Lazza
Rod Hull
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 264
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Post by Lazza on Aug 28, 2015 7:06:31 GMT
As Simon Inglis states in the first edition of his Football Grounds book published in 1983,the pitch was the only part of Eastville at that time still tended by Rovers. Basically after the South Stand fire the place was left to rot. It was a depressing place in the end,I don't think anyone denies that. As for the use of "gas or gashead",I don't recall the terms at all from the Eastville of the 70s and the singing of You'll Never Walk Alone was far more popular than Goodnight Irene. I think these things became common during the Twerton years when fans were searching for an identity. That's how I remember it,Goodnight Irene was never sung more than once a game,sometimes not at all,sung much to often now and has lost any special feeling long ago because of that .
I first remember the term 'gashead' being used by the city lot in pubs in town ( particularly the Wheatsheaf ) mid 70s,and it wasn't used in a matey friendly way either. I don't remember Rovers using it about themselves until much later,not sure when.
The stadium people wanted Rovers out of Eastville for a long time and let the stadium rot as you say,makes me laugh when I hear Rovers supporters call the Mem a dump,also the pubs in the Eastville area were not that great by then,far better for a pre match drink around Gloucester road these days.
Yes, that's how I remember the "Gas" term being used too Trymer. Was used by City fans as an insult originally until many fans started adopting the Gashead term. Not sure when fans started adopting it but couldn't have been any earlier than the late 80's I reckon. As regards Irene, I don't remember it being sung much in the Eastville day's at all either. Certainly not from the early 1970's onwards when I started going anyway.
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kentgas
Archie Stephens
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 271
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Post by kentgas on Aug 28, 2015 7:27:38 GMT
Agree that Goodnight Irene was rarely sung in the 70s at Eastville. When we won promotion at Southend in April 74, clearly remember singing You'll Never Walk Alone with the team after the game. Alan Warboys and I sharing my scarf and singing in the stand at Roots Hall is a very happy memory.
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irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372
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Post by irishrover on Aug 28, 2015 10:33:53 GMT
Haven't watched the video yet, waiting for a clear uninterrupted hour to give it justice! About crowds, in the late 60s and early to mid 70s there were good crowds at Eastville. In 60s at least 7,000 from 66 to 70 and usually nearly 10,000 esp after a god away win. Early 70s 8-9k and after promotion in 74 we got 10-14k .... I think but I am getting old and perhaps I'm a rose-tinter!! Yes, but the video is in the 80s. Crowds around 5,000 but the team was doing well. I don't think that's much to do with Rovers - although I imagine the dilapidated state of Eastville probably didn't help. If you look at attendance figures crowds in general were down in the early 80s - football had a hell of a stigma attached to it during that era and a lot of people stopped going/wouldn't even think about it being something they would do. My Grandad was a lifelong football fan and was appalled by violence at football and stopped going in the early 80s. What appalled him was the idea of working class people beating up other working class people simply because they happened to support another football team. Never went again - even when I started going I couldn't convince him that the game had changed. I knew quite a few people of his generation with the same attitude. I still feel pretty bitter about that and as a result I can't stomach the romanticisation of hooliganism in any form.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 10:50:44 GMT
Yes, but the video is in the 80s. Crowds around 5,000 but the team was doing well. I don't think that's much to do with Rovers - although I imagine the dilapidated state of Eastville probably didn't help. If you look at attendance figures crowds in general were down in the early 80s - football had a hell of a stigma attached to it during that era and a lot of people stopped going/wouldn't even think about it being something they would do. My Grandad was a lifelong football fan and was appalled by violence at football and stopped going in the early 80s. What appalled him was the idea of working class people beating up other working class people simply because they happened to support another football team. Never went again - even when I started going I couldn't convince him that the game had changed. I knew quite a few people of his generation with the same attitude. I still feel pretty bitter about that and as a result I can't stomach the romanticisation of hooliganism in any form. Football hooliganism was happening long before the 80s,the first large scale disorder at Eastville being the cup game with Arsenal in 1967. As for working class people beating each other up that was happening in and outside pubs and clubs all around the country on Friday and Saturday nights just for looking at someone in the wrong way. Some buses in Bristol had guards on them at night in the 60s and the buses even stopped running to certain places for a while. I think that Britain was a more violent place in a lot of ways back then,not shootings or stabbings but lots more fights than now,CCTV has made a big difference. My granddad lived in a mining village in the 20s and he said there were fistfights every weekend sometimes the women would fight and when they were finished the dogs would fight. 'Romanticisation of hooliganism' that's a new one on me,where does it take place ? is it some sort of street performance ?.
