Tag Archives: Eddie Large

The Birth of a Manchester City Chant

Manchester City meeting Ipswich this weekend is a nice reminder that a fixture between the two almost 50 years ago made an enormous contribution to the birth of a City chant. That chant is still sung today and is known as either the Viking Call or ‘The Best Team In The Land…’

Chanting at football games is rarely documented correctly with many myths, rumours and stories developing over the years. Te following feature is designed to give a potted overview of the development of singing at City and tells the story and part Ipswich played in it:

Now, for subscribers is an 1800 word article on the history and development of chants at Manchester City:

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Manchester City Chants

I’ve posted a lot on this in the past but it’s always worth revisiting, especially as recent years have seen dozens of new chants established at Manchester City. Successful eras often bring new chants – and that’s definitely happened recently – but failing periods can also generate new supporter songs.

Chanting at football games is rarely documented correctly with many myths, rumours and stories developing over the years. This feature is designed to give a potted overview of the development of singing at City.

I explained about some of the chants in this talk I did a couple of years ago. If you’ve got time watch it:

Now, for subscribers is an 1800 word article on the history and development of chants at Manchester City:

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The 1990s: 1993-1994 Swales Out

The series of articles covering Manchester City in the 1990s continues today with the 1993-94 season. It was such an important (and at times complicated season) that this article on that season is over 9,000 words long. It’s like a book in itself! It’s available to subscribers, so why not subscribe and relive this extraordinary season? As with all these 1990s subscriber features it contains material from interviews I’ve performed with key figures from that time. In particular this one contains quotes from Peter Swales and Francis Lee which they discussed with me personally.

Here’s the 9000+ word article on that season:

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This series of articles and features will run throughout March with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. There will be flashbacks to great games, players and more. Every day in March will offer something to enjoy.

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If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? If you’d like to know more about subscribing then see:

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Maine Road 100 – Day 20

It’s day 20 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game and today’s feature is on the original Maine Road dug outs. Nowadays the playing staff areas take up considerable space wither side of the tunnel at most stadia but for most of Maine Road’s existence there were two concrete bunkers dug out for the manager, physio and maybe one other to sit on. When substitutes were allowed in the 1960s then the sub would also sit there. Inevitably they were cramped and gave an extremely poor view of the game. Basically, the manager would be looking out at leg level.

The main image shows that the City dug out (on the right) had been extended by the time this image was taken in the 1970s. The away dug out (left of the tunnel) is the original size.

City’s dugouts – which actually were dug out – were built at some point after the main construction of the stadium but I’m not exactly certain when. This image from 1926 shows that small benches were originally positioned/built either side of the tunnel.

1926 City v Fulham, Maine Road. Jimmy McMullan with the ball.

The concrete dugout lasted into the 1970s when more modern bus shelter style ‘dugouts’ (but not ‘dug out’) were erected. This image shows the home bus shelter style dugout in 1983 with manager John Benson. The man with the perm hidden mostly by John Benson is comedian Eddie Large. Physio Roy Bailey is the man closest to the camera.

Mirrorpix photo

Even then the originals remained for some time before being demolished when parts of the white wall were rebuilt. I think they’d been fairly redundant for years though. I have photos of them being used at times during the 1960s and 1970s but this image from the 1950s shows they were empty on many matchdays.

1971 ECWC v Chelsea. Tony Book and mascot Paul Todd. Photo by Alan Jubb

The above image is of the same dugouts in 1971. I tend to think that by this time they were only used if it was a wet day as they provided a little bit of shelter. Notice the bar scarfs in the crowd – blue & white; red & black and one that’s blue & white with a thinner maroon bar too.

For decades, the manager’s dugouts weren’t the only ‘dugouts’ at the ground as there were also similar arrangements for the police and/or St John Ambulance personnel in Maine Road’s corners. These seemed to be in use into the 1960s as this image shows. Look carefully to the right of the player on the right and you can see two police or St John’s Ambulance staff in a corner dug out near the Kippax. This image is from the early 1960s.

These also disappeared when parts of the white wall were rebuilt and gates added in the corners.

For those unfamiliar with Maine Road this photo may help locate the player dugouts. You can’t really see them but one was positioned in the white wall in front of number 1 and one to the left as we look of the central tunnel next to 1.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

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Celebrity Fans

I spotted this photo as part of my research earlier. It’s from 1997 and, amongst others, it shows musician Liam Gallagher and actor Kevin Kennedy sharing a box at Maine Road. It’s a combination most would be surprised at seeing and all came about because of their support of Manchester City.

Over the years there have been many celebrities who have been proclaimed as fans of particular clubs. Some of these are known to have attended games before they became famous, others perhaps were not so familiar with ‘their’ club before they made their names.  In 2009 I compiled a list of those widely accepted as celebrity Manchester City supporters at that time or before.

