Yearly Archives: 2013

Mar 26 2013
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Media Coverage

They love tough-guy Justin Fashanu at Brighton

justinfashanu

From Shoot! Magazine in 1985/86:

“At 24, the born-again Christian has put a controversial past behind him, and following a £110,000 move from Notts County in June, he is already a hit with the fans.

They love his power and skill, and Cattlin has opted for a front duo of Fashanu and Alan Biley, the £50,000 buy from Portsmouth late last season.

Unfortunately for the muscular striker, his Brighton career was only four games old when he was sent off for the third time in a year during the club’s recent 2-1 home win over Bradford.

“It was a ridiculous decision,” he says. “I was slightly late with a challenge and when the ref went for his book I just said, “You must be joking.” That was it. I was off!”

Brighton’s players were keen for Fashanu to join them early last season when they beat Notts County in a tremendous battle at The Goldstone.

Fashanu was involved in incidents that put Jeff Clarke and Eric Young in hospital and figured among seven names in the book of referee John Moules.

Danny Wilson, Brighton’s skipper, and an ex-Forest player like Fashanu, said at the time: “He certainly puts himself about, but I would like him in my side.”

Enthuses Fashanu: “This is the most important move of my career. Coming to Brighton is not just a financial thing; it is the best chemistry for Justin Fashanu, and I shall give 100% in every game.”

justinfashanu2

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Mar 25 2013
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Around The Goldstone, Media Coverage, Seagulls Shop

Carol Manns – ‘Seagulls’ (1979) – a video!

Thanks to North Stand Chat user Fork Me, last week I got hold of a digital copy of this rarely heard song about Brighton & Hove Albion from the late 1970s.

I decided to make a video to it and you can see it here

As well as watching the video, you can have a sing-a-long. Lyrics are here:

I live near a football ground, Albion is her name.
I tell you it’s almost hell when they play a game.
Saturdays are all the same, football fans about
And when you pass them in the street
This is what they shout:

Chorus:
Seagulls, Seagulls.
They’ll play on and on.
Seagulls, Seagulls.
Forever playing strong.
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la
We are the Brigh’on North Stand!

Other teams’ supporters may as well go home
While in the North Stand, our boys sing: “You’ll never walk alone”
And you could be in Timbuktu and still know when they score.
Cos it’s enough to deafen you
When you hear that roar:

Chorus

And now they’ve finally made it, we’re in Division 1
Brighton and Hove Albion have only just begun.
So when somebody asks you, “What team do you support?” (Seagulls!)
Stand up proud and sing out loud
And shout this in retort!

Chorus

Lovely how she drops the ‘t’ from Brighton in her pronunciation in the chorus, for that authentic local dialect.

There has already been a thread on NSC about the song here. Feedback about this video can be viewed here Feel free to add your own!

Comments so far have included:

“Brilliant, thanks for sharing. Great to see the old footage and the Goldstone. Horrible to see the fences that we used to stand behind. It’s so good that those days have gone. Catchy little tune.” – Thisistips

“Fabulous” – Jackcgull, Eye On The Seagull

“Absolutely fantastic” – kevo

“Love it” – D’Angelo Saxon

“Fantastic! Brought lots of happy memories of a great time in the club’s history. All the players look so young! Nice to have a reminder of what a great finisher Peter Ward was and to see the skill of Sayer out wide again. It’s amazing now to think we were made to watch from behind those fences. I well remember how they obscured the view” – ChilternGull

“That thing in the middle of Churchill Square was a eaterie I believe. And sorry the song is pants” – Beach Hut

Does anyone know any more about this singer? Google draws a blank in the matter. Can’t even find a photo!

And did anyone buy the single at the time?

carolmanns1a

Here’s where you can download the audio file of ‘Seagulls‘ (AAC format). It will play on digital music players such as iPods and iPhones.

The B-Side is called ‘You, Me & The Boogie’ and isn’t Albion-related.

Mar 24 2013
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Photo Opportunities

Opening of the Seagull Tavern

seagull tavern

Taken from the Brighton v Crystal Palace programme of December 1979:

Two weeks ago the nearest hostelry to the Goldstone took on a new name. The former Sackville pub on the corner of Old Shoreham Road and Sackville Road was renamed the ‘Seagull Tavern’ and there for the opening were a number of Albion players to wish landlord John Sainsbury well. Our photo shows the lads together with some ‘Seagulls’ lovelies.

Anyone who owned a replica of that Bukta shirt can vouch for its nipple-scratching effects of the sandpaper-like material. I hope the, ahem, ‘lovelies’ weren’t too discomforted. Gerry Ryan appears to be somewhat distracted by the young lady with Peter Sayer’s perm!

And a few drinks later, things get a bit more cosy…

seagulls tavern 2

(from Brighton v Southampton, Peter O’Sullivan testimonial programme, April 1980)

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Mar 23 2013
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Media Coverage

Teddy Maybank thinks ‘Brighton will be among the best’

teddymaybank

From a piece in Shoot! Magazine:

Teddy Maybank, Brighton’s expensive signing, is at last accepted by the Goldstone Ground fans.

Maybank, who cost Brighton £238,000 from Fulham, found luck wasn’t on his side when he arrived on the South Coast. Last season’s goalscoring hero Peter Ward was in the middle of a long goal famine, something the fans had never seen before from the striker. So when costly Maybank arrived, everyone looked to him to start hitting the score-sheet regularly.

Maybank scored a few early goals. But he was honest enough to admit: “I wasn’t playing well. I knew that.

