Yesterday Once More
May. 25th, 2025 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71Had a cold all week :( but dragged myself to Baffins on Tuesday evening for AFC Portchester v Moneyfields in the Portsmouth Cup Final. Just as well that I did. Lewis had brought along a bright orange Portchester bucket hat to sell me (at discount). There was a huge turnout of Portchy fans and we gathered behind the goal. We kept up a stream of songs, alternating ‘Portchester, la la la’ and ‘Take me home, Cranleigh Road’ with the individual players’ chants. As Amy our physio raced on to see to a player needing attention, one fan quipped “Not many teams’ physios wear hotpants”. Everyone went berserk when Connor Duffin headed home from a corner! Moneyfields started to fight back, Steve Mowthorpe and the defence held firm.
We changed ends for the second half. Lewis and a couple of the other lads exchanged stories about groundhopping in Germany and other places, and Lewis gave me a few Portchy stickers to stick up in Switzerland. With minutes remaining Connor Duffin saw red for a second yellow and several of us questioned whether he’d be around next season. There was a general consensus that we need to strengthen the squad for the Isthmian League. Tom Cain of Moneyfields, who’d been shithousing for much of the game, got a couple of choice songs from the Portchy faithful.
Into injury time, Moneyfields netted the threatened equaliser and we steeled ourselves for penalties. As it became apparent that the shoot-out would take place at the far end, Lewis’s idea was to watch from where we were, till Amy ran over and said “The lads want you down that end”. We all began trooping round the ground as one lad grinned “When a worldie says go down the other end, you go down the other end”.
We were still heading down the side when Tom Cain took the first kick of the shoot-out, which, to our absolute delight, Mowy saved. We were soon gathered behind the goal, living every kick, emotions wildly swinging from high to deep, then exploding with joy as Portchester won 3-2. We watched the presentation and celebrated with the lads with a chorus of “Champions again, ole ole”. Some of the fans hung around, wanting to carry on soaking up the atmosphere and probably have a celebration snifter in the bar, but I needed to be away so went around shaking hands and wishing comrades a good summer. Went out onto the main road to summon an Uber.
Working alone, my cold, a fairly mild one, didn’t keep me out of the office, but outside work it’s been all about the telly this week. Friday night’s sextuple helping of Top of the Pops was a belter. The first 1997 episode was lovely lady central, with Jo Whiley presenting and performances by Sheryl Crow and All Saints. With an anthemic rendition of Angels from Robbie Williams thrown in.
The following show opened with Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn, the soundtrack to my last quarter of 1997 in the bed-sit in Stratford - it was my pal Carly in the room next to mine who introduced me to the song. Seeing the episode from the week before Christmas in May is always amusing, but while I remembered the Teletubbies’ record Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh! I had certainly forgotten that it got to number one.
Next came 1980, hosted by Mike Read with plenty of new wave tracks, Jona Lewie’s quirky You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties (alas, no Kirsty this time), an equally eccentric Karel Fialka, the Cockney Rejects joyously bellowing I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles complete with the lead singer wearing a West Ham shirt, my favourite Matchbox song, Legs & Co doing a highly bizarre routine to Theme From M*A*S*H (as any dance routine to that song would have been; it called for a video, even if a home-made montage one) and Johnny Logan at #1 - a most welcome treat for us Eurovision fans in the week we’re suffering post-Contest withdrawal blues.
Any 1986 episode is a treat and we were presented with one of the best. David Hamilton on presentation duty. After the chart rundown, Tina Charles, my Pop Babe of ‘76, opened the proceedings with a winsome performance of Love Me Like A Lover, followed by one of my all-time favourites, Arms Of Mary by the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver. I didn’t remember the dance trio Ruby Flipper, though two of them went on to be in Legs & Co; I always thought Legs & Co took over directly from Pan’s People. Two of the decade’s best bands, Showaddywaddy and Mud, put in an appearance and we had Cliff singing Devil Woman. ABBA’s magnificent Fernando was number one - such a shame that, very unusually, it was truncated.
How do you top that? With a double bill from 1985. We couldn’t go wrong with Auntie Janice and Uncle John presenting (they even called themselves that at the start!) They were on top flirtatious form throughout, the young ladies in the audience were in classic 80s gear and it was good to see Paul Hardcastle’s 19 topping the chart.
The second 1985 episode was the jewel in the crown. So many tunes from the heyday of my chart pop fandom, taking me right back to David Jensen and the Network Chart on Radio Victory - Shaky’s Lipstick, Powder and Paint, a-ha’s Take On Me (at the time my school pal Rich formed a spoof band called ha-a, calling himself Horton Market), Elton John’s Nikita about love across the Iron Curtain (which no-one imagined would be dismantled four years later), Level 42, Grace Jones, Jan Hammer and Colonel Abrams. And to end the evening, my girlfriend Jennifer Rush at #1 with The Power of Love looking stunning in that red top and black leggings.
