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The Boys from Bermondsey 1985 Bristol City away

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Yeh, he got pulled out to sea by a freak wave while fishing from some rocks in Cornwall. He couldn't swim. We'd lost touch by then, I found out when I bumped into my Spurs mate before an England game in 97, hadn't seen him in a few years by then. A couple of weeks later we met up for a beer to catch up and he told me what had happened to Gavin. We had our differences as I said but I think as we got older we probably would have got on better. He was a smart bloke and very funny and witty.

Weirdest thing about it all though to me was that he'd become the editor of the official Utd magazine (United We Stand or something like that) and, get this, had switched his allegiances to Utd!!!!! I still find it hard to wrap my head around that now. I mean I've known two or three blokes who've switched teams since school but we all know that type and Gavin wasn't that type. Apparently his brother was livid about it. All those times we butted heads over Chelsea v Spurs and in the end he just dumped them. Weird. Though I suppose it does show some taste and awareness giving up on Spurs.

 
Welcome back Cobham, what a tragic storey about a young man who i barely knew, but looked like he was going on to better things in his writing career. In those early days there were lots of young chaps plying there trade in and around the music/football scene, another name i followed with interest was a talented photographer working for Sounds or NME, he flirted with his own combo for a while under the guidance of Garry Bushell, Grant Flemming was his name-i got a feeling he did a shoot on Becki Bondage and Vice squad in the Victoria Rooms in Bristol in the early days. And by chance i was in Portugal in 2003 for the Euros in Albufera with A an all our lot, well we stayed at this large hotel on the strip and who should be in there but the Boys from BARKING. As there was no history between us at the time we seemed to click and started a friendship that lasted Thirteen years. Lo and behold one morning at breakfast, i was sat with W*****H  chatting away about my favourite photographer and he says "thats him over there" not ten feet away was this long-haired tanned hippy type aving his scran! Sad thing was by the time i built up the courage to chat he upped an left, didn't see him again till JONO'S 50TH at Rayleigh Country Club, with Bill, Carlton et. al. ps had crap weather first two days on holiday and 14 yr old was "bored" all the time-it gets better doesn't it!

 
KEYNSHAM NEWS said:
didn't see him again till JONO'S 50TH at Rayleigh Country Club, with Bill, Carlton et. al.

Rayleigh in Essex?. You travelled a long way Keynsham or have you got family down here?. Was speaking to a mate last year who went to a 'do', and he said Bill was there and was walking with difficulty, due to arthritis/ wear and tear etc.
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KEYNSHAM NEWS said:
Welcome back Cobham, what a tragic storey about a young man who i barely knew, but looked like he was going on to better things in his writing career. In those early days there were lots of young chaps plying there trade in and around the music/football scene, another name i followed with interest was a talented photographer working for Sounds or NME, he flirted with his own combo for a while under the guidance of Garry Bushell, Grant Flemming was his name-i got a feeling he did a shoot on Becki Bondage and Vice squad in the Victoria Rooms in Bristol in the early days. And by chance i was in Portugal in 2003 for the Euros in Albufera with A an all our lot, well we stayed at this large hotel on the strip and who should be in there but the Boys from BARKING. As there was no history between us at the time we seemed to click and started a friendship that lasted Thirteen years. Lo and behold one morning at breakfast, i was sat with W*****H  chatting away about my favourite photographer and he says "thats him over there" not ten feet away was this long-haired tanned hippy type aving his scran! Sad thing was by the time i built up the courage to chat he upped an left, didn't see him again till JONO'S 50TH at Rayleigh Country Club, with Bill, Carlton et. al. ps had crap weather first two days on holiday and 14 yr old was "bored" all the time-it gets better doesn't it!
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I used to like Vice Squad in their early days, they had a single track (called "Nothing" I think on a Bristol Compilation LP.  The first EP and the John Peel session were great but then it went to their heads I think. I saw them in Amsterdam and they were right snotty.

 
wellcome back mate, hows things? Vice Squad had two of our lot playing with them, Shane Baldwin-drums-and my mate from many away game Dave Bateman on bass. They drank in The Crown down the road from Keynsham and the Maypole in Hanham. Thats where i knew Dave-who sadly died in Spain a few years ago. There peak i suppose was supporting The Dammed in Bristol-my mate Timmy Lewis was a sort of roadie for them and still sees Shane now. He says he wrote reviews for various music papers after they split. He says Dave was always up London and knew some of the Rejects/Bushell etc. Afternoon Leigh, yea i get around, invites only, get introduced, never outstay my welcome. Cant answer your question about the mans health as i didnt get a chance to speak to him, not that i would anyway, got a few friends up there over the last 10 yrs and its well known we lost a few-still thats football for you-speak to you later!

