In League With The Devil's Music

If anything can possibly be worse than a musical hero following one of your rivals it must be someone who you would consider to be the bane of your musical life following your beloved side, for Arsenal have quite a few of those. Islington born and bred, singer Dido (left) to her credit did the decent thing and supported her local side; it’s just a shame her musical output happens to be terminally dull. In an interview with Four Four Two magazine in September 2003 she reveals that her father had taken her and her older brother, Rollo from the equally dreary techno band Faithless from a very young age. She had also dated Sol Campbell back in 2004. Dido stated in the 2003 article that she held no objection to the gentrification of the club in recent years, then again how could she oppose gentrification of anything when her albums are more than likely to be the soundtrack of many a dinner party held by the flood of nauseating bourgeois types who have invaded the borough of Islington in recent years.

As a fan of Soul music I've always considered M People's bland radio friendly output the antithesis of the genre. As those who have subscribed to Arsenal TV know full well their Bass player Shovel, quite possibly named after the instrument I'd like to hit him with, has tried to build for himself a second career as a professional Gooner. From the same brand of Anti-Soul we also have Sharleen Spiteri from Texas - The band who was once famously second on the bill to David Brent’s Foregone Conclusion. She is also a major fan of North London’s finest and is close friends with Thierry Henry. Henry, as many of you will remember, had announced the birth of her daughter Misty Kyd via a message on his shirt after scoring against Manchester City on the same day back in September 2002. (below)


On the subject of music which lacks any authentic degree of soul, were it not for that well known maxim ‘Americans don’t do irony’ you would have expected Starsky and Hutch actor turned singer David Richard Soulberg to have chosen his adopted moniker with a large dollop of the stuff. If he’s dreary ballads were typical of the charts circa 1976-77 then no wonder many a pop picker turned toward the anger and alienation of Punk rock. However on emigrating to London in the mid 90s Mr Soul had took residence in Islington and had encountered David Dein at a dinner party in the local area. As he explains ‘I talked to a gentleman for several hours about everything except football, and at the end of the evening I asked him what he did. He told me he was the vice-chairman of Arsenal’. After taking up David Dein’s invite to attend a game at Highbury, Soul became hooked on the red and white. The career high point for David Soul had been displacing Elvis from the UK number one spot he had been occupying for 6 weeks in the wake of the King’s untimely death in 1977 with the tune ‘Silver Lady’. Who knows, maybe another Trophyless season for the Arsenal might see Soul displacing Elvis’s ‘Wonder of You’ with his other UK chart topper ‘Don’t Give Up On Us’ as our official anthem (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlfhIo4QeAg).

If the dross of mid 70s pop is personified by David Soul, then symbolic of the detritus that is early to mid 80s music and style are Islington born and bred Spandau Ballet. Lead singer Tony Hadley and the Kemp brothers have publicly professed their allegance to the Arsenal, the latter two even decorated their house red and white for the 1971 FA Cup final. Gary Kemp explains though how at the start of the decade they helped to define, his Football supporting was relegated to back of his rather extravagent closet. He explains that ' if you’d asked me who I was in the early ’70s, the answer would have been simple. I was an Arsenal fan and a David Bowie fan. As I got older there was a period when I started to hide the football side away. You wouldn’t go to the New Romantic nightclubs, such as Billy’s or the Blitz, and talk loudly about football'. However by 1986 two of the Spandau boys publicly attached themselves to the beautiful game in it's ugly post-Heysel period. Both Martin Kemp and Steve Norman (below) were snapped up by legendary player manager Roy Race for Melchester Rovers.


In consideration of the flatness of the surrounding landscape of 80s pop, Wham, with hindsight seem reasonably good. In terms of ability though, they were very much a one man band. George Michael's musical partnership with Andrew Ridgeley could well be described as thus - George made the music, Andrew made the coffee. In expressing the dreadfulness of Jedward, Frank Skinner had described them in his column in the Times as 'Wham made up entirely from a partnership of Andrew Ridgeley and Andrew Ridgeley'. Sadly for us though, it's Andrew who is the confirmed Gooner. Appearing on Fantasy Football League in the mid 1990s, Andrew had revealed that he was an Arsenal fan, just as Football and indeed the Arsenal were becoming more and more fashionable. However this would come as a great surprise to avid viewers of 80s pop videos. In the video for Freedom in 1984, back in the days when Arsenal were banned from Match of the Day for being too dull and Islington was much less fashionable, Andrew quite clearly sports a QPR shirt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d_1puJ4kFQ). What would be cool though is if Andrew ever accompanied the talented one to Highbury. Did Andrew ever take George up the Arsenal? Maybe they were never that close.

We did however dodge a major bullet in the 80s. I can recall at the infamous FA Cup 3rd Round tie against Millwall in 1988, while surrounded by ugly scenes on the terraces an equally ugly one appeared on the pitch. Phil Collins had turned up to present a cheque to the winner of the Arsenal Lotto, leaving us wondering if the bald one was a Gooner. In a Shoot magazine feature on famous fans, I remember Collins had been listed as a QPR fan. Was Phil going through an Andrew Ridgeley moment and considering defecting to the Arsenal? Quite possibly. Luckily though, a few years later at the 1991 FA Cup Semi against Spurs at Wembley, at the height of national 'Gazzamania' the Beeb had interviewed 'Tottenham fan' Phil Collins at half time. Sadly for Collins (below), I very much doubt that he has experienced too many days in Paradise since.

