Categories: uncategorized
Date: 16 February 2008 08:28:01
When my vbf purchased Sing When You're Winning by Colin Irwin for my b'day she knew what she was doing. I've finally managed to make my way through and apart from getting rather naffed off at the fact that whilst Ipswich are named a couple of times there is absolutely no mention of our culture, although the scum get their 2 pages of mention. That said one of the mentions is when Leeds fans start singing "Small Town in Ipswich, you're just a samll town in Ipswich" at them. Oh and my other moan is no index, this is a text book not a novel and so you want an index!
Anyway onto the book, it's wonderful and even better, I would suggest, than Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. It's a book about football and music for football fans and folkies (note the two aren't mutally exclusive). It's a social history and popular culture book that identifies and praises the solid fans who do mad things just because, well because it's their team in't it. Also it makes clear Wagon Wheels and Bovril had a purpose. It explains why the corporate onslaught of the last few years may be killing the game but it will never, truly kill the spirit and so perhaps in a way few other books have Sing When You're Winning explains what it means to be British (I would say English but he is careful to move beyond the boarders, briefly).
What Irwin understands in a way others don't is if you live in a small / medium size town you will have your team but you are also likely to have other teams you adopt as kind of second teams, more romantic teams or you may choose for random reasons a really small team to support. Example of the former, Ipswich is my team and I am blue through and through but Liverpool is my second team, the ones I want to do well each season in the scramble for the Premiership title. Oh and I also have an admiration for Spurs - (i) because of Ossie and the 80's run of FA Cup appearances (which Irwin recognises as a common thing) and (ii) because they are Arsenal's rivals and since May 1978 I have learnt not to like Arsenal (incidently we did beat them in the Cup that year). Example of the latter the friend who bought the book has a soft spot for Carlisle despite coming from the south coast.
Oh and incase anybody gets the book but wants to know what he would have found out if he had travelled the 20 minutes down A12 from Layer Road (Colchester) to Tractor Land here is my version.
Ipswich is now a town populated by insurance clerks and computer geeks, but before the 70's and the arrival of BT's research Lab's and the Willis building it was full of people who made things, primarily Lawn Mowers, cigarettes and beer. Oh and it's always had the port. It's not the worst place on earth, (having managed to retain lots of parks and a decent bus company), but well it's not the greatest either. It's the sort of place where very little of note happens, generally and the sort of place that didn't even get a McDonalds until 1986. Anyway, in this environment the football club was / is important.
I grew up during the glory days of Town; buying my bag of penny sweets from the Spar round the corner to watch the '78 cup final, getting my souvinere t-shirt to wear and then, with the whole town, going into the town and sitting on my dad's shoulders to watch them parade the cup when they came home. At 10 (without my parents knowledge) I used my £1 pocket money to go and watch them play Coventry, standing on the terraces in Churchmans. I was about 3rd in the queue the night I slept outside the ground to get my ticket for the 2000 play off final at Wembley (having managed to engage in being a playground mum long enough to make up my missing stubs - in my defence I was a single mum on benefit I had to be choosy about what games I went to that season) - note season ticket holders had already got their tickets, this queue was for us mere mortals to get our tickets. However, I wasn't strange that's the way it was. Even my parents, who weren't footie fans, wanted to know how the Town had done every Saturday but they never went to watch.
These days I can't afford to go, not by the time I've paid for the train ticket, the ticket to get into the ground and taken all the other expenses into account. The Town still have a place in my heart though and whilst I know we won't manage to do it ('cause we're Ipswich and we make a habit of not quite getting there) I'd love for us to maintain our play off place and make it to the new Wembley. That said whilst the thrill of winning is great, part of me hopes we stay in the Championship. It's a more exciting league because it's more of a level playing field and it still has the ghost of the spirit of football haunting it, unlike the Premier League.
As for the singing, well beyond "Come on You Blues" and "[insert name of manager]'s blue and white army" most of the rest of repotire involves knocking the Scum (sorry Norwich, I try to be good these days having friends who support them). "Who's the Pride of Anglia", "He's only a poor little budgie" and "Hark now hear the Ipswich Sing" being the main ones. A more comprehensive list can be found on Blues Web . It appears they haven't got the lyrics up to "He's only a poor little Budgie", which is my personal favourite, despite it kind of inciting violence (we are a very peaceful team except when we meet Naarwich). The words go something along the lines of:
"He's only a poor little budgie
His feathers all tattered and torn
He started to sing
So we filled the **** in
And now he can't sing anymore"