My early form was a disappointment to the fans. They expected me to come in and start scoring regularly and doing incredible things. It’s always hard when you change clubs and you need a while to settle in. I have to adjust to my new team mates but they’ve had to change and adapt to playing with me.”

Maybank, despite his initial problems, is in no doubt he has made the right decision. “I believe in a couple of seasons, Brighton will be one of the best sides in the country. The whole club wants to go places and I’m convinced we’ll do just that.”

it is worth noting that after his signing in November 1977, Maybank hit ten League goals in the promotion campaign of 1978/79, same as Peter Ward. This included a Boxing Day hat-trick against Cardiff in 1978. He also notched up the club’s first two goals in top flight football, at Villa Park and Maine Road in August 1979. However, he never fully won over his detractors, returning to Fulham in December, having fallen out with Alan Mullery, for £150,000.

Maybank later appeared as a contestant on Blind Date and The Weakest Link.

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Mar 22 2013
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Media Coverage

Eyes Off Nelson

garrynelson

A lovely piece in Shoot! Magazine as Brighton mounted a late promotion bid in 1988. Says Nelson:

“I want to play in the First Division. After all, it’s the only division I haven’t played in. But to suggest I will leave Brighton to do it is pie-in-the-sky. I’m very happy at Brighton, and I’m delighted at the way things have progressed since I’ve joined.

“I was originally bought to play wide on the left, not down the middle. The manager was trying to buy another striker to partner Kevin Bremner, and when he couldn’t find anyone he decided to push me inside.”

Nelson eventually hit 32 goals during the campaign, an outstanding personal achievement although four short of Peter Ward’s club record of 36 in 1976/77. Nevertheless, it certainly helped the promotion push that ended in success on the last day of the season.

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Mar 21 2013
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Stickers & Cards

Frank Worthington rolls back the years

frankworthington

To celebrate 100 years of the Football League in 1988, Leaf issued a collection of 100 stickers. Measuring 10cmx6.5cm, these were substantially larger than the Panini and Daily Mirror stickers of that year.

Here you can see Frank Worthington in a Brighton shirt, skipping past a Manchester City defender in the 0-0 draw in November 1984.

This is probably a lot quicker than a certain horse he bet on in his time at the Goldstone Ground:

“The biggest bet I had on a horse was when I went to Folkstone while I was playing at Brighton. It was a five furlong sprint and I thought I’d have a go. I probably had £100 on which was a sizeable figure 20 odd years ago. It gave the others about 20 yards start and never got out of the stalls. Finished about fourth and we’d done our money. It was a lesson well learned.”

(Source: Backpass Magazine, Issue 7)

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Mar 20 2013
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Around The Goldstone

Cheerleaders!

And if you thought Gully’s Girls were Albion’s first cheerleaders, this might cause you to do a double-take.

cheerleaders

The Albion team come out of the tunnel in their last match of the 1970s, at home to Manchester City, to an enthusiastic welcome from this troupe.

Brian Horton looks as pleased as punch. It seemed to do the trick. Albion triumphed 4-1.

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Mar 19 2013
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Media Coverage

The Anglo-Scots: Gordon Smith

gordonsmith2a

The above feature came in Programme Plus, a magazine insert that several clubs carried in their matchday programme in the early 1980s. While Brighton did not include it in its programme, there were occasional pieces that related to the club. Here’s an interview with Gordon Smith, including a wonderful photo of the match against Wolves on the opening day of the 1980/81 season. Just look at the faces of the crowd!

In the feature, Smith is in diplomatic mood:

I felt settled at Ibrox and when they told me they had accepted Brighton’s offer my first reaction was one of bitter disappointment, he said. “But I decided to travel down and see what Brighton had to offer. Now I should really thank Rangers for letting me go because I might never have had the opportunity to play in the English First Division!

“What I want most of all is to help Brighton to become even more successful. A lot has been achieved in a short space of time and there’s an exciting atmosphere around the place, a sort of feeling that there are good times ahead.”

It’s the kind of respectful attitude that meant Smith is not hated by Albion fans despite not sticking the famous chance away two seasons later.

gordonsmith2b

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Mar 18 2013
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Seagulls Shop

Farah Fit

farah fit

Another evocative advert from Farah Slacks, responsible for providing the first-team with the official club dress. This advert is from the Middlesbrough programme from September 1981. Elsewhere in this issue:

We mentioned in Tuesday’s programme that shortly ‘Farah’ trousers, as worn by the Albion players, would be available from the club shop. In fact these are now in, but a misplaced paragraph in the Swansea programme suggested that leg measurement would be needed to obtain the new club sweaters.

So, did you kit yourself out in Farah slacks and jeans? Were they really all the rage in the early 1980s?

See also Albion Wear Farah Slacks

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Mar 17 2013
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Media Coverage

DC comic covers Brighton v Palace rivalry

Click the link above to read the full blog entry by Walt Jabsco from Not Worth That.

An incredible find. Details about the comic were originally posted on North Stand Chat by RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased). He gave his synopsis as:

“It’s about 3 arsenal fans can’t go to see the gooners as they haven’t got a game so they decide to join up with palace fans to kick the shit out of the evil Brighton. At the end of the game the 3 arsenal decide to run over to Brighton fans to kick off but the palace boys “whimp out” and lone arsenal boys get their heads kicked in by Brighton hoolies. One of the hoolies is Hellblazer in a blue and White scarf who stabs one of the gooners to death and drags him to hell. All quite philosophical and heartwarming really.”

You can also buy the digital edition of Hellblazer #101 at http://www.comixology.com/Hellblazer-101/digital-comic/ICO001909

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