This rather gorgeous item was found on eBay a few months ago. It is from the brief period of time in the mid-1970s when Brighton had adopted the Dolphins nickname. Flicking through a 1974/75 match programme, this Club Lapel badge would have cost 25p, while a pin badge would have set you back 5p.
Curiously, the Dolphin design never made it onto the shirts of the team but some enterprising Albion fans have taken a step in this sartorial direction. The very wonderful Albion fanzine The Seagulls Love Review have produced T-shirts in a range of colours (white, black and royal blue) with the Dolphins logo, cheekily sticking their zine name on it.
If you’re interested, you can buy one here. Good work, chaps!
Worn in the famous snowy away tie in the FA Cup against Peterborough in February 1986, this striking kit is fondly remembered by Brighton fans of that time.
It had three large bold horizontal stripes on the side of the collar, a design that was unique to us despite all the other clubs that adidas manufactured shirts for at the time.
At the Peterborough game, the freezing Albion fans were given free red scarves. Brighton fan and North Stand Chat user Stat Brother has kept his in very good nick:
… although with Stat Brother’s six month old golden retriever Lionel around, it may not last forever!
A season later, NOBO replaced Phoenix Brewery as the sponsor for the Albion shirt.
As for Steve Gatting, he continued to serve well in whatever shirt he was asked to play in, red, blue, or even the green goalkeepers’ top:
A retrospective piece in the Albion programme in 1994/95 stated:
It has not been often in modern times that a player has served Albion continuously for ten years – Steve did so in defence or midfield and battled back from a bad pelvic injury to play again when many might have thrown in the towel. He was, indeed, a versatile player but he never scored an FA Cup goal for Albion – in fact, he once played for much of a League Cup match in goal when, at the City Ground, he replaced the injured Perry Digweed between the posts for Albion and he didn’t do at all badly.
A quite marvellous piece of Albion tat from the club shop during the 1973/74 season – and the first piece of Brighton merchandise I’ve seen that mentions Brian Clough’s name. The hand graphic features the slogan ‘Up The Dolphins.’
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
“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!
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?
Cashing in the retro kit craze that Umbro ushered in with Spurs’ long baggy shorts in the FA Cup Final of 1991, the Sports Express Shop (a.k.a Seagulls Shop) introduced this cotton beauty during the following season.
The caption reads: ‘…as worn by Albion’s youngest first teamer Stuart Munday.’
The shirt seems a bit pricey at £29.99 each in 1992, methinks.
North Stand Chat participant Jackcgull, creator of the Eye On The Seagulls website, has alerted me to this magnificent tortoise. He writes:
I kept terrapins as a youngster (back in 1978) and my mum saw this beast in the Seagull Shop and bought it for me. I used it as a Godzilla-like enemy of my action men characters (i was 10/11 at the time). When i left home it must have hidden away at my mum’s – and there it was, under her stairs – 35 years later!!!
No idea why they would produce a cuddly ‘King of the League’ tortoise – would love to know more.
I remember offering it to someone who was starting an Albion museum – not sure why, but he didn’t want it!
Anyway – is there anyone else who has or has ever had one of these? A true relic of the Albion’s days in the top division and the Fa Cup Final!
Marvellous. If anyone else has any quite insane Albion memorabilia, please get in touch at seagulls@me followed by .comor leave a comment to this post.
Commercial manager Ron Pavey at the new Seagulls Shop with Sheree, one of the assistants.
In the article, taken from the programme of the Tottenham Milk Cup game from 1982/83, Ron says, ‘As far as the club shop goes, things could be a lot better. I don’t think people are geared to coming here to buy their Albion souvenirs. We’re coming up to Christmas and that’s always a busy time. I hope people remember that if they buy their presents from here, the profits go back into football.’
The Goldstone Wrap 