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Post by Topper Gas on Jan 3, 2015 17:29:05 GMT
The suggestion was the Kop was the birth place of mass singing but Rovers fans seemed to have been singing "Irene" well before them? That was well before my time so can't comment from my own experience.
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Post by swissgas on Jan 3, 2015 18:00:22 GMT
Prior to that 1967 Arsenal cup tie the singers would congregate around the south stand tunnel led by Gordon Bennett. We ended up on the muller rd bank that day due to the violence on the Tote by the Arsenal fans who also caused havoc on Stapleton rd. The next home game v Oldham the singers migrated to the Tote End and soon grew in numbers waving scarves, banners and flags. It sure was a sight to behold and to be part of. This type of vocal support was fairly new at the time although the Kop at Anfield were singing Beatles and Cilla Black songs complete in 1963. The Kop was probably the birth place of mass singing and chanting. At Eastville it was a good time to be around and witness and by 1970 I watched from the Jarman enclosure which gave a much better view of the games. I did not see the last game at Eastville , it had become a shadow of it's former self and the landlords seemed intent on destroying BRFC and after a poor start at Twerton the Cub was reborn. 3000 at Twerton made a hell of a din as we fought off relegation.
Great post, thankfully someone who remembers things as I do. Other posts here and on previous similar threads seem to suggest that the Tote End signing was around earlier but you are quite right about the main singing coming from the area by the south stand tunnel (I was there as a youngster for about a year) before we moved to the tote end. Good times. Yes that is a good post and I also watched from the "Jarman Enclosure" before moving to the Tote End in the late 60's. I fondly remember the chant of "2 - 4 - 6 - 8 who do we appreciate" coming from fans next to the tunnel in the South enclosure but always thought it was a bit tame. Then recently I read a biography which included a lot about Oswald Mosley the 1930's fascist leader and I discovered his Blackshirts used the same chant ! My memory may not be accurate but I thought part of the reason for the singers moving from the South Enclosure to the Tote End was that some fuddy duddys in the South Stand complained about the noise ? At the time I bought the line that "the landlords seemed intent on destroying BRFC" but thirty years later I'm not so sure. There have been too many occasions in the interim period when we have painted ourselves as victims and blamed our misfortune on others when common sense tell us it can't always be that clear cut. Success comes in life and business when we work together with partners and colleagues and try to find common ground not hide our insecurity behind a permanently intransigent position. There were good things and bad things about the Tote End and there are good things and bad things about the club today. Much better IMO to debate openly and honestly about the past, present and future rather than categorize those who want to discuss our areas of weakness as being disloyal.
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Post by dragonfly on Jan 3, 2015 20:10:15 GMT
The Story of the Kop (BBC video John Motson) on Youtube is a good documentary which captured the atmosphere of the sixties and centred on the City of Liverpool. This is what leads me to say that mass singing probably began in the form that we know on the Kop around 1963. I had known that Rovers Fans had swiped "Goodnight Irene" from Plymouth in the 50's but I had never heard it sung at Eastville from my first visit in 1962 until later that decade. In fact I never heard any Chanting or singing at Eastville until 1964/65 when Hull City fans occupied the Tote one evening game, singing throughout. They repeated, frequently, an amusing parody song of the Adams Family TV programme, "their ground is a museum where no-one goes to see 'em, they really are a scre-am the Rovers FC". Some of you have remarked that the crowd was quiet at home to Torquay and it seems that the team must deliver before the crowd responds. But taking the Kop as an example they created the atmosphere for the Team before and during the game and to a lesser extent that is what I remember from standing on the Tote. The result against Torquay could have gone in our favour had the crowd set the atmosphere and could make the difference between the title or the playoffs. Also there is nothing like new songs/chants for creating a good atmosphere for our Team to respond.
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Post by inee on Jan 3, 2015 20:46:15 GMT
difficult to explain really, spose it's like everything in life you had to be there but for everyone who was on the tote it was different, for me it was lots of things, you also have to remember the world was a different place back then, the noise, music(some of the matchday music was in the charts back then ), if things kicked of before during or after the game you knew someone had your back, there was a sense of camaraderie on the tote, sharing glue at the back of the tote during the game(popular pastime back then) skinheads a plenty, nicely polished doc martens, sharing a fag or cider/beer with someone you only spoke to on match day, the noise the smell, awful bogs you would have been drier watering your pants than wading through everyone elses water, people hanging off the floodlights during games some others on the roofs, much more than i can remember but it was special, and i suppose in a way some younger fans will have the same fond memories of the mem in times to come, but as i said were totally different times sand i think some of the younger fans couldn't really grasp the way it was(not putting anyones age down) , then daft things like doing the hokey cokey etc. but as time went on it got emptier like someone else said we lost hope was a very difficult time, and was easier to spend football money on bills etc. just remembered the cctv going up for the first time,put an end to a lot of fun and mischief, the fencing, no more pitch invations(that probably also had a lot to do with the declice of numbers) also randomly being grabbed off the carpark thrown in a transit given a good leathering the being release with no charges(yup filth really did beat us up without being covered in the padded sh** they wear today)
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Post by EssoBlue on Jan 3, 2015 21:36:24 GMT
The tote really started to die in the late 70's. The police started to up their game and target individuals every game.
The first stage of the decline was when large numbers stopped standing in the centre due the the police having a raised area directly behind us, coupled with the introduction of the new cctv. Most moved to the shed at one side of the tote but some moved to other parts of the ground.
I stopped watching from the tote after being physically thrown over the 7 foot high security/speedway fence at the front of the terracing by the police (there were no gates in the fence and the alternative was to drag the offending yuff up the terracing through the middle of the tote!). So like many others I joined the singing section in the North enclosure.
Every year it seemed that the crowds got smaller and the atmosphere a little less. I was in the Army overseas when the end of Eastville finally came. Thankfully I wasn't there to witness it. It was a sad day and a sad period of our history.
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Post by Mark Ash on Jan 3, 2015 23:29:00 GMT
For a thread titled A Quick Question this is a fascinating document of first-hand accounts of a lost time and place. As someone who wasn't there, I really enjoy reading these accounts. It's a lost world.
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