome in a foo-kin' am-bu-lance
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The singing is good, but the commentary is truly fantastic, and from another world altogether.
“Wonderful singing from the Anfield Choir. Here for a day out.”
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here's the football chant sung by the Liverpool crowd in 1965
What struck me most about that clip was the sparse commentary - lots of empty space, with just the football to watch and "Wonderful singing by the Anfield choir" :-)
And for my contribution to the afternoon - Berlin Wall footage from ABC:
And in a little context...
Those Czech crowd scenes ... wow!
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we may have been in Berlin at the same time - we were staying with friends down the road from Checkpoint Charlie as it closed down - the eastern currency was being shut down the next week and all the stores in the East were having going out of business sales - there was nothing worth buying.
We rode the subway - and that week those stations where the (Western) subway cars used to pass thru with the one soldier under a light with a machine gun were now working subway stops - they had no graffiti - for that week at least.
Pink Floyd were setting up to play The Wall by the Brandenburg gate in what had been no-man's land - we didn't stay for that but did see the most awesome double bill of Sinead O'Conner and Midnight Oil .... in the same stadium Hitler held the olympics ....
There were Romanian beggars everywhere, our friends decried the East Germans crowding their favorite cheap supermarket, and you passed guys carrying TVs back across the border on every block
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Ok, here's something from the dusty vaults of pop - "Looking Good Diving" by Morgan McVey, a run-of-the mill SAW-produced piece of late '80s British pop:
Here's the story. Half of Morgan McVey is Cameron McVey, the husband of Neneh Cherry (who can be seen being all cool in the video). Morgan McVey did a b-side remix of "Looking Good Diving" called "Looking Good Diving (with the Wild Bunch)". It was an instrumental verison of the song with Cameron's missus rapping over the top about the Buffalo fashion scene that they were part of.
They liked the way it sounded so much that three years later they rerecorded it and released it as Neneh Cherry's debut single, "Buffalo Stance".
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Oh yeah and the day Mandela was released - it was a Sat or Sun morning in the US we sat in bed all morning and cried
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Ah, the means testing. My old man owned his own business by then, and the means testing scheme wasn't set up to understand something or other about how that worked, disaster! I spent days wandering sadly around the university from queue to queue, not understanding the first reason why I was doing so.
And the late allowances - I had a flatmate who'd worked overseas for charities for several years and needed to prove it in order to claim whatever allowance you could get when you weren't dependent on your parents. It turns out that Romanian orphanages are a bit light on in the paperwork department, so after several months of back and forth with her on the edge of desperation we all set to one evening and forged a convincing paper trail. Problem solved.
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My old man owned his own business by then, and the means testing scheme wasn't set up to understand something or other about how that worked, disaster!
Given their inability to cope with the idea that if my father was dead last year he would still be dead this year, I can imagine.
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Re the Liverpool singing and commentary, John Peel released a Fabric Mix a few years ago and it started with the commentary from the 1980 European Cup Final and Ray Kennedy's winning goal for Liverpool against Real Madrid. The commentator goes on to talk about Kennedy coming from the North East and not being accepted initially by the Liverpool faithful, but how he'd kept in there working hard and how he'd now won the Cup for them. It's an absolutely gorgeous piece and brings a tear to the eye, both for the eloquence of the commentator and for how bad the state of commentary is in modern sports. Shame.
That Fabric Mix also has a Liverpool crowd sample of "You'll never walk alone".
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the commentary from the 1980 European Cup Final and Ray Kennedy's winning goal for Liverpool against Real Madrid.
Doh! And when I say Ray I mean Alan Kennedy... Pretty sure Ray Kennedy was also playing.
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Given their inability to cope with the idea that if my father was dead last year he would still be dead this year, I can imagine.
They are deeply unable to cope with anyone who is just about to cross the age threshold for means-testing applying for an allowance to start after their birthday, either. The conversation basically goes:
"You're twenty-three. We need to see evidence of your parents' income."
"Yes, but by the time my course starts, in three weeks, I'll be twenty-four. By the time you post the request to them, I'll be twenty-four and you won't need it."
"But you're twenty-three. We need to see evidence of your parents' income."