Occasionally, some of City’s celebrity fans have been incorrectly claimed as supporters of other clubs.  The most significant of these is the artist LS Lowry.  Lowry was without doubt a supporter of City, however because of his interest in painting Salford scenes it has occasionally been claimed that he was a Red.  Fortunately, artist Harold Riley (himself a Red) has made this abundantly clear whenever the error occurs.  Lowry was a Blue!

The following list is not meant to be comprehensive, however I am keen to develop this list and create a more definitive list covering every era of City’s existence over time. If you have evidence proving additional celebrity City fans then please contact me via this website.

Please note each celebrity listed below is highlighted for one main claim to fame however they may be famous for other activities as well.  This is most obvious with musicians and actors (they have all acted in other areas).  Obviously, some of the celebrities listed here have passed away.

Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough) – Musician

Amanda Barrie – Actor, Coronation Street

John Beavan – Political advisor to the Daily Mirror in 1970s

Susan Bookbinder – Broadcaster

Mark Burgess – Musician, The Chameleons

Craig Cash – Actor & writer, Royle Family & Early Doors

Michael Croft – 1970s Television producer

Ian Curtis – Musician, Joy Division

Timothy Dalton – Actor

Howard Davies – Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England

Lee Dixon – Former Arsenal footballer

Joe Donovan – Musician, Blossoms

Billy Duffy – Musician, The Cult

Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff – Cricketer

Liam Gallagher – Musician, Oasis

Noel Gallagher – Musician, Oasis

You can listen to my interview with Noel here:

The Noel Gallagher interview Part one

Jimi Goodwin – Musician, Doves

Will Greenwood – Member of the England Rugby World Cup winning side

Graham Haberfield – Actor, Coronation Street & The Dustbinmen

Ricky Hatton – Boxer

John Henshaw – Actor who appeared in Early Doors

Bruce Jones – Actor, Coronation Street

Mike Joyce – Musician, The Smiths (provided significant support to the MCFC museum music exhibition)

Archie Kelly – Actor, best known for Phoenix Nights

Ben Kelly – Artist (staged an exhibition of his work at the City museum in 2009)

Kevin Kennedy – Actor, Coronation Street

Eddie Large – Comedian (lived on Maine Road as a boy)

Clive Myrie – Broadcaster, BBC News & Mastermind

Nick Leeson – Trader, held responsible for the collapse of Barings Bank

Sally Lindsay – Actor, Coronation Street

LS Lowry – Artist

Jason Manford – Comedian (his brother Colin worked as a tour guide in the MCFC museum)

Bernard Manning – Comedian

Johnny Marr – Musician, The Smiths

Tom Ogden – Musician, Blossoms

Steve Penk – Broadcaster

Mike Pickering – Musician, M People and legendary DJ

Mark Radcliffe – Broadcaster

Reni – Musician, The Stone Roses (wrote a wonderful poem on being a ball boy which was displayed in the City museum during 2007)

Marc Riley – Broadcaster

George Robey – Music Hall comedian (organised charity game to commemorate City’s 1904 FA Cup final win). Robey is proclaimed as a fan of many, many clubs.

Frank Sidebottom – Broadcaster

Mark E Smith – Musician, The Fall

John Stapleton – Broadcaster

Ben Thompson – Actor, Coronation Street

David Threlfall – Actor, Shameless

Rick Wakeman – Musician (though usually acknowledged as a Brentford fan)

Jez Williams – Musician, Doves

Andy Williams – Musician, Doves

Bob Willis – Cricketer

Bernard Youens – Actor, Coronation Street (played Stan Ogden and, along with the character Annie Walker, was part of the cast who attended a City game filmed for an episode broadcast on 29/11/1967) 

As I mentioned at the start this list was compiled in 2009. Many more names need to be added to this list.

Manchester City Chants

Chanting at football games is rarely documented correctly with many myths, rumours and stories developing over the years. This feature is designed to give a potted overview of the development of singing at City.

I explained about some of the chants in this talk recently:

Now, for subscribers is an 1800 word article on the history and development of chants at Manchester City:

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content and everything on the site when you subscribe today.

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40 Years Ago Today (Yes, 40!) – ‘Illegal Jumping’, Alf Grey and Manchester City (Sorry!)

On this day (14th January) in 1981 Kevin Reeves had a goal disallowed for ‘illegal jumping’, according to referee Alf Grey, in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final against Liverpool at Maine Road.  

Afterwards manager John Bond claimed the referee would “never make a worse decision for as long as he lives.”  

When I interviewed Bond two decades later he was still fuming about the decision.

Even the Liverpool players, such as Souness. Phil Thompson and Alan Kennedy, believed it was a valid goal. This is even more significant as Kennedy was the player Reeves is supposed to have impeded when he jumped up to the ball!

Subscribers to http://www.GJFootballArchive.com can read an in-depth piece, with quotes from some of my interviews with those involved that night, such as John Bond, Kevin Reeves and the late Eddie Large talks about his post match discussion with Bill Shankly:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/2021/01/13/manchester-city-liverpool-and-the-1981-league-cup-semi-final/

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