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LPGas
Stuart Taylor
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 1,240
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Post by LPGas on Aug 28, 2015 12:50:37 GMT
Just saw myself on the Tote. Good days but s**t pitch and square goal posts
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 12:58:50 GMT
I don't think that's much to do with Rovers - although I imagine the dilapidated state of Eastville probably didn't help. If you look at attendance figures crowds in general were down in the early 80s - football had a hell of a stigma attached to it during that era and a lot of people stopped going/wouldn't even think about it being something they would do. My Grandad was a lifelong football fan and was appalled by violence at football and stopped going in the early 80s. What appalled him was the idea of working class people beating up other working class people simply because they happened to support another football team. Never went again - even when I started going I couldn't convince him that the game had changed. I knew quite a few people of his generation with the same attitude. I still feel pretty bitter about that and as a result I can't stomach the romanticisation of hooliganism in any form. Football hooliganism was happening long before the 80s,the first large scale disorder at Eastville being the cup game with Arsenal in 1967. As for working class people beating each other up that was happening in and outside pubs and clubs all around the country on Friday and Saturday nights just for looking at someone in the wrong way. Some buses in Bristol had guards on them at night in the 60s and the buses even stopped running to certain places for a while. I think that Britain was a more violent place in a lot of ways back then,not shootings or stabbings but lots more fights than now,CCTV has made a big difference. My granddad lived in a mining village in the 20s and he said there were fistfights every weekend sometimes the women would fight and when they were finished the dogs would fight. 'Romanticisation of hooliganism' that's a new one on me,where does it take place ? is it some sort of street performance ?.
m.imdb.com/title/tt0385705/
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Post by bangkokgas on Aug 28, 2015 14:03:00 GMT
There was an atmosphere at Eastville that was quite unique - and actually pretty tense and aggressive in the early/late seventies. Millwall and 'one-arm' Harry springs to mind - a day that the Panoarama bbc cameras decided to make a documentary on football violence and choose the game v Rovers. Well, mr Harry and his accomplices received that which they were hoping to inflict- and were uncerimoniously kicked out of the Tote End by a baying Rovers crowd. Classic in the sense that in those days Rovers as a firm got the reputation as being one not to mess with....not advocating violence here but what a day!
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Post by bangkokgas on Aug 28, 2015 14:46:54 GMT
just to clarify ' Harry the dog' was his name ( on panarama)- and the millwall were sent back down the m4 with their tails between their legs - the atmosphere at Eastville has never been replicated, though the mem can rock- but it seems we are not the vocal force we once were - no matter- crapton gate compares to the library at highbury for atmosphere....
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 15:00:23 GMT
just to clarify ' Harry the dog' was his name ( on panarama)- and the millwall were sent back down the m4 with their tails between their legs - the atmosphere at Eastville has never been replicated, though the mem can rock- but it seems we are not the vocal force we once were - no matter- crapton gate compares to the library at highbury for atmosphere.... Yes,well that maybe the BBC view of things but it isn't actually what happened. The coach load of Millwall supporters didn't head back down the M4 with their tails anywhere,they made their way into the centre of Bristol,drank in the Drawbridge and then fought with punks and assorted other people before and after the Clash gig in the exhibition centre. The BBC should have kept the camera crew on the coach as the violence that they wanted to film took place,instead they got long shots of a scuffle on the Tote end. I think that the BBC got reprimanded for this programme,I have a feeling that they paid for the coach,it was all set up hoping for violence to take place and they could film it,a bit like the fire brigade going around starting fires maybe.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 15:07:07 GMT
Football hooliganism was happening long before the 80s,the first large scale disorder at Eastville being the cup game with Arsenal in 1967. As for working class people beating each other up that was happening in and outside pubs and clubs all around the country on Friday and Saturday nights just for looking at someone in the wrong way. Some buses in Bristol had guards on them at night in the 60s and the buses even stopped running to certain places for a while. I think that Britain was a more violent place in a lot of ways back then,not shootings or stabbings but lots more fights than now,CCTV has made a big difference. My granddad lived in a mining village in the 20s and he said there were fistfights every weekend sometimes the women would fight and when they were finished the dogs would fight. 'Romanticisation of hooliganism' that's a new one on me,where does it take place ? is it some sort of street performance ?.
m.imdb.com/title/tt0385705/Did you think that book was a 'romanticisation of hooliganism' ?, I read it about 20 years ago and found it the exact opposite. The characters were dull and lived on junk food and crap lager,their sex lives were very unsatisfactory drunken one night stands,not the sort of people that anyone would want to emulate surely ?. Mind you I have read that some people see All quiet on the western front as a glorification of war !,talk about missing the point.
