Music at Withdean

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

If musix they know and like goes one TINY bit towards helping, what kind backward-looking throwbacks could possibly argue against it?

Those that dont care what music is played (fine) and those that get there 5 mins before KO.

Think it boils down to those without young families dont get it.

Times have changed. Bout time we did.

 

[Silverhatch]

Atilla if you want to win the heart and mind of my 11 year old boy then Enter the Sandman or Whole Lotta Love wouldn't go amiss.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I'll tell you why - because it all adds up to a grim experience for kids in the family stand. It needs to feel like something the kiddies can relate to and that they like. Last Saturday seeing all those new faces in the family stand on a family fun day and then hearing the Clash bellow out - and another thing, the PA seems to work quite well in the family stand - really was disheartening.

Got to win their hearts and minds and I think we should be using every trick in the book to achieve that. If the rest of Withdean don't care then fine, but us parents need all the help we can get to keep our kiddies wanting to go.

Admittedly on a family day the clash is perhaps not the best choice...

Otherwise does it make a big difference. In my experience (i.e when I, my brother and my friends were kids) it didn't. I was hooked instantly and so were a couple of my friends. My brother and one other friend, however, weren't and nothing would have changed that. For kids today is it a case of getting them to like football or do they already like football and it's a case of getting them to like the albion?

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Rude, maybe. But you're MILES off the mark.

Quite clearly, he's pissed off at the RIDICULOUS premise that Albion fans should be encouraging their kids to put up with dated shite because that's what we did when we were a tin pot local club for local people.

Because when I read Lord Bracknell's comment, I'm afraid that's how it read to me.

And to me. And not just that they SHOULD put up with everything tinpot, but almost that this very backwards-looking attitude is something to embrace and be proud of.

If isn't. Time to move on people.


The club's dark days should never be forgotten. They are an integral part of our identity. That doesn't mean we want to cling on to them and live forever as though we're still in them.

 

[Silent Bob]

Atilla if you want to win the heart and mind of my 11 year old boy then Enter the Sandman or Whole Lotta Love wouldn't go amiss.

Bullshit, all kids want to do is listen to Lady Gaga and JLS.

 

[Simster]

Admittedly on a family day the clash is perhaps not the best choice...

Otherwise does it make a big difference. In my experience (i.e when I, my brother and my friends were kids) it didn't. I was hooked instantly and so were a couple of my friends. My brother and one other friend, however, weren't and nothing would have changed that. For kids today is it a case of getting them to like football or do they already like football and it's a case of getting them to like the albion?

I don't think comparisons of 30 years ago are particularly helpful. I'm the same as you - utterly hooked after my first match, a crap 2-0 home win in the league cup against Huddersfield in front of 13,000. I don't remember anything about the music.

But times have changed - gates across the country have doubled since then, and that is in part because of the whole matchday experience. Covered grounds, proper concessions available and so on. One of the minor points is that the music is modern. A bit plastic maybe, but that is what punters want - especially youngsters. A football match is not the place to play your niche music as DJ.

 

[Beach Hut]

No it's not conclusive proof at all and it's this jump to illogical conclusions that makes this thread deviate from what it's about.

Now go back to your saucer of milk or we'll rename you Bitch Hut

It is solid proof or does Tony invest his money so he can hear the clash every other Saturday at Falmer

Some of you need to move on and understand the club has ambition

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I don't think comparisons of 30 years ago are particularly helpful. I'm the same as you - utterly hooked after my first match, a crap 2-0 home win in the league cup against Huddersfield in front of 13,000. I don't remember anything about the music.

But times have changed - gates across the country have doubled since then, and that is in part because of the whole matchday experience. Covered grounds, proper concessions available and so on. One of the minor points is that the music is modern. A bit plastic maybe, but that is what punters want - especially youngsters. A football match is not the place to play your niche music as DJ.

Hey! It's closer to twenty than thirty years ago for me...

I'm not too bothered one way or the other to be honest. Just curious as to why it's recently become a big issue.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Hey! It's closer to twenty than thirty years ago for me...

