General Chat

[Seat68]

7 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

was it a crush at the queue to  buy T-shirts     

 

From the days when it was almost impossible to buy a t-shirt in a shop that was outside London. Those were the days. I can't recall the merch set up in all honesty. I know I bought a t-shirt but it was before all of the marketing they have now. 

[sidcow]

Didn't Birmingham stop having a proper Christmas lights switch on because of a load of people getting crushed when some boy band played?  No one died but there were a few injuries and I think the council probably thought about what might have been.   Coincidentally they saved a load of money not doing it of course. 

Worst for me was only a few years ago at The Hawthorns railway station. People will know away fans enter one side and home fans the other side.  For some reason Old Bill decided to completely stop Villa entering the station whilst they let the Tesco bags in.  I'm sure in previous years we just shared a divided corridor. 

Anyway I was at the very front literally eyeball to eyeball with the police blocking the entrance.  My mate had his 16 year old son with him. 

We waited for a bit then the dick heads at the back decided to try and push the crowd through.  I can't recall if Old Bill just held their ground but I think there may have actually been a barrier or something dropped because as people started heaving from the back we were all getting seriously crushed.  I was yelling at the Police that is was getting dangerous and my mates son was really struggling.  

In the end we managed to slide out of the side but that involved placing yourself against an actual wall whilst being pushed against it. It was proper scary. 

They were not just randomly pushing, they were all shouting heave in unison and moving forwards in time. 

[mottaloo]

Dropkick Murphys at the old hummingbird. I'm a fairly stocky bloke and can take care of myself but after the 3rd song I bottled it and stayed at the back, especially after seeing my younger and heavier set brother fall twice in 30 seconds. Back then though, everyone was your mate and he got picked up, rather than his pockets being picked.

Edited November 9, 2021 by mottaloo

[TheAuthority]

After chatting about Midlands today last week and @HanoiVillan mentioning Shefali  I thought I'd tune in with my VPN tonight for old times sake. 

I made the mistake of keeping on the "One Show." What a pile of absolute trash. With all of the content available from so many sources these days who actually watches BBC 1 anymore. As for Eastenders......

Whoever wrote the theme tune is still creaming in the $$ though!

[limpid]

19 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

I thought I'd tune in with my VPN tonight for old times sake. 

I made the mistake of keeping on the "One Show." What a pile of absolute trash. With all of the content available from so many sources these days who actually watches BBC 1 anymore. As for Eastenders......

I don't watch any broadcast TV any more and you use a VPN to watch it in other countries? One for the things you don't get thread.

[Follyfoot]

On 08/11/2021 at 16:39, tonyh29 said:

there was a midweek Villa game at Upton park ( I'm going to say not long after Hillsborough  , but my memory could be playing tricks ) where the crush was so bad  the police eventually opened the gate at the front we all had to spill out onto the pitch  ..anyone else remember it ?

Yes I recall it I also think the going into the ground that day they had airport style scanners to walk through, although that might be another year. The game you’re on about was a cup game

[bickster]

On 08/11/2021 at 16:39, tonyh29 said:

at Upton park

Boleyn Ground

/pedant

[Xela]

Not crush related but venue related, when I was Manila, which was a crazy place, we went to a steakhouse one night for scran... nothing posh, just like a Outback type place, but a Filipino one, with a stage and a live band playing (they love 80s soft rock!). We had to go through an airport scanner on the way in and when food was served, the meat was pre-cut and it came with a fork and spoon. No knives allowed in the venue due to a few stabbing incidents previously! 

Later on in a nightclub, security was tight... you needed photo ID, which was scanned before they let you in. Obviously this wasn't needed for westerners as we used the old 'backhander to the bouncer' method and got walked to the front of the queue and let in with no fuss. Anyway, there was about 3 or 4 different rooms playing different tunes and each room had an airport scanner and you had to be searched every time you went in. I asked the girl I was with (lovely girl, worked in our office out there - missed my chance with her, she lives in Dubai now... story for another day) and she said it was because there was a couple of shootings there in recent times. Nice! 