If there’s anything I love as much as pop nostalgia it’s football nostalgia. Yesterday morning ITV4 launched a new series of The Big Match Revisited and this time it’s the 1975/76 season. Although I wasn’t an avid viewer of The Big Match when I was four, the football from that era still has a magic for me. Spurs v Middlesbrough was a cracker, Luton v Hull good to see with a superb goal from Ron Futcher, Brian Moore just sublime as the avuncular host. It’s going to be a good few months.
We changed ends for the second half. Lewis and a couple of the other lads exchanged stories about groundhopping in Germany and other places, and Lewis gave me a few Portchy stickers to stick up in Switzerland. With minutes remaining Connor Duffin saw red for a second yellow and several of us questioned whether he’d be around next season. There was a general consensus that we need to strengthen the squad for the Isthmian League. Tom Cain of Moneyfields, who’d been shithousing for much of the game, got a couple of choice songs from the Portchy faithful.
Into injury time, Moneyfields netted the threatened equaliser and we steeled ourselves for penalties. As it became apparent that the shoot-out would take place at the far end, Lewis’s idea was to watch from where we were, till Amy ran over and said “The lads want you down that end”. We all began trooping round the ground as one lad grinned “When a worldie says go down the other end, you go down the other end”.
We were still heading down the side when Tom Cain took the first kick of the shoot-out, which, to our absolute delight, Mowy saved. We were soon gathered behind the goal, living every kick, emotions wildly swinging from high to deep, then exploding with joy as Portchester won 3-2. We watched the presentation and celebrated with the lads with a chorus of “Champions again, ole ole”. Some of the fans hung around, wanting to carry on soaking up the atmosphere and probably have a celebration snifter in the bar, but I needed to be away so went around shaking hands and wishing comrades a good summer. Went out onto the main road to summon an Uber.
Working alone, my cold, a fairly mild one, didn’t keep me out of the office, but outside work it’s been all about the telly this week. Friday night’s sextuple helping of Top of the Pops was a belter. The first 1997 episode was lovely lady central, with Jo Whiley presenting and performances by Sheryl Crow and All Saints. With an anthemic rendition of Angels from Robbie Williams thrown in.
The following show opened with Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn, the soundtrack to my last quarter of 1997 in the bed-sit in Stratford - it was my pal Carly in the room next to mine who introduced me to the song. Seeing the episode from the week before Christmas in May is always amusing, but while I remembered the Teletubbies’ record Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh! I had certainly forgotten that it got to number one.
Next came 1980, hosted by Mike Read with plenty of new wave tracks, Jona Lewie’s quirky You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties (alas, no Kirsty this time), an equally eccentric Karel Fialka, the Cockney Rejects joyously bellowing I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles complete with the lead singer wearing a West Ham shirt, my favourite Matchbox song, Legs & Co doing a highly bizarre routine to Theme From M*A*S*H (as any dance routine to that song would have been; it called for a video, even if a home-made montage one) and Johnny Logan at #1 - a most welcome treat for us Eurovision fans in the week we’re suffering post-Contest withdrawal blues.
Any 1986 episode is a treat and we were presented with one of the best. David Hamilton on presentation duty. After the chart rundown, Tina Charles, my Pop Babe of ‘76, opened the proceedings with a winsome performance of Love Me Like A Lover, followed by one of my all-time favourites, Arms Of Mary by the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver. I didn’t remember the dance trio Ruby Flipper, though two of them went on to be in Legs & Co; I always thought Legs & Co took over directly from Pan’s People. Two of the decade’s best bands, Showaddywaddy and Mud, put in an appearance and we had Cliff singing Devil Woman. ABBA’s magnificent Fernando was number one - such a shame that, very unusually, it was truncated.
How do you top that? With a double bill from 1985. We couldn’t go wrong with Auntie Janice and Uncle John presenting (they even called themselves that at the start!) They were on top flirtatious form throughout, the young ladies in the audience were in classic 80s gear and it was good to see Paul Hardcastle’s 19 topping the chart.
The second 1985 episode was the jewel in the crown. So many tunes from the heyday of my chart pop fandom, taking me right back to David Jensen and the Network Chart on Radio Victory - Shaky’s Lipstick, Powder and Paint, a-ha’s Take On Me (at the time my school pal Rich formed a spoof band called ha-a, calling himself Horton Market), Elton John’s Nikita about love across the Iron Curtain (which no-one imagined would be dismantled four years later), Level 42, Grace Jones, Jan Hammer and Colonel Abrams. And to end the evening, my girlfriend Jennifer Rush at #1 with The Power of Love looking stunning in that red top and black leggings.
If there’s anything I love as much as pop nostalgia it’s football nostalgia. Yesterday morning ITV4 launched a new series of The Big Match Revisited and this time it’s the 1975/76 season. Although I wasn’t an avid viewer of The Big Match when I was four, the football from that era still has a magic for me. Spurs v Middlesbrough was a cracker, Luton v Hull good to see with a superb goal from Ron Futcher, Brian Moore just sublime as the avuncular host. It’s going to be a good few months.
