This is England 1990

Shall be returning soon. And the backdrop to the attitude/clobber this time shall be Acid House.

To celebrate this, Talent House are running a competition for artists to create a flyer inspired by the whole scene. I'm no artist but plugging a fellow connoisseurs effort Josh Parky. If you like his effort follow the link and click like.

Rave on.

Loaded Icons

 Loaded has had many iconic covers in its time, but many of my favourite icons have appeared on the front of the lads favourite. Here's a few...

York City Away

Finally York City as a proper fixture, not some meaningless kick around in July. And 1699 other Poolies felt the same as nearly two thousand Pools fans snapped up tickets for Yorks partisan away end.

There's 365 pubs in York, one for everyday of the year, but there's only one that matters to me and me pals. The Stone Roses bar. Blogged about it before, it's my personal favourite drinking hole by the Ouse. However it loses a certain charm on a matchday. Not from the boisterous drinked up Poolies, don't mind that. Been there, done that. No, but from the over zealous bar staff who called for quiet and turned anyone away they didn't like the look of. In that respect, we were lucky to get in. The polis were in and out like the place was Sun Hill, eyeing up anyone and everyone who wasnt wearing a STAFF tee, and removing anyone who dared to sneeze. Still a few pints supped and a few boss tunes listened to, nice to get my biannual fix of this boozer.

Too quick though it was time for the match. I was anticipating this game highly, it was like Christmas eve, and hadn't felt this excited for a Hartlepool match for a long time. Although I think more of it was to do with the large away following, not the promise of good free flowing football. And with the excitement of Christmas Eve...

Christmas Day turned out to be an utter let down as usual. The open terrace packed with bodies was a fine sight, but unfortunately the absence of a roof meant no reverberations of sound from the singers leading to a disappointing quiet bar a few hundred. I'd also put that down to the torrential rain and the fact we were watching Hartlepool United. No wonder we were subdued.

The game may as well have been the meaningless friendly (at least we'd have had the weather) as both sides were crap. Pools started with James Poole and Steve Howard up front, both with a measily handful of goals between them last season, and never looked like scoring. No shots on target. But then York didn't have any either. Two hopelessly toothless teams playing out a stalemate in England's basement division. £17 pounds sounds a lot when you put it like that.

The full time whistle eased the pain but not the rain. Nil nil. Time to check the other scores. A twenty pound free bet seven line accumulator failed to respond due to one result. Had Wycombe won £2.5k would have been in my pocket, but alas no. So had to scrape around in my pocket for enough change for more petrol in the tank, point the car north towards the north and the purple/black clouds gathering there...

Watching Hartlepool United away. Joyous.

Music v Designer Collaborations

The most iconic music artists are often the most influential when it comes to clobber. Music and fashion go hand in hand similar to that of football and fashion. You only have to attend a gig and the crowd will be largely dressed similarly to the band. Mods and Rockers wore their hearts on their sleeves when it came to music allegiance and dressed accordingly. The Clash and Sex Pistols brought punk styling, anti establishment and anti label. Late 1970s and London and Coventry meet the West Indies musically, Madness and Specials music goers clad in Ben Sherman, Crombie and DMs, complete with cropped hair. 1990s Britpop and it's Blur in Fila, Oasis in Stone Island and Gazelles etc. The fans always follow suit. Just look at gigs these days - go to Beady Eye/High Flying Birds (aka Oasis) and it's the parrot heads clad in Liam's latest Pretty Green offerings (now in TK Maxx...). Go to Madness and it's still Fred Perry and Brutus. Anything Madchester then it's bucket hats, Adidas and loose fitting tees.

And designers ain't no mugs. They'll cotton on to the fact they're part of the cult, or at least try to stick their finger in the pie and force their way in, and cash in. And over the last few years there's been quite a few official designer v band collaborations. Maybe it speaks volumes that most of them are old imperial brands mixed with bands that are not quite the 'now' in music - maybe both music and fashion are dead.

The first I ever saw of these was back in 1999. Doctor Martens brought out a special limited 'Madness' boot to coincide with the Nutty Boys 20 year anniversary. And since then Madness haven't done too badly with the whole collab thing. 2-Tone staple clobber Ben Sherman did an official cross over with Madness including checked shirts, Harrington's and tees. Some of the gear was quite frankly horrible but the jacket and Polos stood out - unsurprisingly only available in black or white...

I've also seen on fleabay a Madness shirt by Aertex. A North west label, famed for dressing WW2 Desert Rats and the 1970 England World Cup squad, meets the North London Invaders. Bit of a strange one and don't know the link but I do know it knocks the spots off the Shermanator efforts. The Madness M taking pride of place on the chest of a cool blue gingham check.

Fred Perry were in on the act before Ben Sherman linked up with Madness. It may be disputed what brand was more associated with ska - Perry or Sherman - but theirs no doubt which band were truly ska and that's the Specials. The Laurel Wreath was given a slight 2-tone makeover and again the clobber was all black/white, shirts and polos the staple diet available. Since then Perry has also linked up with Amy Winehouse to make her collection. It was short lived.