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Post by clockendgas on Aug 28, 2015 15:47:31 GMT
just to clarify ' Harry the dog' was his name ( on panarama)- and the millwall were sent back down the m4 with their tails between their legs - the atmosphere at Eastville has never been replicated, though the mem can rock- but it seems we are not the vocal force we once were - no matter- crapton gate compares to the library at highbury for atmosphere.... Sadly highbury turned into a library after the clockend was rebuilt and a new generation of fan started going, i can remember some cracking atmospheres, villa last game 81, man u, leeds 81, everton early 80s, west ham just to name a few, none ever got my guts going like a bristol derby, the build up and tense feeling, and that great feeling beating them, or the nightmare of losing and feeling like the end of the world.
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irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372
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Post by irishrover on Aug 28, 2015 16:12:43 GMT
I don't think that's much to do with Rovers - although I imagine the dilapidated state of Eastville probably didn't help. If you look at attendance figures crowds in general were down in the early 80s - football had a hell of a stigma attached to it during that era and a lot of people stopped going/wouldn't even think about it being something they would do. My Grandad was a lifelong football fan and was appalled by violence at football and stopped going in the early 80s. What appalled him was the idea of working class people beating up other working class people simply because they happened to support another football team. Never went again - even when I started going I couldn't convince him that the game had changed. I knew quite a few people of his generation with the same attitude. I still feel pretty bitter about that and as a result I can't stomach the romanticisation of hooliganism in any form. Football hooliganism was happening long before the 80s,the first large scale disorder at Eastville being the cup game with Arsenal in 1967. As for working class people beating each other up that was happening in and outside pubs and clubs all around the country on Friday and Saturday nights just for looking at someone in the wrong way. Some buses in Bristol had guards on them at night in the 60s and the buses even stopped running to certain places for a while. I think that Britain was a more violent place in a lot of ways back then,not shootings or stabbings but lots more fights than now,CCTV has made a big difference. My granddad lived in a mining village in the 20s and he said there were fistfights every weekend sometimes the women would fight and when they were finished the dogs would fight. 'Romanticisation of hooliganism' that's a new one on me,where does it take place ? is it some sort of street performance ?.
Do you deny the existence of an entire literature based on the glorification of that culture? The Virgin Megastore in Bristol used to have a whole shelf devoted to books banging on in graphic detail about the excitement of being in hooligan firms and how great it was to maraud through town centres scaring the s*** out of people. Not to mention tons of stuff celebrating 'honour code' and all that crap. If people like that stuff then fair enough, but I don't see why I have to give it any time of day; it's not a football culture I recognise or have any time for. Absolutely hooliganism existed before the 1980s but the 80s can be reasonably seen as a culmination of an era in which football was in the doldrums and a lot of that was to do with the stigma of violence and menace that was attached to it (some of which was definitely based on media sensationalism to be fair). I know people who said they didn't feel they could admit they were football fans at work at that time because of the image that would project of them to their bosses. I think it's pretty much a proven fact that society was more violent in the past but I don't really see how that can be used to frame an argument which justifies that violence and it's not as though organised hooliganism had always been an integral part of the culture of football - it was something that developed in a specific era. So I will remain angry and rather sad that a man who came from about the roughest background imaginable, served in 3 wars and went to football matches every week for 50 years found the culture around football sufficiently toxic during that era to never want to bother with it again and I've met many others in the same boat over the years.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 16:35:52 GMT
i guess you had to be there to experience the buzz/atmosphere, to me it was just young men doing what young men do, the only time ive felt the same atmosphere is home v leeds on a grey wet day- the air was full of menace, sorry if others dont agree but give me that every time over poxy face painted crowds waving blow up toys
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 16:47:06 GMT
i guess you had to be there to experience the buzz/atmosphere, to me it was just young men doing what young men do, the only time ive felt the same atmosphere is home v leeds on a grey wet day- the air was full of menace, sorry if others dont agree but give me that every time over poxy face painted crowds waving blow up toys I doubt that very many people want the return of violence...but I agree with you about the atmosphere then,so much better than the lacklustre matchday experience now. How to get the atmosphere of those days back (minus trouble) ?,nobody seems to be able to work that one out,we are just talking about Rovers but its a problem throughout England,comes to something when Swedish supporters say that English matches are quiet.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 16:56:42 GMT
yes. im not advocating punch ups but football atmospheres nowadays generally are crap
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 17:01:24 GMT
Football hooliganism was happening long before the 80s,the first large scale disorder at Eastville being the cup game with Arsenal in 1967. As for working class people beating each other up that was happening in and outside pubs and clubs all around the country on Friday and Saturday nights just for looking at someone in the wrong way. Some buses in Bristol had guards on them at night in the 60s and the buses even stopped running to certain places for a while. I think that Britain was a more violent place in a lot of ways back then,not shootings or stabbings but lots more fights than now,CCTV has made a big difference. My granddad lived in a mining village in the 20s and he said there were fistfights every weekend sometimes the women would fight and when they were finished the dogs would fight. 'Romanticisation of hooliganism' that's a new one on me,where does it take place ? is it some sort of street performance ?.