I'm not too bothered one way or the other to be honest. Just curious as to why it's recently become a big issue.

Falmer is on the horizon and tastes have changed now matter much people hate it. Plus the benchmark is many modern new stadia. I was overwhelmed by how good The Emirates was, or even what they have done to an old ground like Villa Park.

Its no longer acceptable to sit in the rain at Withers, or stand on a crumbling terrace.

People expect BETTER. Rightly so. Its progress.

 

[ROSM]

And to me. And not just that they SHOULD put up with everything tinpot, but almost that this very backwards-looking attitude is something to embrace and be proud of.

If isn't. Time to move on people.


The club's dark days should never be forgotten. They are an integral part of our identity. That doesn't mean we want to cling on to them and live forever as though we're still in them.

well that wasn't how I read it so it must be me then. I took it to mean it was about not being seen as the new Reading but to retain some of the uniqueness of being different. Which I can empathise with.

But that SHOULDN'T be to the detriment of being inclusive and looking to cater for all. It's about variety in my book and the narrow list that we looked at earlier dont to my mind give variety. It's like saying that someone has variety in their food if they have chips, mash and jacket spuds and that's simply not gonna fly with the majority. I think it's good for children to listen to the kind of music I like and have eclectic tastes. But I also listen to what they like too and to be honest my new found liking of the current incarnation of Take That has been driven by my eldest wanting to listen to them.

 

[ROSM]

It is solid proof or does Tony invest his money so he can hear the clash every other Saturday at Falmer

Some of you need to move on and understand the club has ambition

But in this discussion there has been an acceptance to open the playlist up and be more representative. That doesn't necessarily mean that the player has to change - just that what he plays will need to amend. This is far from the 'conclusive proof' line that you peddled. It's an opinion and yours at that. It may well be shared by many others but that's still not conclusive proof

And I'm sure that if Tony was concerned about what he'd heard he'd have acted before now.

 

[The Peanut Roaster]

Can I sponsor a Gully Girl, please?

Can I buy a Gully girl please?

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

As I said before it's all about balance - have a mixture of Lady Gaga & The Undertones, but if you want to keep the kids really happy, play music after/when/if we score a goal, and let's abandon Sussex by the Sea and run out to some 'fashionable' pumped up music.

They would probably like that too - but do we relly want to be just like everyone else??

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Our music should be MORE snobbish, not less.

Quite frankly, if people don't recognise good music when they hear it I am not sure we want them supporting our club...

 

[sam86]

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[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Our music should be MORE snobbish, not less.

Quite frankly, if people don't recognise good music when they hear it I am not sure we want them supporting our club...

Good job you will soon be in a MINORITY then. Poor, poor attempt at fishing.

Save it for the stand up.

 

[Wozza]

Hopefully when we go to Falmer whoever does the PA (why not Atilla)

To be honest, I think we've covered that in some detail.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

It is solid proof or does Tony invest his money so he can hear the clash every other Saturday at Falmer

Some of you need to move on and understand the club has ambition

Did you go to Milton Keynes? If that's the sort of modern, forward thinking, family friendly, soft centred, bland as you like, everything that's f***ed about the modern world experience that you're hoping for.......then pass me the lighter fuel.

 

[Worthai Seagull]

Heard on Tuesday (great result, brilliant atmosphere!) that the complaints here about the Withdean music had resurfaced, so I trawled through the site until I found ‘em and was most amused. It is only a little thing, but some people care – for and against – and I certainly do, so I thought I’d respond. EIGHT records? WHAT?? Too much ‘Teenage Kicks’? Haven’t played it for YONKS. Dinosaur stuck in 1977? BOLLOCKS! I love music. It’s my living and my life. I love it as much as the Albion, which is a LOT. My Itunes currently has 6175 songs on it, from MC5, The Clash and Rancid to Amy Winehouse, Biffy Clyro and The King Blues. To name five artists out of about five hundred. As a family we must have over 2000 CDs and a groaning attic full of vinyl. And (though some people will obviously be gobsmacked to hear this!) I consciously do my best to play stuff which will appeal to as many people as possible in the TEN TO TWELVE MINUTES (before ‘Sussex By The Sea’) that we have at Withdean.