Singing With The Enemy

In the mid nineteenth century Karl Marx had referred to religion as the ‘opium of the people’, however by the second half of the following century in a much more secularized western hemisphere there were quite clearly two contenders for the vacated throne. Both Football and popular music would go on to generate the level of fervour, hysteria and cult like devotion that had long since been lost to theology anywhere in Great Britain by the end of the 20th century. As Paul Weller (left) once stated on a track from the Jam’s third LP ‘All Mod Cons’ ‘to be someone must be a wonderful thing: a famous footballer, a rock singer or a big film star? Yes I think I would like that’; (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnUH94BftYo) sentiment which most of the male population of the nation would concur with and in that particular order. The Modfather had long been a musical hero of mine; however in a recent interview Weller had revealed himself to be a season ticket holder at Stamford Bridge. This to me had come as a shock, remembering that in the late 90s when asked how he felt about Sky using ‘Out of the Sinking’ as its theme tune to their Premiership coverage Weller stated he was pleased however didn’t own a satellite dish nor particularly followed football. Therefore Weller turns out to be not only a Chelsea fan, but one of the worst kind – that which had latched on to the post-Abramovich bandwagon. Should the small club in Fulham feel inclined to adopt a Jam number for their own, ‘That’s Entertainment’ may not be befitting. In consideration of their fans Head-hunting past though, ‘A Town Called Malice’ may well fit like a glove!


Another hero from the same music movement which spawned the Jam is Joe Strummer, whose music and world view I have always held in high esteem. Years after leaving the Clash Joe went on to pen a tribute to Tony Adams (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv0Y4na9uLo), could Uncle Joe have been a Gooner? Sadly not. Despite his admiration for TA his heart also lie at Stamford Bridge. Having such an association with the west side of the Capital as both Joe and the Clash had done maybe its not so surprising, however what about a singer from a band associated with North London and Camden such as Suggs from Madness? Again no joy here either, as one remembers from his ‘Blue Day’ cup final tune for Chelsea in 1997. ‘No commitment, your an embarrassment’ – indeed! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpN_TOP9hg8)


Madness were the leading lights of the Ska music scene in London by 1980, challenged only by the raw energy of Coventry band the Specials further up the M1. The Specials had invested faith in local talent by forming their very own 2-Tone label which had brought through other Midlands groups such as the Selector and the Beat. Maybe lead singer Terry Hall (above) followed this philosophy by backing the local footballing talents at Highfield Road? After all Terry’s formative years would have over seen a period in which they rose up from the old third division to the top flight and remain there until the new millennium. Again you’ll be disappointed, young Terry’s head was turned by the glamour of Georgie Best and is an ardent Man United fan. Rumour has it he even relocated to Stockport when forming the Colourfield in the mid eighties just to be closer to Old Trafford. Terry’s disloyalty to the Sky Blues is such that lord only knows what punishment Judge Roughneck would deem befitting for such a crime!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LudUWPbnBo)


Terry also exhibited all the usual cocky arrogance of a non Manchester Red during the Specials' comeback tour last summer at Leeds. Apparently, though the band were going down a storm Terry decided it appropriate to goad the crowd with the comment 'Thanks very much for Cantona', of course in reference to the infamous transfer of the Frenchman across the Peninines six months after winning the title with Leeds United. The yorkshiremen had not seen the funny side however and thus a shower of coins then rained down on the Specials' frontman. Terry had then quickly expalined to the crowd that his comment was merely in jest, however the last laugh was no doubt on him after the League One side dumped Terry's beloved Reds out of the cup roughly seven months later.


Can this hall of shame get any worse? Brace yourself chaps. As a musical hero can much taint the Honourable Robert Nesta Marley (left)? The dubious appropriation of the Banana Splits theme tune for the chorus of Buffalo Soldier is surely outweighed by the bravery of surviving an assassination attempt in 1976 for his commentary on the socio-political injustices of Jamaica in the Cold War era through his music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nlFZm3eiR8). From numerous Athena posters his love of the Jazz cigarette seems to come second only to his love of the beautiful game. Who then did Bob support? Well none other Tottenham Hotspur! How could Marley succumb to such dishonour? After all N17 is a long way from Trenchtown. One school of thought is that Bob had been a big admirer of South American Football, having been based in London in the late 70s after the Shooting in Kingston around the same time as Ardiles and Villa had been signed for Spurs. The other school of thought is that chain smoking marijuana does strange things to one’s thought process. Bob Marley had passed away on May 11th 1981, a date which oddly sits between the first game and replay of the 1981 Cup Final. The official verdict was the spread of cancer throughout Marley’s body. I’m no coroner but I believe his death was more likely to be hastened by the widespread belief that Chas & Dave were the most musically gifted fans that Spurs had to offer. Just goes to show that at the Lane they were musical as well as Footballing philistines.

In the words of a question once posed to us by the Stranglers, what ever happened to the heroes? Well thankfully there’s still Ray Davies (left) of the Kinks. A source of great music in the swinging sixties and a wide range of influence on those that followed. Whether it be the archetypal Englishness of Blur or Madness, the laddish sibling feuding of Oasis or the sexual abiguity of Bowie, the influence of the Kinks has been felt time and time again. In the Times Newspaper before the last game at Highbury lead singer and main songwriter Ray had wrote that ‘my father instilled in me the belief that Highbury was the most hallowed of places and the stadium itself epitomised the noblest spirit of true Corinthian sporting endeavour ...the players were as close as it got to god-like status and the club itself was secure and unmovable, a sporting monolith that would last a thousand years’. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article713738.ece)

Well folks, that certianly is a sentiment I could applaud all day and all of the night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4DV-5d6a5g