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John Peel, Motherwell Fan


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He was at a Motherwell -v- Aberdeen match in early 80's with Kid Jensen, and commented on his Radio-One show about the worst football holliganisn he'd ever witnessed.

 

It was the day Aberdeen introduced their casuals on an unsuspecting Fir Park. Side-shed met skinhead and adidas trainers clashed with doc martens on the pitch before the game. Willie Millar came out and pleaded with fans to quit their antics.

 

Not sure why he would affiliate himself with us after that, but I remember several 'Well fans mentioned that they had gone over to him on the Knowetop Ave terrace and said hello. He played a few requests on the radio the following week.

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He was at a Motherwell -v- Aberdeen match in early 80's with Kid Jensen, and commented on his Radio-One show about the worst football holliganisn he'd ever witnessed.

 

It was the day Aberdeen introduced their casuals on an unsuspecting Fir Park. Side-shed met skinhead and adidas trainers clashed with doc martens on the pitch before the game. Willie Millar came out and pleaded with fans to quit their antics.

 

 

Aye I remember that day it got a bit naughty. :lol:

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He was also up in Motherwell with Stewart Henderson of The Delgados for some documentary and was taken to the Electric Bar quiz. Think he even had a mention on his next show for Gus Allan as he was introduced to him that night!

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Peel did a TV documentary series about ten years ago called 'Sound of the Suburbs', which featured music scenes outside of cities. In one episode, in which he visited Lanarkshire, he referred to Motherwell as one of his favourite teams. Later in the programme he's seen hanging out at the Electric Bar with Stuart from The Delgados.

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Thanks Keef, Sound Of The Suberbs definitely rings a bell, and I seem to remember him talking to Primal Scream in that series during a visit to Bellshill.

 

 

I don't recall Primal Scream being involved but he did spend a lot of time with Sean Dickson from The Soup Dragons/The High Fidelity, and that he sampled the delights of Buckfast and deep fried Mars bars. I have it on VHS somewhere.

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He was at a Motherwell -v- Aberdeen match in early 80's with Kid Jensen, and commented on his Radio-One show about the worst football holliganisn he'd ever witnessed.

 

It was the day Aberdeen introduced their casuals on an unsuspecting Fir Park. Side-shed met skinhead and adidas trainers clashed with doc martens on the pitch before the game. Willie Millar came out and pleaded with fans to quit their antics.

 

Not sure why he would affiliate himself with us after that, but I remember several 'Well fans mentioned that they had gone over to him on the Knowetop Ave terrace and said hello. He played a few requests on the radio the following week.

 

I remember that game well Pie. Aberdeen came across the uncovered home terrace towards the covered area and it all kicked off in the corner area.

Did the Ref not take the players off the pitch for 5 or 10 mins while order was restored?

Media had a field day. Didnt the Daily Retard run a story about us and 'Scottish Bluebell' matchboxes as a means of identifying each other? :thumbup:

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Interesting reading peoples memories on that game, which I might have been at but can't really recall it. However, it also reminds me of when we played Rangers at FP and were up 2-0 until the Rangers fans rioted and got onto the field and that game was "simply" delayed. It was the same game that someone threw a golf ball onto the field with Joe Wark's name on it. After the break Rangers won the game. However, the game should have been abandoned by the authorities when we were 2-0 up because the rioters won and the SFA showed their true alegiance and had no regard for us.

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20,000 bevied up Buns and around 100 of us hardy diehards in the ground. We go 2-0 up inside 10mins and all hell breaks loose. We are layed into something terrible, squashed in at the segregation fence and OB struggle to contain the violence which spills onto the pitch. Ref stops the match and takes the players off the pitch. This 16year old is keechin his pants as long-haired grizzly looking men clad in union-jacks are trying to kick my head in :lol: OB eventually restore some sort of order and take us over the wall and escort us round the track and out behind the stand. That was the end of the game for us. :D

 

Match restarts and Buns score 5 to our 1. :cheers: Think they got the points deducted tho.

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20,000 bevied up Buns and around 100 of us hardy diehards in the ground. We go 2-0 up inside 10mins and all hell breaks loose. We are layed into something terrible, squashed in at the segregation fence and OB struggle to contain the violence which spills onto the pitch. Ref stops the match and takes the players off the pitch. This 16year old is keechin his pants as long-haired grizzly looking men clad in union-jacks are trying to kick my head in :lol: OB eventually restore some sort of order and take us over the wall and escort us round the track and out behind the stand. That was the end of the game for us. :D

 

Match restarts and Buns score 5 to our 1. :cheers: Think they got the points deducted tho.

SFA enquiry recommended that result was made null and void and match replayed.

 

SFL rejected this and fined Rangers, can't remember how much.

 

Rangers won league by 2 points.

 

I was at the wall just to right of main stand when it kicked off.

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I remember that game well Pie. Aberdeen came across the uncovered home terrace towards the covered area and it all kicked off in the corner area.

Did the Ref not take the players off the pitch for 5 or 10 mins while order was restored?

Media had a field day. Didnt the Daily Retard run a story about us and 'Scottish Bluebell' matchboxes as a means of identifying each other? :cheers:

That was a different game, but the same season.