 
I'm fine thanks mate, hope you had a good holiday.  You had a good punk scene in Bristol for a while but some bands were not everyone's cuppa.  Disorder were a group I saw a couple of times at the George Robey in Finsbury Park and then up in Nottingham.  We recognised a couple of them in the 100 Club and they were there with some of Chaos UK and showed us how to nick pints of lager from the empty side of the bar at the end and carried on doing it every time we went there until we got caught and slung out.   What a f**king row those bands made but I bet if they had any football affiliations they came from the other side of town?

 
Morning Peckham, as you can imagine at my age the punk scene didn't really grab me. I was still a soul boy frequenting venues in Bristol like the Guildhall a downstairs club/bar-wild dressing for the times. We used to catch a train up for £5 return to Paddington and go to places like Stanley Adams on the Kings rd for our clothes, another place we went was Acme Attractions downstairs in the market. A black guy used to work in their called Don Letts who went on to greater things. We used to drink in the Chelsea Drug-store on the left hand side and move up to "boy" which was McClarens-bit wild for us. We would end up in Johnsons at the top near Worlds End, then on to the 100 club on saturday afternoons. This was mostly black guys and funk music, my mate Alan Perry knew a black guy in there called Bevis, who came down to Bristol in the hot summer of '76.  Wonder what happened to him?  We went to a few venues in and around London over the years-Royalty or Royal, Southgate, Canvey Island, Crocs, Shagaramas, Samanthas-perhaps some of youse older Chelsea will remember?

 
Keynsham, did you ever get down the Bamboo up St Pauls in the 70's?  Good nights if you were known by the right people :)

 
Welcome back Yorkley, the Bamboo was, as you know, in St Pauls and strictly members only. It was owned by Tony Bullimore the yachtsman, always getting into trouble around the world in his boat. In all  my years in Bristol i've never been in there, western dominoes club -yea-Blue Lagoon, DJ Seymour n his brother Superfly (yea i know) but to my shame, even when the Pistols played there-not my cuppa tea-i wasn't interested. Burnt down one night under suspicious circumstances-alledgedly. Put the Fatback Band on and with 5 pints of Stella in me i'd make a right c**t of meself. Dug-Out on Park Row was better and less risk, you didn't wanna get caught down there at 2 oclock in the morning!

 
KEYNSHAM NEWS said:
  We went to a few venues in and around London over the years- Canvey Island, Crocs, -perhaps some of youse older Chelsea will remember?
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Evening Keynsham, yet another interesting topic that tugs the old brain cells.

Reckon it was The Kings Club on Canvey Island you are referring to. That was a very popular venue in its day.

Wonder how many people know that Crocs in Rayleigh actually had a live Crocodile residing in a specially built area, hence the nightclubs name. The pub at the front was called The Trading Post.

It go's under the name of The Pink Toothbrush today.

 
Allright Leigh-The Gold Mine-was the name of the club in Canvey Island-just this minute came to me as i could see you were reading my post! Robbie Vincent was the DJ, as you can see the old grey matter is not too good now, after all it was 38 yrs ago. Stayed in Rayleigh last year, went to a large pub with A from Bristol, met all the locals and my mates, went on to the large golf/country club for the 50th. Have to go now mate, the medication wears off about 9.30-speak to you again.