"BY THE TIME THE EVIDENCE GETS TO YOU, I WILL BE TWENTY-FOUR."
"But you're twenty-three."
I also once got a letter from them asking for information that they needed by the thirteenth of March. The letter was dated (and arrived after) the twentieth of June. Oh, Studylink.
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we sat in bed all morning and cried
At the fact that an inept Lear figure was taking over South Africa? What a disappointment. All he did was smile for a couple of years while Mbeki destroyed the country paved by Mandela's own promise of the succession. Mandela is his own hype factory and everyone forgets that his country is totally fucked despite his amazingness.
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That Fabric Mix also has a Liverpool crowd sample of "You'll never walk alone".
A moving piece from the Kop Choir followed by the Undertones - teenage kicks ...boy does it work!
Because it's Friday
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Much as I hate to spoil the fun of this bout of historically illiterate douchebaggery Brickley, if you count nothing else about Mandela, the way he headed off the threat of massive bloodshed during the negotiations that led to the first free elections saved his country from what could have been a hideous civil war.
Also, for the umpteenth time, your entry to a discussion thread here consists of you hurling around scorn. You might want to think about that.
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The WINZ office in Riccarton backs onto the only Gun Shop for miles & across the road from the Blood Bank.
The guy who placed it there is probably out of prison now, he got back handers for choosing locations. -
The WINZ office in Riccarton backs onto the only Gun Shop for miles & across the road from the Blood Bank.
I always wondered about that particular piece of juxtaposition...
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I was working in London in a fancy-pants pub in Mayfair earlier in 1989 when Hungary announced that it was going to remove the barbed-wire fences on the Austria-Hungary boarder and down-size their border security. I had spent the best part of a year until that point moving between my "motherland" (Hungary) and the UK and was well versed in East/West politics. I was gobsmacked when i heard this announcement, knowing that hoards of East Germans would holiday every year in Hungary and that the main summer tourist season was about to begin. I tried to explain (as best as a young man in his early 20s could) to whoever would listen that this potentially could lead to the collapse of East Germany. For any Ossie who could afford to get themselves to Hungary, the Berlin wall might as well not be there. Everyone thought I was bonkers...
My video memory is a trashy-pop number from a year later, but it summarizes the extraordinary feeling of relief (and release) of 1989 brilliantly. The simple lyrics (and obvious video imagery) meant that it was a huge pop hit across continental Europe where even those with only a basic grasp of English could understand the sentiment.
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And not long after came the most popular ever song in Germany...
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WINZ some, lose some...
I also note that the purpose built WINZ office in Linwood (corner Cashel & Linwood Ave)
is now a Salvation Army op shop...
do not pass go...
sally forth... -
It was the signal point of an unravelling of order that had been in progress for much of the year. Even where blood had been shed – in April, Georgian protesters were massacred by Red Army soldiers, and Chinese students began their protest in Tiananmen Square – the momentum of freedom seemed thrillingly clear.
That June of 1989 was also an amazing time to be in China. It was clear that it was not a time to hang around, but the power of that force for change was both inspiring and frightening. In Eastern Europe there was more of a sense that the people understood what they were asking for and had an idea of what they were liklely to get.
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1989 was the year I had to give my National Rowing Medals back for 'cheating'. I never rowed again, bitter, sure am.
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historically illiterate douchebaggery Brickley
Sorry to ruin your Friday platitudes. It isn't historically illiterate. It's the truth. I've read a lot about it. I recommend Johnson's recent book "South Africa's Brave New World: The Beloved Country Since the End of Apartheid".
Also, for the umpteenth time, your entry to a discussion thread here consists of you hurling around scorn. You might want to think about that.
I was hurling scorn at an incompetent world leader who, as far as I know, isn't a regularly contributor to the comments in here, much as it would add to the overall coolness.
The only thing that stopped the blood shed in South Africa was the white establishment's decision not to destroy its own country. Now they've all left or are leaving anyway to live in Devonport or Northcote.
Meanwhile, consider this spicy meatball.
Pagefuckers is spreading its oozing filth across the globe.
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Speaking of U2 and the Berlin Wall - they're in trouble for building a Berlin Wall
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