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More memories from Sounds of the Suburbs:

 

 

 

When Peel sampled his deep-fried Mars Bar he was asked how he liked it on camera.

 

 

 

His answer: "not unpleasant". How diplomatic was that?  :angry:

 

 

 

Being a Liverpool fan, Peel also visited the village of Glenbuck, the birthplace of Bill Shankly, except that all he found was a few remains of where the village once stood plus a Shankly memorial plaque. 

 

 

 

 

 

Some Peel randomness from the past:

 

 

 

Within a few months I saw the great man in person. The first time was the night that Man United won the Champions League in 1999 when Peel was compering a delgados gig at the Art School and the second was the following year when he did the same at Chemikal Undergound's 5th Birthday Party at the Garage. On both times, he came across as normal- an ordinary guy who just happened to be particularly passionate about a couple of things- music and football.

 

 

 

John Peel- legend. :wacko:  

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Suspect Device - yeah, a lot of John Peel's appeal was how ordinary he was. I spent much of my teenage years listening to his show and loved the fact he was able to just play something because he happened to like it. He kind of wanted you to like it too, but wouldn't have been offended if you didn't. It was a welcome break from most other radio presenters who would plug certain songs to death and attempt to play the role of arbiter of what was good and what wasn't.

 

I'm definitely drawn towards people who have simple passions the way Peel did; people who know their stuff but don't bore you with it. The fact he appears to have had a soft spot for Motherwell just makes him more of a legend in my eyes!

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Peel did profess on air to having a soft spot for the Well

 

I believe he also attended another home game under his own steam, and he was impressed by the club and fans (I would guess that this mirrored his enthusiam for smaller independant type bands rather than the corporate-rock coming from behemoth record companies)

 

I saw one of his legendary John Peel "Roadshow - Discos" in the 80's (at Reading Uni) and he was brilliant - yes, just some bloke playing top notch records as you would expect and I spoke to him then. I also spoke to him over the phone just after the Hillsborough disaster, and he did decicate a tune to all Well fans

 

Simply a legend :angry:

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20,000 bevied up Buns and around 100 of us hardy diehards in the ground. We go 2-0 up inside 10mins and all hell breaks loose. We are layed into something terrible, squashed in at the segregation fence and OB struggle to contain the violence which spills onto the pitch. Ref stops the match and takes the players off the pitch. This 16year old is keechin his pants as long-haired grizzly looking men clad in union-jacks are trying to kick my head in :nod: OB eventually restore some sort of order and take us over the wall and escort us round the track and out behind the stand. That was the end of the game for us. :thumbup:

 

Match restarts and Buns score 5 to our 1. :whistling: Think they got the points deducted tho.

 

 

Was our own fault for having the audacity to go 2 up plus it didnae help matters when big Willie McVie started laughing at the c***s. Woke up the next day and thought i'd been an extra in one of those old batman series. Biff....pow....wallop :P:wacko::wacko:

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Peels road show used to play the big hotel in the center of motherwell (now the social work place) Thats when he started going to the games. He mentioned checking the results on a sat too see how the Well got on. No doupt that music would have been a lot duller without peel pushing some many great bands and different form of music.. reggae...punk...krautrock..hip-hop...trance....an so on The great thing was he always picked the great tracks no matter the genre.....A true hero

 

I was also at that Rangers game I think I was about 15 years old ...never went to game again until the cup final....I was soooo scared...Bailed out and got into other things on a Sat Afternoon .

 

Thank for the link with peels voice.....

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That was a different game, but the same season.

The matchbox thing was a strange one, remember going to games in England and we used to colour in the front of our matchboxes through boredom on a long jaunt, next thing we know it's in the papers as an identification ploy. They did like to sensationalise things. :P

Two Aberdeen games saw serious fighting but they were a couple of years apart to my recollection.

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The matchbox thing was a strange one, remember going to games in England and we used to colour in the front of our matchboxes through boredom on a long jaunt, next thing we know it's in the papers as an identification ploy. They did like to sensationalise things. :rolleyes:

Two Aberdeen games saw serious fighting but they were a couple of years apart to my recollection.

The two main ones were both in season 83/84.

 

There was also trouble at the Cup game in 82 which probably kicked off the rivalry.

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I don't want to over stress our relationship but I kinda knew John. I was a long time listener to his show and when e-mail came in I e-mailed a question about record shops in London. He sent an e-mail back asking for my phone number, put a 12 inch techno record on and phoned me up during the show and proceeded to chat away and tell me everything I wanted to know!

 

After that I spoke to him a few times on the phone, exchanged plenty e-mails and met him down at Fabric when he was DJing. He was a great guy, I was pretty upset when he died.

 

Can't really add anymore than has been said except that he did watch Motherwell whenever he was up here and there was a game on although perhaps saying he was a fan is taking it a bit far. And of course The Delgados were one of his favourite bands and they have a good Motherwell supporting pedigree!

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The two main ones were both in season 83/84.

 

There was also trouble at the Cup game in 82 which probably kicked off the rivalry.

 

I recollect Aberdeen fans getting marched up from the station with a few policeman walking alongside them and it seemed to kick off outside the old YM at Windmillhill Street. No idea when that was.

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