Up the road in Manchester there's been a few. The centre of the music universe for a spell during the 80s and 90s, designers got it too. Not strictly a collaboration but Admiral linked up with the Mondays in 1999 to provide the band with swag on their reunion tour, and for Shaun et al to front the sportswear's latest advertising campaign. The campaign was ill fated as the brand went bust and as no one really rated the gear Shaun was unable to flog it off his own back to score smack.

Oasis were arguably the biggest band since the Beatles and have had the odd collaboration. Iconic brand Barcuta teamed up with them to create a cool limited edition Harrington. They also liked a bit of Manchester brand Kangol and several times the Kangeroo was sported on tour gear for band and back stage crew alike - often have a peek on eBay for these meself. The khaki parkas I've seen are pretty damn cool. And like it or loathe it (and again not strictly a collab) but Liam Gallaghers Pretty Green label is here to stay. Here you've got the rare example of musician creating a designer label and then approaching another musician for a collaboration with the Paul Weller label. Music v Fashion v Music.

 Finally the North West has always had a thing for its trainers. Plenty of Adidas Originals to be seen from the 1970s onwards. Bands like the Mondays and the Farm often sported the latest kicks, but two of the biggest faces from the areas music got the envious pleasure of having their own personal link with Adolph Dasslers training shoes. Noel Gallagher, the biggest celebrity trainer head if ever there was one, with his rather suave looking Man City coloured kicks, and across the city's footballing/music divide Stone Rose Ian Brown with his personalised Superstars in Man Utd red/black.

So there's the pick of the music v designer collaborations. There may be more but these are all bands and brands I like. Would I buy any of them? Probably not. Some would argue there's no individuality with this gear and it's simply a cash in and/or sell out. The flip side of the coin it means people can staple their colours to the mast and identify with both band and brand. And what do I think? Don't care. It's only a blog.

Live from Heaton Park it's Saturday Night

Loose Fit - Baggy Clothing and Madchester Fashion

First we had the Roses reform, now the Mondays and Carpets have done the honourable thing and reunited.  So with the early 90s music resurfacing surely its time to do away with all the slim, skinny and custom fit bollocks, and get a bit of a loose fit and bring back the baggy.

I'm fed up of all the tight fitting gear everyone seems to be wearing, parrot heads in skintight tees and pants with fucking plimsoles. Even at the footie a lot of lads are wearing slim denim and no one can deny that top end gear has gotten a lot more 'fitted'. Myself being a larger gent I despise slim gear - mainly because I look exactly what I am. A fat cunt. As Alan Partridge once said - it's well concealed in casual clothing, but you don't want to see me in my underpants.

Burning Money

I'm not telling everyone to go out and buy Manchester based clothes as Gio-Goi, Joe Bloggs and Henri Lloyd are far from my cup of E, but there was some decent gear floating around back then, made iconic by the bands wearing it - Ian Brown's Paul Smith 'Burning Money' tee (above) was immortalized in 'Fools Gold', and was deemed worthy enough by those Connoisseur lads to do a remake of with subbuteo figures some 20 years later.

www.casualco.com

Brands like Stone Island and Ralph Lauren made it big in UK around that time and are still around today - a nice old school Stoney sweatshirt can be picked up off eBay for a few bob, or Raffs classic Polo (a size too big) with a cagoule, Kangol bucket hat, loose jeans and hiking boots would look the part. Or do what some football going lads did at the time, and turn their back on the whole labels thing and go for the 'under a-fiver jivers' - namely cheap loose tee shirts from fruit of the loom and the like. I can probably do with out that floral hippy thing, but some stonewashed denim with an oversized polo (with a classic chest pocket) would sit well with me.

Reni & Mani

 Anyway I think it's definately worth a shout, looking back to go forwards as has happened countless times. Flared jeans and baggy Polos are already in my wardrobe selection, because being hefty it's a necessity, and everyone else just needs to realise that it's What the World is Waiting for. Fuck the neatness and clean lines of selvedge jeans and custom fit tops - when I go see the Mondays in Newcastle in May it'll be a Loose fit. Come on Baggy get with the beat.

Roses

Carpets

Mondays

Stone Roses Bar York

It may have crossed your minds, after reading my previous posts, that I'm quite a little bit fond of that whole Madchester thing. Well you'd be right of course. I enjoy a whole host of varying musics, but especially this era - love everything about it. The bands, the swagger, the attitude, the clobber etc. Everything but the drugs really. I also love the pub it inspired...

This quaint little place in the centre of York is certainly my favourite boozer in the whole wide world. If any normal day lad was going to run a pub, surely this is the model to go with? Classy wall art and framed records, plethora of pool tables, an antique fuss-ball, jukebox, Coors on tap and most importantly Scampi Fries. The women who go in see it as just a pub, the lads who go in see it as an experience, neigh, a way of life. Actually I suppose that's true of most pubs but more so in this one.

Get to visit semi regularly with Hartlepool playing YCFC every year in pre-season, and this makes a nice (and usually quiet) drinking hole prior to watching the ministermen beat us (2-1 this year). Makes going away with Pools that little bit extra special surrounded by all this quality swag on the walls whilst supping a nice cool pint and listening to some solid sounds. Magic.

Strangely two of these bars exist in the UK and are both in Yorkshire (the other in Leeds), suggesting that the Madchester scene broke down the barriers of that whole War of the Roses thing.