Musical Obsessions Part Two. The Wedding Present.

Let me start off by saying that I never went to university but I liked the music, in fact I was a bit of a scally in my youth, but was drawn to music that many of my peers would look upon as soppy student shite.
I was obviously well into The Smiths, Joy Division and the like but usually spent my hard earned dole money of following Manchester City rather than attending many gigs.
Now that I think about it, maybe my choice in music reflected my choice of football team.
And so I generally wallowed in misery for most of the 80's thanks to my record collection and Man City.

Fast forward to 1987 and one Friday after a night out in Middleton, I put the telly on while devouring a Chinese take-away and tuned into Anthony H. Wilson's late night TV show "The other side of midnight". One of the featured musical guests was a band I had never heard of before, The Wedding Present. "From Leeds" said Tony..... err I mean Anthony and they performed "Nobody's twisting your arm"
I was taken by the gruff voiced lead singer wearing a dodgy shirt and my interest was peaked when Wilson mentioned their new album "George Best".

Now as a Manchester City fan I am supposed to hate anything to do with the other lot from Stretford, but to be honest George was my one of my favourite footballers of all time, he was a joy to watch and I would have sold my soul to the devil if he could have played for City.
I went out and bought the album the very next day, the cover was a thing of beauty and the music was instantly loveable. I researched this "Leeds" band and discovered that David and Pete Solowka were from my hometown of Middleton, we already had The Chameleons, so they'd do for me. Plus I do believe that TWP were the first band to be dubbed The "new" Smiths after they split, I was fated to love them really.

In March of 1988 I moved to Los Angeles leaving behind my friends, family, football team and most of my record collection.
After what seems like ages in the wilderness I found an American friend (Brett) who liked the same kind of music as I did and we'd attend gigs together and spend hours scouring the racks in L.A. record stores.
The release of Bizarro came and went, I originally owned in on cassette. Then finally The Wedding Present were to make their L.A. debut promoting the "newish" album and on Wednesday June 27th 1990 they were playing at the world famous Whisky A Go Go.
Brett and I bought our tickets, they were $15.50 each and we found out that the band were also scheduled to appear at Moby Disc in Sherman Oaks on the day of the gig for a meet and greet.
"Ooooo, we've got to go to that"

We were hoping for a performance at the record store, but no such luck, it was just a signing.
Unfortunately I had turned up empty handed with nothing to sign, but a quick trip to the "W" section soon remedied that and I picked up a used CD copy of The Peel Sessions for $1.49. All the band except for Simon (He didn't play on it) signed the cover, I also helped myself to a promo photo and had that signed.
The band thought it would be a bit of a laugh to sign their names under the wrong face. I introduced myself and informed David and Pete that I was from Middleton as well, they seemed mildly underwhelmed and were more interested in the American teenager wearing a Chameleons shirt.
After the signing Brett and I headed off to Hollywood for the gig. We decided to grab something to eat and found a cheap Italian restaurant across the street from The Roxy, we walked in and were mortified to see the band already in there for their pre-gig meal.
"We can't eat in here" I said to Brett, "They might recognise us and think we have followed them"
So we grabbed a couple of hotdogs from the AM PM gas station further down on Sunset Blvd.
The gig was excellent and afterwards I bought Bizarro on CD and had another brief chat with David.
And so this scenario was repeated with TWP and later Cinerama whenever they played L.A., I'd go to the gig and try and chat to David after the show.
To me it really wasn't really so much a case of hero worship, I was the only Mancunian I knew in Thousand Oaks and David was from my hometown, so I felt obliged to talk to him after gigs.
Nearly two decades later after many run ins with David Lewis Gedge I found out he was relocating to Los Angeles for a few months so I sent Jessica an e-mail containing points of interest for an exiled Brit. Which pubs showed the English footy, where to buy your Heinz baked beans etc, etc.....
This act of randomness from me resulted in an unexpected bonus, David got in touch and asked if I wanted to meet up and hang out.
Kin'ell, my years of semi-stalking had actually paid off.
A couple of years on I find myself as one of David and Jessica's L.A. regular contacts and usually see them when they visit. To be honest it's no big deal now, I basically just view him as "David from Middleton" although the other week I did stop and think "Bloody hell, I just made breakfast for David Gedge from The Wedding Present"
For the record, he wolfed down the veggie omelette but didn't touch the hash browns.