Because, of course, it’s Withdean that’s the problem. Over the past eleven years I have developed a bloody great Withdean Sports Complex, and I’m sure most of you have too. I want the Albion to win – that’s the point – and if I thought it’d create an atmosphere which would bring that about I’d happily (OK, not happily, but…) play a 12 minute duet between Phil Collins and James f******g Blunt. It wouldn’t, would it? I’m not sure anything would. We’re all desperate to get to Falmer. And it ain’t the music which is going to raise the non existent roof, it’s what happens on the pitch. But we can try!

So when the occasion suits I play stuff which will hopefully raise a smile (recently ‘Something Better Change’ after we haven’t won at home for about a million years and Iggy’s brilliant version of ‘Louie Louie’ – where he actually SINGS ‘Lua Lua’ – to welcome our latest recruit.) For the rest, there’s normally FOUR records in those eleven minutes. Gully’s Girls dancing to modern chart pop stuff is one, a modern rock hit is one, then something from the 90s or 80s and a bit of 70s punk. Yes, I’ve thought about it. One per decade. Can’t say fairer than that, surely? Eleven minutes is not a long time.

In the last few weeks I’ve played Hard-Fi, Amy Winehouse, Fatboy Slim, The Clash, Libertines, Lightning Seeds, Zutons, Manics, Killers, Razorlight, King Blues, that ‘Battle Without Honour’ thing, The Enemy, Arctic Monkeys, Feeder, Graham Parker, Magazine, Mott The Hoople, Dexys, Stones, The Coral, Avril Lavigne, Blondie, Madness, Ash, Iggy, Scissor Sisters, Blur, Costello, Style Council, Springsteen, Bad Manners, Who, Faces, The Wombats, Stranglers, Specials, Jam, Ruts, Slade. Oh, and Seagulls Ska. When we’ve managed to win. Which hasn’t been very often! Mainstream chart hits all.
I have loads more modern stuff but don’t play it because I think people weren’t have heard of it (so I put ‘em on at Glastonwick instead..)


I’m not being self indulgent. If I was being self indulgent I’d play something from ‘Volk’ by Laibach – which would be as silly as playing, say, grime or hardcore techno. Or I’d play John Cale’s astonishing version of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ from his ‘Slow Dazzle’ album. Which would be horribly appropriate for Withdean at the moment.

You can’t please all the people all the time. Musical taste is one of the most wonderful and diverse things about being human. But I must say that in the years since I started playing the music at Gillingham I have had a hell of a lot of favourable comments from fellow fans and away supporters who appreciate the fact that the music is a little bit different from the aural turbo-smegma (with accompanying raucous DJ and – vomit – MUSIC AFTER GOALS, often OUR BLOODY SONG!) you get at most grounds. Of course, when we get to Falmer, things will be very different. There will be a proper PA, for a start, and enough time to give all genres a proper airing, from teen pop hits to, yes, The Clash. Whoever the DJ is.

It’s great that some people care about music as much as I do – and great that some care enough to get pissed off at me for what I’m playing. I’d be very interested to hear an alternative selection, and I’m certainly not jealously guarding anything. So, Buzzer, since you obviously care a lot, get a twelve minute CD together, get it to the box (or join us in the box) and we’ll play it. I most certainly am NOT a dinosaur. Though I do have four albums by Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Terrific post....BUT.. its not about the music ..its the QUALITY that comes out of the dreadful 'baked bean cans' that are meant to be speakers. Until we get to Falmer, and,hopefully get a fantastic sound system in the ground, doesnt matter what music is played... WE CANT HEAR IT !

 

[Beach Hut]

Did you go to Milton Keynes? If that's the sort of modern, forward thinking, family friendly, soft centred, bland as you like, everything that's f***ed about the modern world experience that you're hoping for.......then pass me the lighter fuel.

No I was in France but I bet their marketing department is far better at attacting new fans than ours is.

I mean we are so forward you can't have a ticket for some home games unless you are on the database.