Good times. 

 

[TheAuthority]

5 hours ago, limpid said:

I don't watch any broadcast TV any more and you use a VPN to watch it in other countries? One for the things you don't get thread.

It was a nostalgia thing. I don't regularly tune in to Nick Owen to find out what's happening in Wolverhampton

[sharkyvilla]

On 08/11/2021 at 15:08, Genie said:

The Oasis gig I mentioned would have been about 2001 I think.

Noel was very aware and asked several times for people to take it easy, take a step back, pick someone up if you seen them fall.

I remember Liam saying something along the lines of “ignore him he doesn’t want you to have fun”. Always been a prick.

Was it this one?  To be fair it was Liam who told them to stop the gig (yeah I know, thank the Lord etc...)

 

[Genie]

24 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

Was it this one?  To be fair it was Liam who told them to stop the gig (yeah I know, thank the Lord etc...)

 

The gig I was at was LCCC (Old Trafford Cricket Ground) but i’ve seen this one before too.

That video is edited right down, the band all walk off whilst the barriers are fixed but everyone starts going nuts thinking the gig is getting cancelled. Noel has to go back out reassure everyone whilst the repairs happen, then they start again.

Fair play to Liam for spotting a problem and stopping the show, it could have got dangerous quickly.

The interesting thing about the LCCC gig was Richard Ashcroft was a late surprise support act and was brilliant. Oasis themselves were having a can’t be arsed and don’t want to be there day.

Edited November 10, 2021 by Genie

[villa4europe]

That was the friday I was there on the Saturday, was a brilliant gig

I've been stood at the barrier for oasis in nottingham, it was alright, 5 people back from the barrier is where its at

I think the "worst" I've experienced was Babyshambles at turnmills when they first started, at given point you could end up anywhere in the room with little control over it, security guard belted a crowd surfer with his torch and fair play to him Pete dropped the mic mid song and told him to **** off 

[Mark Albrighton]

18 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

That was the friday I was there on the Saturday, was a brilliant gig

I've been stood at the barrier for oasis in nottingham, it was alright, 5 people back from the barrier is where its at

I think the "worst" I've experienced was Babyshambles at turnmills when they first started, at given point you could end up anywhere in the room with little control over it, security guard belted a crowd surfer with his torch and fair play to him Pete dropped the mic mid song and told him to **** off 

It was definitely the Saturday mate, 100%. I was there for that one. Same day as Live 8. I remember because the crowd started jeering when the big screens showed Coldplay, then went jubilant when Ashcroft joined them. Also the people stood near me who were nowhere near the front took several steps back when Noel started threatening to cancel the gig.

Quote

OASIS were left to entertain the crowd for 25 minutes after a barrier moved at the beginning of their show in MANCHESTER last night (July 2).

Earlier in the day footage of the historic Live 8 event was screened in the stadium and members of Oasis were spotted hanging around outside the executive suite behind the stage.

Link

[villa4europe]

You're right, I was there on the Sunday 

I wasn't there the night they filmed it, i think, I'm not even sure anymore 

[bickster]

9 hours ago, sharkyvilla said:

To be fair it was Liam who told them to stop the gig

What, the lead singer of a band told himself to stop the gig? Was he being coerced into shouting faux Beatles lyrics with his hands behind his back?

[Genie]

35 minutes ago, bickster said:

What, the lead singer of a band told himself to stop the gig? Was he being coerced into shouting faux Beatles lyrics with his hands behind his back?

He told the rest of the band to immediately stop playing, something the rapper in Houston failed to do the other night (even after some members of the crowd climbed onto the stage shouting “stop the show, people are dead in there).

[bickster]

I just saw something a bit strange,

Just before the sun came up completely, I looked up into the sky and saw a lone pink footed goose flying out to sea. Now there's never just one of them, never and he was flying out to sea, they fly inland in the daytime

Five minutes later, the sun is up and the usual squadrons of geese are all airborne and flying inland

Just made me wonder if the first one was the head waker up of all the geese or what was it up to

[Dante_Lockhart]

So apparently the 'Lighting Director' of the Rust movie is suing Alec Baldwin and crew members of the due to severe emotional distress.