Do you deny the existence of an entire literature based on the glorification of that culture? The Virgin Megastore in Bristol used to have a whole shelf devoted to books banging on in graphic detail about the excitement of being in hooligan firms and how great it was to maraud through town centres scaring the s*** out of people. Not to mention tons of stuff celebrating 'honour code' and all that crap. If people like that stuff then fair enough, but I don't see why I have to give it any time of day; it's not a football culture I recognise or have any time for. Absolutely hooliganism existed before the 1980s but the 80s can be reasonably seen as a culmination of an era in which football was in the doldrums and a lot of that was to do with the stigma of violence and menace that was attached to it (some of which was definitely based on media sensationalism to be fair). I know people who said they didn't feel they could admit they were football fans at work at that time because of the image that would project of them to their bosses. I think it's pretty much a proven fact that society was more violent in the past but I don't really see how that can be used to frame an argument which justifies that violence and it's not as though organised hooliganism had always been an integral part of the culture of football - it was something that developed in a specific era. So I will remain angry and rather sad that a man who came from about the roughest background imaginable, served in 3 wars and went to football matches every week for 50 years found the culture around football sufficiently toxic during that era to never want to bother with it again and I've met many others in the same boat over the years. I cant really connect with your posts,you know people who stopped going to football in the 80s because of violence ( why not the 60s or 70s ? ) I didn't meet anyone like that,you know people who were secret football fans because they couldn't admit to it,I didn't know people like that.
You seem to have read a lot of these books to know their content,why ? you admit that you hate it so why read it ? wanting to be shocked ?. Do these books 'romanticise' or 'glorify' hooliganism ?,surely they are just writing about what they saw happen,theres lots of books about war but do they glorify or romanticise it ? I hope not.
I was there in the 70s and saw lots of things that happened,not just at football but groups like Skinheads and Greasers or Teddy boys fighting. A lad that I knew was stabbed and got a punctured lung at a fair,just for coming from a different area to a group of other lads, should we have all stopped going to fairs ? dance halls ? pubs ? resorts on bank holidays ? all because there might have been some trouble,why just stop going to football ?.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 17:04:52 GMT
yes. im not advocating punch ups but football atmospheres nowadays generally are crap I think that we notice more because we were there when it was a good atmosphere,the youngsters now have never experienced that. One young lad said that he thought the atmosphere at Tranmere in the cup last year was good...I have known more atmosphere sat at home listening to Radio Bristol...its very sad.
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Post by bangkokgas on Aug 28, 2015 18:36:04 GMT
Football hooliganism was happening long before the 80s,the first large scale disorder at Eastville being the cup game with Arsenal in 1967. As for working class people beating each other up that was happening in and outside pubs and clubs all around the country on Friday and Saturday nights just for looking at someone in the wrong way. Some buses in Bristol had guards on them at night in the 60s and the buses even stopped running to certain places for a while. I think that Britain was a more violent place in a lot of ways back then,not shootings or stabbings but lots more fights than now,CCTV has made a big difference. My granddad lived in a mining village in the 20s and he said there were fistfights every weekend sometimes the women would fight and when they were finished the dogs would fight. 'Romanticisation of hooliganism' that's a new one on me,where does it take place ? is it some sort of street performance ?.
Do you deny the existence of an entire literature based on the glorification of that culture? The Virgin Megastore in Bristol used to have a whole shelf devoted to books banging on in graphic detail about the excitement of being in hooligan firms and how great it was to maraud through town centres scaring the s*** out of people. Not to mention tons of stuff celebrating 'honour code' and all that crap. If people like that stuff then fair enough, but I don't see why I have to give it any time of day; it's not a football culture I recognise or have any time for. Absolutely hooliganism existed before the 1980s but the 80s can be reasonably seen as a culmination of an era in which football was in the doldrums and a lot of that was to do with the stigma of violence and menace that was attached to it (some of which was definitely based on media sensationalism to be fair). I know people who said they didn't feel they could admit they were football fans at work at that time because of the image that would project of them to their bosses. I think it's pretty much a proven fact that society was more violent in the past but I don't really see how that can be used to frame an argument which justifies that violence and it's not as though organised hooliganism had always been an integral part of the culture of football - it was something that developed in a specific era. So I will remain angry and rather sad that a man who came from about the roughest background imaginable, served in 3 wars and went to football matches every week for 50 years found the culture around football sufficiently toxic during that era to never want to bother with it again and I've met many others in the same boat over the years.
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Post by bangkokgas on Aug 28, 2015 18:40:56 GMT
That day v millwall, clash concert and all, was, was it was - the bbc themselves said millwall went home with their tails between their legs- if i can find the programme i will post it here- pure entertainment of the times - don't knock it - it happened and was a load of fun for us young tote enders at the time....
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2015 0:13:06 GMT
I remember when all this was fields...
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