harrybuckle
Always look on the bright side
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 5,432
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Post by harrybuckle on Aug 27, 2015 16:33:01 GMT
Eastville post South Stand fire was a depressing place. For all the history there, it's probably best that we got out of the place, and that there is nothing left of it. I do have some great memories of the place. The visits of Chelsea will live long in the memory, as will the performance of Brian Daniel of Kettering (and trust me I didn't have to look his name up, I will never forgive him!) in the snow against Ipswich in the cup. I wasn't attending games in the early 70s, so missed out on the league cup run and the Watney Cup, but I did get to see us in a couple of games at the end of the promotion season. Anyone remember who was the testimonial for when Frankie Prince and Alan Hudson got sent off for fighting? Frankie and Hudson sent off ...Shirley not ! ....Hudson played for Chelsea and Stoke ...so unless Hudson played as a guest many did in the 70ss then that incident escapes me !
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2015 16:39:35 GMT
Eastville post South Stand fire was a depressing place. For all the history there, it's probably best that we got out of the place, and that there is nothing left of it. I do have some great memories of the place. The visits of Chelsea will live long in the memory, as will the performance of Brian Daniel of Kettering (and trust me I didn't have to look his name up, I will never forgive him!) in the snow against Ipswich in the cup. I wasn't attending games in the early 70s, so missed out on the league cup run and the Watney Cup, but I did get to see us in a couple of games at the end of the promotion season. Anyone remember who was the testimonial for when Frankie Prince and Alan Hudson got sent off for fighting? I don't think that it was a testimonial just a mid season friendly because we should have been playing Fulham but they were still in the cup..I know it was a Friday night game and Stoke were 3rd in the 1st division at the time..I think it might have been a 5000 crowd.
Agree that Eastville was depressing especially after the south stand went,yes the Chelsea games were memorable + Spurs,Millwall, Man Utd,City,Villa and Stoke ( league cup).
Ipswich was perhaps the most disappointing result ?,I did enjoy the previous cup game against Southampton,Paul Randalls goals etc.
I noticed that though this video said Eastville there was one game at Swindon and one at Ashton,I was at both and the City game was probably my favourite derby game,only time I saw Rovers beat them in the cup.
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Post by creationblue on Aug 27, 2015 16:54:43 GMT
I was working selling hotdogs at eastville in the last year, managing to watch the game before and after the halftime rush, crowds were indeed low in the last season. Thinking back (I've not watched the footage yet) it was pretty bleak!
My 1st game as I recall was the centenary game against Tottenham in (I guess) '82. Went with my club, Stoke Lane Athletic took us as a night out, it was an evening game with a pretty decent crowd. most of their 1st team played as I remember....
Edit game was 19th April 1983. I was 9. Happy days
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Post by DudeLebowski on Aug 27, 2015 17:03:14 GMT
Notice how at no point of most of that footage, were Rovers referred to as 'The Gas'. When did it start becoming the nickname everyone started using? I know the old stories of how it may have came about, but didn't seem to be used in the 70's or first part of the 80's!? Amongst commentators/presenters anyway. Strange.
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warehamgas
Predictions League
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 3,460
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Post by warehamgas on Aug 27, 2015 17:07:41 GMT
Excellent Mr.Lebowski - you did indeed miss out, 50p to get into the Tote End, 30p if my memory serves for the open end and nowhere in the land could you get worse food than the pies and burgers served up tho they tasted 5 star as a nipper back then... I think I remember 4/6 (4shillings and 6d), about 23p now for the Tote End in 1967, 1968, and 7/6 in the enclosures (sides).
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Post by clockendgas on Aug 27, 2015 17:08:27 GMT
Notice how at no point of most of that footage, were Rovers referred to as 'The Gas'. When did it start becoming the nickname everyone started using? I know the old stories of how it may have came about, but didn't seem to be used in the 70's or first part of the 80's!? Amongst commentators/presenters anyway. Strange. probably went we moved to twerton, thats my guess
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2015 17:29:39 GMT
Television was more formal back then, too, which is another reason why they wouldn't have called us The Gas.
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brizzle
Lindsay Parsons
No Buy . . . No Sell!
