So Here We Are.

 

So Here We Are

So here we are, we go again

Another season’s here my friend

City back where we belong

The Cross packed tight, The Shed on song.

 

The game sold out, de Bohs were down.

This was the only show in town

An emotional night I must confess

First game for me now fatherless

 

The Shed was full, no room in there

We snuck past the commissionaire

It started well, all going fine

Tony got his ninety-nine

 

Whether opening nerves or just outclassed

We left, our hopes not too downcast

Our boys they battled well, I swear

But we were beaten fair and square

 

The score line really didn’t matter

Banter, jokes, the laughs, the natter

Brothers, sisters side by side

Supporting City, woe betide

Groveless

Groveless

Sell the club? The vote did say

links to Cork? A generous man?

Saving us from our doomsday

Roaring fire or frying pan?

 

Steady Eddie or run up debt

We just cannot be sure

FORAS then will buy it back?

Have we not been here before?

 

But then the fans will have no voice?

You are the owner, by the way

Keep it and run it, that’s your choice

Or sell it off and have no say

 

Check this lot out, they sway

Yearly breakdown? Sporting plan?

Billionaire benefactor, they pray

Feeder club, that Ridsdale man

 

In football there’ll be ups and downs

Cups and Titles, Debt and Frowns

Make your mind up but please be sure

Is it Grove less? Or Grovemoor?

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"

Once again a rich benefactor comes looking to take over the club. We, the fans, have been running the club ourselves for 10 years now and have had our ups and downs like every club. It'll go to a vote of the members to decide whether we give it away and head down this road again.

27 years is a long time

Hillsborough was horrendous, tonight's BBC documentary was a painful watch.
Here are two poems I wrote over the years.


A few recent articles here and here.

Great podcast here well worth a listen.


This one was from the 20th Anniversary in April 2009.

Hysteric Call

Can todays youth ever envisage
With their gadgets, football from a seat
Those old enough retain the image
A queue for a phone in the street


In Sheffield they queued for miles
The football not worth a damn
Faces pale, void of smiles
“I just need to ring me mam”

Back home the waiting excruciating
Minds racing, families concerned
That night some children walked right in
Others, they never returned.

This one is from September 2012

All Apologies

The youth of today just won’t understand
What life in the eighties was like
Food on the table was paramount
And very few kids had a bike.

England was being run into the ground
A battle scene version of Hades
Labour Left Liverpool cast adrift
By Margaret the Iron lady

What happened on that April day
Embodied that Tory decease
Third class fans in rundown grounds
Impunity for the police

Duckenfield, clueless, out of his depth,
Up to his neck in pain and death
In Devon where he lays his head
May that day haunt your every breath

Pitiless Poppers post-mortem
Deliberate, callous and cruel
Accidental death at three fifteen?
Who were you trying to fool?

Thatchers police had served her so well
Waving notes at the down trodden miners
Cover up, statements were altered
How evil was blood testing minors?

Tory Boy Patnick went to work
Casting shame on the dead and the dying
For planting lies a knighthood earned
We always knew you were lying

And now the truth is out at last
They spout their sickly faux sorry
They’ll get what’s coming soon enough
Justice will see them the quarry

Thatcher now old and quite senile
Still an icon of anger and hate
No rejoicing til she’s safe and sound
In the Hades she tried to create

Autumn Arias

Some music I've heard and am liking of late.

Great to see Dave Gahan with some new stuff, this is his new single with his new arrangement the Soulsavers.

It's called All of This and Nothing and is from the forthcoming album Angels & Ghosts.



This is a nice tune from The Sherlocks, sounds very like the Courteeners
It's called Heart of Gold and is well worth a listen.



This is the new single from Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.
It's called Losing Touch from the New Album ‘Momentary Masters’ Out Now.

A Book A Year For 2015

So here we are almost 5 months into 2015.

If you recall I vowed to read a book a month for 2015, here's what I've done so far.

1. For January I read Neal "Hoggie" Horgan's account of some extremely difficult times for Cork City Football Club. As we have come so far in the intervening years, I had actually forgotten a lot of it but no harm in remembering the difficult times.