All I want for Christmas is an 80's casual flashback.

My (latest) Adidas.
Trimm Trab, a true casual classic.


We went up to the Camarillo Adidas outlet in order to get Liam a pair of decent trainers for Christmas.
Found him a pair of navy and white Gazelle's for $39.99. Not a bad price really, then one of the attendants informed us that they were having a "Buy one pair get the second pair 50% off sale"
"Hmmm, I'll have a bit of that" I thought.
I scanned the shelves and there wasn't really much available to be honest, then in the clearance section I spotted them, a pair of retro two tone blue Trimm Trab.
They were only priced at $29.99, sold!!!!!!
When I got to the register not only were they half off but they were mislabelled and should have been $19.99, bloody result or what?
So I ended up paying $9.98 for them.
All I needed was a Slazenger jumper, a pair of Lois cords and a wig with a "perry boy" flicker fringe on it and I would have been all set for a midweek visit to Grimsby on a Yelloways coach.
Ha, it doesn't take much to get me excited huh?

The Bobby Mancity era.

"Mark who? I'm the f**king daddy now Robinho"


New City boss Roberto Mancini got off to a great start today.
I was impressed with the entire team, maybe with the exception of Robinho who was a little rusty.
A solid performance against an always awkward Stoke City, Vincent Kompany led by example at the back.
The midfield was excellent and Tevez was tireless, weighing in with a kung fu volley.
Bellamy might have been rightfully disappointed to have not started, but I suspect he was rested and being saved for the big test for Wolves away on Monday. He did great when he came on though and seemed happy to be playing.
We just seemed a bit more confident today and knocked the ball around nicely.
I do think Hughes was a bit hard done by, but I am excited by the new/new era and think we can only improve as the season goes on.

Estrellas in their eyes

Spot the white guys. Shocker and me playing for Estrellas 1988.



Me before the cup final at Birmingham High School. November 1988.



Estrellas at Pacoima Junior High


Way way back in 1988 when I first came to America, I was soon joined by my mate from Middleton, Ian Shaughnessy aka Shocker.
We both played for the Woodman in the Blackley league and decided we wanted to have a kick around on a Sunday in the Golden State to keep ourselves sane.
So one weekend we ventured over to nearby Balboa Park and walked around asking various teams if they needed players.
Balboa Park in 1988 on a Sunday afternoon was completely full of young Latino males playing "futbol" there wasn't a white face to be seen apart from the obligatory LAPD squad car that continually circled the fields on the lookout for trouble.
Our enquiries were met with blank stares until we talked to a white haired older Mexican gentleman named Anselmo Hernandez.

"Do you need players?" we asked
"Err si, do you play" he replied
"Of course, we're English, from Inglaterra mate"
Thank god we had remembered the Spanish word for England from the 86 World Cup.
Anselmo looked at the Derby County shirt I was wearing, I had bought it from the market in Middleton for 2 quid, not a fan of the Rams, but it was dirt cheap.
He pointed at the Derby badge.
"You play for them in Inglaterra?"
"No"
"Si, you play for them"
"No, it's just a shirt, we didn't play for them"
"Okay, si"
We gave up at that point.
Anslemo told us to come to his fortified house in a dodgy Van Nuys neighbourhood during the week and to bring pictures and he would take a gamble and sign us up without actually seeing us play.
After all we were ex-Derby County players so we couldn't be that bad, right?
"Do you think he's a drug dealer?" asked Shocker on the way home.
"Could be" I replied.
We thought everyone was a drug dealer back then, especially the Mexicans you'd see on the San Fernando Valley streets selling oranges and flowers. We thought they had the perfect "cover" but looking back we were just naive and the cops would have been all over them.