 
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KEYNSHAM NEWS said:
Allright Leigh-The Gold Mine-was the name of the club in Canvey Island-just this minute came to me as i could see you were reading my post! Robbie Vincent was the DJ, as you can see the old grey matter is not too good now, after all it was 38 yrs ago. Stayed in Rayleigh last year, went to a large pub with A from Bristol, met all the locals and my mates, went on to the large golf/country club for the 50th. Have to go now mate, the medication wears off about 9.30-speak to you again.
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Evening Keynsham, funnily enough after i'd wrote my post, i realised i'd made a mistake and should have said The Gold Mine. There was a DJ there in the mid 70's who was responsible for re-launching the Glenn Miller music, which had all club-goers buying clothes from that era. 

It became so popular that local TV even did a report from there. I think the DJ's name was Dave Hill (?).

I'd imagine the large pub in Rayleigh you were in was The Travellers Joy (near the railway station). I think its now called The Hungry Horse. The golf/country club is only 5 mins away on the Hullbridge Road.

Glad you enjoyed your visit to this part of SE Essex. If you ever have cause to visit Leigh/Southend, let me know. Best locally caught Cockles, Whelks etc in the UK!.

 
Anyone there? Leigh-Jim -just been watching the Chelsea v Cardiff ruck down the side streets off the Fulham rd. And do you know what i noticed straight away? The age difference between the two mobs was quite apparent. To the right, Chelsea-very smart, all Belstaff, Barbour n flat caps -could have been Roma, to the left, Cardiff-tracksuit tops and Burberry. But the Chelsea mob weren't there for posing, they wanted a frankie knuckle all right, but a lot of main faces were putting themselves up, and bugger the consequencies.

 
KEYNSHAM NEWS said:
Anyone there? Leigh-Jim -just been watching the Chelsea v Cardiff ruck down the side streets off the Fulham rd. And do you know what i noticed straight away? The age difference between the two mobs was quite apparent. To the right, Chelsea-very smart, all Belstaff, Barbour n flat caps -could have been Roma, to the left, Cardiff-tracksuit tops and Burberry. But the Chelsea mob weren't there for posing, they wanted a frankie knuckle all right, but a lot of main faces were putting themselves up, and bugger the consequencies.
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I'm back again!. After that game we decided to go to the old Wheatsheaf pub for a pint (this is now a Bistro etc, but was one of the main 'boozers' back in the 70's). We viewed the 'shehannigans' going on outside the 'Shed' end and wandered off re-living countless similar incidents going back 40 years!. 

We had just gone in the place (cant recall what it's called now, but there is a plaque on the wall outside stating it used to be called The Wheatsheaf), ordered a beer when all hell started outside.

CFC and the scruffy Taffs met head on in a pincer movement outside. Several CFC were standing outside and the owner of the Bistro was trying to lock the door (cant blame him!). Instinctively we went to the door to make sure our fans wer'nt stuck outside and got the door opened, to be met by a couple of bollards and other objects hurled by the Taffs. Because the main focus was the fracas occuring outside on the road, none of them tried to storm the bar, so the owner locked the door much to the relief of the diners inside, which included youngsters.

Within a couple of minutes things were back to normal, the owner re-opened the door and we spent the next half hour drinking outside on the patio with several other 'old skool'.

When we left and walked back to Fulham Broadway within an hour, everything was back to normal with shoppers mingling and no indication whatsoever what had taken place.

We had a lucky escape as when we arrived at the old Wheatsheaf, there was a moments hesitation as whether we should go in, or turn off down the next sideroad and go to the Butchers Hook pub instead. Had we done so, we would have turned the next corner and come face to face with the mob of scruffy Taffs charging towards us. As a couple of us had CFC shirts on, despite our 'mature ages' i doubt they would have all passed us without some of them steaming in. 

Despite the fact we can still all 'look after ourselves', i have no doubt we would have copped a hiding. 

