At the time of posting these words, it is a mere 26 days, 10 hours, 49 minutes and 52 seconds until the World Cup kicks off. I know this because my boys have an App which tells them how long it is until major sporting events get under way. In case you were wondering, it is only 811 days, 10 hours, 45 minutes and 41 seconds until the Brazil Olympics starts in 2016. Technology bombards us with this wealth of information, which also includes every fact on every football player appearing in the World Cup - players who nowadays can earn in one week what it will take many of us many years to accumulate. I read the other day of Samir Nasri's girlfriend tweeting a foul mouthed tirade at the French manager on leaving her beloved Samir out of the French World Cup squad. Good move Mr.Deschamps, the last thing you need are sweary trouble making WAGs following the team around. Whilst football players have grown ever further away from the fans who support the clubs for whom they play, one thing that has remained constant in a World Cup year, hardly changing in look or design and of vital importance to every young (and slightly older) football fan, is the Panini Sticker album. At my son's school, the Panini album seems to have been usurped by the way inferior Match Attax cards. This is the equivalent of buying CDs or MP3s over vinyl (see HSD Tune as an example.) One is throw away, inconsequential and less satisfying, whilst the other is to be savoured, enjoyed and invested with memories. For example, who can really look at Terry Fenwick in the 1986 Panini album and not wonder why, as the last man, he didn't bring down Maradona and 'take one for the team,' as little Diego waltzed past our entire team on the way to scoring one of the all time great World Cup goals.
Who can seriously turn to the Brazil team in the 1982 sticker album and not be dumbfounded by reading the coolest names to ever be assembled in a football team. In 1982, I can truly remember two of the greatest games of football I have ever witnessed. One was obviously Aston villa beating Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam on May 26th, to lift the European Cup; the other was Brazil v Italy in their final Second Round Group game of the World Cup in Spain. I can still transport myself back to the noise and excitement of the afternoon. I was at a friends house after school and you could cut the tension with a knife. The noise of the stadium that day and the excitement it instilled, still lives with me. The incessant, high pitched drone of air horns saturated the atmosphere. Zico, Socrates and Falcao were running things in midfield but slack defending allowed Paolo Rossi to bag a hat trick and send Italy to the quarter finals with a 3-2 victory. That is possibly the best game of football I have ever seen and I must get hold of a copy on DVD. My Panini album, like a family photo album takes me back to that moment.
My boys current album is slowly taking shape as they take their swaps to school and negotiate deals for shinies and sought after players - their first introduction to wheeling and dealing. Word soon spreads as to which stickers are 'rare' and there has been some jealousy towards a kid who has already completed the album!! He has missed the point though. It is not about finishing it in the quickest amount of time. You want to be collecting the stickers throughout the tournament, so that all of a sudden the average looking guy from South Korea who has just done something sensational, becomes a talked about player and a sought after sticker. Footballing nobodies can out of nowhere become household names and that is why the sticker album is so important, because it contains all these memories to be looked back on when you are older - just like me with my 1982 and '86 albums and one day in the future, my boys will be able to look back with the same sense of nostalgia. I just wish I had collected the 1990 Panini sticker album...
A recent photo I took of the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture at the Olympic Park, from alongside the Olympic pool building, with Canary Wharf in the distance...
William Onyeabor - Good Name
I picked up the 'Who Is William Onyeabor?' album the other day and it made me remember just why buying vinyl is a beautiful thing. Not only have Luka Bop Records managed to persuade this elusive guy to release his fine music as a compilation, it also comes on three pieces of quality vinyl, with fantastic artwork for each record. Not only do I get to hear the music at its best, but the artwork can be fully appreciated. What an artist to discover as well!! In deepest Eastern Nigeria, William - who is now a tribal leader - was making music in the late 1970s using an early synthesiser. This predates, synth pop, Afrika Bambaata and Detroit techno but you can hear elements of all of them on this record. Whilst all the British, European and American music was feeding off each other, little did they know that a Nigerian guy was making his own version with this incredible Afro, elctro funk!!