Tell him to get ****ed. I can understand the studio being sued, but to pick on cast members for this is ridiculous.

[hogso]

On 08/11/2021 at 16:52, Mark Albrighton said:

I don’t know if you were going for “rueful pride”, but this paragraph is one of, if not the best example I’ve seen.

I can’t help but wonder whether Fat George felt a sense of obligation to be involved. Like it was his calling.

Oh, I'm sure of it. I could regale you with many tales of George. I'll just give you my favourite. 

He wasn't the best off kid, but he was happy. He had a kind of dishevelled, grubbyness about him, and with his weight, he could have been the easiest of targets for the bullyish lads. He wasn't though, not really, because he had this honesty and sincerity about him which just deflected any such attempts. 

Next to our assembly hall there was this big, well, ditch. It was probably about 30mx20m. Rumour had it that a WWII bomb caused it, and given that the town was hit during the blitz, and our school was more or less right next to the train station, it could well have been true. Whatever the reason, it certainly wasn't there by design. 

Every time it rained a lot, the ditch filled up with water. There was no drainage system or anything, as it was literally just a massive ditch. In recent years they've built a kind of bridge thing across it with a little decking area in the middle. When I was there though, it was always fun just to see how full it would get when it rained. 

It was one of those autumnal days in England, where it just rained all day. Not particularly cold, but the downpour went on for what seemed forever. The ditch went from puddle, to lake, to veritable ocean of murky, dirty, cold water. 

Home time came, and no one could ever remember seeing it like that. Some lads tried pushing each other in at the edge. And here comes George. He had a shitty old bike, and it was kind of odd that he rode his bike home, when he was as big as he was - but he did. 

There was a bit of a crowd gathering at this point, for no other reason than to observe the size of the ditch/ocean. And there was George, riding his bike round and round, with that infectious grin on his face. Someone from the crowd, for some bizarre reason, shouted 'George! Ride your bike through the middle of the ditch/ocean!' 

George obliged. 

Because the water had risen so high, and so far up what was normally the grass embankment, he didn't have chance to build up a lot of speed. As soon as his front tire met that disgusting soup, you knew this would end in tragedy. 

George peddled as hard as he could, but very quickly, he found the traction of his tires wasn't enough to keep up any sort of momentum, so he began to wobble this way and that. The crowd swelled, everyone was cheering for him, but it was impossible to get all the way across. Wasn't it? 

I don't know where it came from, but a football, travelling at about 100mph, flew towards George. It missed him by about 10cm, it almost looked like he meant it, this crazy Matrixesque move, but he was actually just trying desperately to keep his balance. And he did. He went on. And on. 

By the time he reached the halfway point of the ditch/ocean, the crowd started to believe, really believe, that he could make it. He had reached the deepest part now though, Nuneaton's own Lake Baikal, and he was still trying to peddle through it, despite his legs now being submerged. 

Now he slowed. Really slowed. A hush came over the crowd. He made a last, desperate lunge to stay upright, and failed. Crash. Splash. Whallop. You couldn't even see the bike anymore it was that deep, but you could see sludge dripping down George's face. The crowd erupted in to almost reluctant laughter. 

George simply smiled, like he always did. 

[hogso]

10 minutes ago, bickster said:

I just saw something a bit strange,

Just before the sun came up completely, I looked up into the sky and saw a lone pink footed goose flying out to sea. Now there's never just one of them, never and he was flying out to sea, they fly inland in the daytime

Five minutes later, the sun is up and the usual squadrons of geese are all airborne and flying inland

Just made me wonder if the first one was the head waker up of all the geese or what was it up to

Reminds me of the bit in a Herzog doc, where a penguin will occasionally just go in the wrong direction, for no apparent reason, almost certainly spelling their own doom.