 
KEYNSHAM NEWS said:
Morning Peckham, as you can imagine at my age the punk scene didn't really grab me. I was still a soul boy frequenting venues in Bristol like the Guildhall a downstairs club/bar-wild dressing for the times. We used to catch a train up for £5 return to Paddington and go to places like Stanley Adams on the Kings rd for our clothes, another place we went was Acme Attractions downstairs in the market. A black guy used to work in their called Don Letts who went on to greater things. We used to drink in the Chelsea Drug-store on the left hand side and move up to "boy" which was McClarens-bit wild for us. We would end up in Johnsons at the top near Worlds End, then on to the 100 club on saturday afternoons. This was mostly black guys and funk music, my mate Alan Perry knew a black guy in there called Bevis, who came down to Bristol in the hot summer of '76.  Wonder what happened to him?  We went to a few venues in and around London over the years-Royalty or Royal, Southgate, Canvey Island, Crocs, Shagaramas, Samanthas-perhaps some of youse older Chelsea will remember?
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Used the Royal and later used Samanthas..In tootenham i presumed....Ahhhh.those plastic palm trees

 
Evening Leigh/Mike hows things/? Think the Wheatsheaf was the pub we attacked in 1975 Anglo-Scottish Cup, when the landlord came out with an iron bar to us! We then got moved along to the Black Bull where your One-armed man confronted us-what a brave bloke he was! This is all documented in another chelsea site- Memories of a non chelsea fan! I know exactly how you have to watch yourself Leigh when you get older at football-a case in point was the near miss in Bristol with some young guns from the Barking rd, they were sizing me up when i turned up alone to meet J and a couple of other mates, but i read it wrong and they started to snipe me with the usual comments. The older lot soon came to the rescue and J in particular warned them off. How the world turns, i make my way to the ground and im stood on the road overlooking the park with literaly three generations of football geezer, there was probably six, seven hundred near the park wall, waiting-who should come up to me but the snipers from before-uh, uh, R can you show us the way into the away end! Well i could have quite easily offered em up but wheres the honour in that! -Mike was the Royal in Southgate, lots of italians n greeks, and did it have a balcony upstairs which you could jump from if you were being chased by italians with knives cause you had been seeing his girlfriend whilst he was in nick? No? not the same club then-Ha!

 
KEYNSHAM NEWS said:
Evening Leigh/Mike hows things/? Think the Wheatsheaf was the pub we attacked in 1975 Anglo-Scottish Cup, when the landlord came out with an iron bar to us! We then got moved along to the Black Bull where your One-armed man confronted us-what a brave bloke he was! This is all documented in another chelsea site- Memories of a non chelsea fan! I know exactly how you have to watch yourself Leigh when you get older at football-a case in point was the near miss in Bristol with some young guns from the Barking rd, they were sizing me up when i turned up alone to meet J and a couple of other mates, but i read it wrong and they started to snipe me with the usual comments. The older lot soon came to the rescue and J in particular warned them off. How the world turns, i make my way to the ground and im stood on the road overlooking the park with literaly three generations of football geezer, there was probably six, seven hundred near the park wall, waiting-who should come up to me but the snipers from before-uh, uh, R can you show us the way into the away end! Well i could have quite easily offered em up but wheres the honour in that! -Mike was the Royal in Southgate, lots of italians n greeks, and did it have a balcony upstairs which you could jump from if you were being chased by italians with knives cause you had been seeing his girlfriend whilst he was in nick? No? not the same club then-Ha!
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Yeh im sure its the same....tottenham/southgate...in the apprrox vacinity......

 
Evening, Jim, Mike, Leigh anyone! Just spoke to A down here in Bristol and he reckons all his Glasgow Rangers mates are booking coaches for the 13th July Sat-to play us. Well i've heard zilch, so over to youse and your connections, can you ask around and let us know?

 
KEYNSHAM NEWS said:
Evening, Jim, Mike, Leigh anyone! Just spoke to A down here in Bristol and he reckons all his Glasgow Rangers mates are booking coaches for the 13th July Sat-to play us. Well i've heard zilch, so over to youse and your connections, can you ask around and let us know?
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Evening Keynsham, Unfortunately i cant give you any info, as  i dont know any 'Gers' residing down here in tranquil Leigh on Sea!.

Would'nt surprise me in the least, you'll probably be invaded by thousands of them, with several hundred probably staying on for a few weeks!!!!.

 
The Leigh Limpet said:
Evening Keynsham, Unfortunately i cant give you any info, as  i dont know any 'Gers' residing down here in tranquil Leigh on Sea!.

Would'nt surprise me in the least, you'll probably be invaded by thousands of them, with several hundred probably staying on for a few weeks!!!!.
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The pubs ought to quadruple their stock . thats for sure

 
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