Well we did the deed, got signed up and we set to make our debuts the following Sunday, except I managed to stab myself with a Bowie knife in the thigh. An accident that required 70 odd stitches.
Me and Shocker showed up that Sunday and announced I couldn't play on account of my knife wound.
"Were you on drugs man?" one asked
"No" I said
"Were you drunk then?"
"No, I just did it by accident"
They all looked at each other.
"Fucking loco" said one, they all laughed and nodded in agreement.
The game started and Shocker was playing while I was interrogated on the sideline
"So Andres" said one "Tell us about the Ingles"
"Errr, well we are like the Mexicans of Europe"
They looked puzzled.
"We love to drink, play football, fight, fuck and nobody likes us"
Again they all nodded and laughed, we fit right in.
Shocker of course took the game by storm. He was small even by Mexican standards but they were amazed by his ability to take a kicking, get up and carry on playing unaffected. He scored two goals as well which was a bonus.
After the match was over I presented Anslemo with the Derby County shirt that he so admired.
"You play for them in Inglaterra?" he asked again
"No"
He walked over to the rest of the team and I could tell he was informing them that his latest two signings were ex-Derby County players as he pointed at the shirt and then pointed back at the two pasty gringo's.
As the next week was easter there was no game and in between I had my stitches taken out.
I was ready to make my debut, they put me and Shocker up front against some pretty rubbish opposition, I scored 4 and Shocker got another 2 in the first half.
At the start of the second they informed us that we were done for the day. We were both shocked and pissed off until we were told that this was the 2nd team and we were now promoted to the 1st team who were playing immediately afterwards.
Back then of course we were younger, skinnier and a hell of a lot fitter so we came to an arrangement where we would play for both teams on a Sunday. I'd play up front for the 2nd team and then slot in at the back for the 1st team.
Shocker played in midfield or up front for either team depending on his mood.
Frequently our games would be delayed because a massed brawl would break out. The usual decorum for us two would be to sit down in the centre circle and wait for things to boil over. Now I think I can handle myself but getting into a massive brawl with a bunch of Mexicans is not wise as it could easily turn into "Kill whitey" so we kept out of it and to their credit, nobody ever bothered us.

It was also during my tenure in the San Fernando League that I scored my greatest ever goal.
We were playing a match at Pacoima Junior High (Richie Valens' alma matter).
I was playing as centre forward and during one attack somebody drove a low pass across the pitch, I had over ran the ball and stopped dead, the ball hit my out stretched heel and pinged in the air looping down right in front of me, I volleyed the ball before it could hit the ground and it flew right into the roof of the net from 25 yards out.
It was complete fluke how the ball ended up in front of me for the shot but my team mates were convinced that I had meant it.
"Maradona" screamed one of them.
"No, it was an accident, a lucky goal" I protested, but they were having none of it of course, they knew I had played for Derby County and was obviously just being really modest.
Anyway Shocker eventually returned to England and I continued to play for Estrellas as the lone Englishman and the lone white guy in the league.
We ended the season in second place and got to the cup final. It was played in front of about 2000 spectators at Birmingham High School. During the game I was racially abused, had bottles thrown at me, I loved it, it was my proudest moment as a footy player.
The opposing supporters went mental when I elbowed on of their players in the face forcing him to be subbed with a bloody nose.
Late on in the match we were losing 3-2 when I pushed forward and hit the crossbar with a 30 yard shot, cue more abuse.
Then the game was over and we had lost, their fans invaded the pitch instantly and I thought that I was going to get a bit of a slap as loads of them made a bee line for me.
"Here we go" I thought
"Nice game white boy" I was patted on the back by dozens of Mexican strangers and many more wanted to shake my hand.
While I was disappointed to lose the game I was pretty pleased by my performance and the reception of the crowd, for 90 minutes I almost felt like a "proper" footballer.

The clock's ticking Sparky.

Despite being "unbeaten" in 12 games, let's face the Chelsea result was the only one worth shouting about.
Well they were bloody awful at Spurs tonight, how long before the owners take action?
I've lost faith to be honest, we have drawn far too many games we should have won during this run.
Hull? Fulham? Bloody Burnley??????
Taxi for Hughes.