2. For February I read Kevin Pietersens Autobiography KP.
He has a good moan about everything, the press, the players, the authorities and how everyone hates him. "Trust Issue" is right.
It's no surprise he isn't wanted back.

3. In March I went back to football, it was a book I had bought many moons ago but had never read.
It is written by an American author, Robert Andrew Powell, who moves to the most dangerous city on earth to find himself, it's called "This Love Is Not For Cowards - Salvation and Soccer in Ciudad Juarez".
Murder is an every day thing in Ciudad Juarez, human life has no value, it is a stones throw from the US border and El Paso. He begins to follow the local football team as they struggled in the top tier of Mexican football.
An Interesting book, worth the read.

4. April marked a move to my other great love, music. This was another book that was lying around for a while and is called "The Fallen"
Mark E. Smith is an enigma, making music with his band, The Fall since 1976, members have come and members have gone but Mark is there omnipresent, leading the line.
Dave Simpson is a Fall devotee who decided to take on the onerous task of tracking all those people who played over the years. It's in the region of 50 or so.
It's a fascinating take on the way Smith runs the band , treats new members, marries some and contains some crazy stories of the carry on throughout the years.
Marks quote on the front should be reason enough to read it.

5. May is the month of Morrissey.
A hero of mine, a man that spoke so vividly to me in the 1980's when in my bedroom writing poetry.
Len Brown (not the controversial Aussie mayor or the lad I went to school with) has spent an unbelievable amount of time with Morrissey over the years. Brown, like myself,  is a huge fan and intermingled Morrisseys career with the various meetings they have had. 
It takes one through his career piece by piece, interview by interview, album by album, controversy by controversy.
The reason it took me so long to read is that as Brown went through the back catalogue I kept going back to my Morrissey cd collection and started digging out all the albums to play over and over again.

And one we move to June.
I have Morrisseys own autobiography for later in the year so am always open to suggestions, please let me know if you have any book that may be of interest.

Fresh Start

Kind of forgot about the blog in the last few months of 2014.
There was lots to be done in work and with CCFC so could not dedicate the time.
EOQ Support, new kit launch, getting merchandise to the shop for Christmas. etc etc
A huge elongated build up to the festive season, then you blink and it's gone.

Here are my brief list of resolutions for 2015.
1. I have vowed to read a book a month in 2015.
For January I have started this.

2. I'm going to climb Carrauntoohil.
3. I'm going to learn how to use the Nespresso machine at home.
4. I'm going to take the Kick Start 1 course.
5. I'm going to re-issue my 2010 book Reflections from the Shed in e-book format.

Have also taken my eye off the music ball over the last few months. Then I came upon this nugget from last year by my old friends We Are Scientists. It's beautiful.






I heard this on the radio last week and thought I never knew We Are Scientists had a new single out.
Turns out it wasn't them at all but a new bunch of lads called Circa Waves, this is called Fossils.
Sounds very like them though.

Is The Summer Really Over?

Well, it's been a long summer and things have been busy.
Kids were off (are still off), we went to the South of France.
Cork City FC still consumes a lot of time, labour of love.
But in between all this I grab a few minute to listen to some music.
Here's a little taste of my current playlist.


My old pal Morrissey released a new album while I was away.
World Peace Is None Of Your Business is pretty good with the usual cutting lyrics and beautiful melodies.
It's like the mid 90's all over again, here is Staircase at the University.






There are very few bands who I can actually say that I own all their albums.
This is true about The Drums and after being away for 2/3 years have a new single called Magic Mountain.





Interpol are another band whose every album I own and they also have a new tune out after being away for a while.
It's called All The Rage Back Home.
And is taken from their new album El Pintor out next month.



The next few I heard on the 6Music and liked them all, three in a row.
Teleman - Skeleton Dance



Check out this lovely tune from Childhood - You Could Be Different



I also visited the UCC library over the summer to see the Sir Henrys Exhibition, it brought back some memories.
UCC FM also did a fantastic set of shows on Sir Henrys hosted by Jim Morrish.
You can listen here.