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 4,293
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Post by brizzle on Aug 27, 2015 17:36:19 GMT
Notice how at no point of most of that footage, were Rovers referred to as 'The Gas'. When did it start becoming the nickname everyone started using? I know the old stories of how it may have came about, but didn't seem to be used in the 70's or first part of the 80's!? Amongst commentators/presenters anyway. Strange. I would say the mid-1980s to early 1990s, but not everyone uses it . . . even nowadays. To me BRFC will always be The Pirates.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2015 17:49:46 GMT
I don't know why anyone calls the team 'the gas' I think its a bit w@nky,I can understand people who stood at Eastville when the gasworks was still working calling themselves gasheads although I never do that. As for the 'pirates',well even as a kid I wouldn't have used that name,far to prattish a bit like when we used to take the piss out of city singing the red red robin !..to me its Rovers and it always has been.
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brizzle
Lindsay Parsons
No Buy . . . No Sell!
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 4,293
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Post by brizzle on Aug 27, 2015 18:04:17 GMT
Excellent Mr.Lebowski - you did indeed miss out, 50p to get into the Tote End, 30p if my memory serves for the open end and nowhere in the land could you get worse food than the pies and burgers served up tho they tasted 5 star as a nipper back then... When I attended my first game in 1957, you paid in old fashioned £sd., but I can't for the life of me remember how much it cost to get in. We used to go to Eastville Park in the morning, canoeing on the lake, and then it was off to the Tote End entrance by His Majesty's cinema, to ''greet'' the players as they arrived for the game.
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aghast
David Williams
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 395
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Post by aghast on Aug 27, 2015 21:27:54 GMT
Makes me weep a bit when I drive past on the M32 and kind of imagine an Eastville Stadium redeveloped like a UWE. Look at IKEA and squint your eyes a bit and it could be one of the stands in the new ground. And then you crash into the bloke in front.
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warehamgas
Predictions League
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Posts: 3,460
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Post by warehamgas on Aug 27, 2015 21:33:19 GMT
Silly question, but why were crowds so low back then when the side was doing reasonably well? 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!!
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2015 21:46:10 GMT
Silly question, but why were crowds so low back then when the side was doing reasonably well? 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.
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Post by Colyton Gas. on Aug 27, 2015 22:07:14 GMT
Our biggest ever crowd was v PNE in the FA Cup at Eastville,Tom Finney played and Alfie Biggs scored for us .1-1 I think.Had to leave early to get the bus back to Totterdown in time for my paper round.Both the Green-'un and Pink-'un were on the streets with full Rovers and City match reports and all the results by 6pm even in those far off days.
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Post by DudeLebowski on Aug 27, 2015 23:05:11 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 have heard that around that time, whichever of the Bristol sides were doing well or in the higher division (obviously playing the bigger top clubs) that a large proportion of people (Assuming neutrals) would opt to go and watch that team instead? Not sure if that is even true, let alone a possibility? Were City on the up between 84-86?
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warehamgas
Predictions League
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Posts: 3,460
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Post by warehamgas on Aug 27, 2015 23:14:39 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. Yes. You are right. Just watched it. Without checking I saw lots of those games and the Ipswich cup game was Jan 83. Mind you Eastville was a complete tip at the time and after the fire in the South Stand am pretty sure the capacity was cut for H/S reasons to about 12,000. But as you say the crowds were at 5,000 and we were doing well. It made the Mem look pretty good. At that time it was not a good place to watch football. Compare it with the first Ipswich match in 78 when Eastville though not brilliant was at least a complete ground and you can see what a pit it became. Heyho onwards and ...upward?
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 0:33:44 GMT
Yes, but the video is in the 80s. Crowds around 5,000 but the team was doing well. I have heard that around that time, whichever of the Bristol sides were doing well or in the higher division (obviously playing the bigger top clubs) that a large proportion of people (Assuming neutrals) would opt to go and watch that team instead? Not sure if that is even true, let alone a possibility? Were City on the up between 84-86? when i was 13 or 14 in the early 70"s i was a keen rovers fan but i used to watch city home games sometimes and it didnt seem unusual at that time,,i remember simply applauding anything worthy from either side playing and bobby gould playing for city!
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boagas1883
Of course I'll introduce you to Warren
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 60
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Post by boagas1883 on Aug 28, 2015 3:36:00 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.
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Rex
Predictions League
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Post by Rex on Aug 28, 2015 5:01:20 GMT
'Irene' was sung a fair bit, but it was always the 'We're Rovers supporters, we're faithful & true' version. The only time I remember us referring to ourselves as 'Gas' was when we would sing 'You'll never get rid of The Gas' in response to City singing ' We gotta get rid of The Gas'. My (now) wife worked in a petrol station in the early 80's and Harold Jarman was a regular customer, so I asked her to get him to sign a programme, and write 'Up The Gas' on it, he didn't know what it meant!
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2015 5:50:17 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.
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