Friday, January 12, 2007
17.12 Twenty Five Minutes Late
Tim bought me “The Damned Utd” for Christmas.
Since hearing an interview with David Peace on 'Front Row' I knew I was going to have to read it at some point. Despite having read “1974” and finding it the most unpleasant novel I’d ever finished. Despite having an atavistic hatred of Brian Clough, passed on to me from my Dad, even before the whole Leeds debacle.
So, no time like the present.
It's meticulousness was hard going at first, and there are only so many ways to say ‘we won, we lost, we drew’. It was not ideal bedtime reading either. Mostly because of the clenched teeth and and the tension in my shoulders and the desire to throw the book across the room, not wanting to know what That Man thought or felt about anything, but also because of the unremitting grubbiness of it all.
As I progressed, as it's timelines drew closer together, I was drawn in. I succumbed. I don't know if I ever actually enjoyed the experience, but events started to fall into place, things began to make sense, it was almost possible to understand why he'd taken the job (though never why it'd been a good idea to offer it to him).
Some things I remembered, some things I'd never known, some things I'd conveniently forgotten.
(I still have a photo cut out of the Yorkshire Post, of the great Duncan McKenzie jumping over a mini, pressed between the pages of my 1976 Collins diary).
Then last night I finished it.
Wish he’d stuck to his original intention and it’d been about Don Revie.
Brilliant Mind - Furniture
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - Postal Service (DJ Downfall remix)
Goodbye Lucille #1 - Prefab Sprout
Underdog - Turin Brakes
Late For The Sky - Jackson Browne
One More Mile - Tom McRae
Black Heart - Calexico
Sara - Ben Weaver
Tim bought me “The Damned Utd” for Christmas.
Since hearing an interview with David Peace on 'Front Row' I knew I was going to have to read it at some point. Despite having read “1974” and finding it the most unpleasant novel I’d ever finished. Despite having an atavistic hatred of Brian Clough, passed on to me from my Dad, even before the whole Leeds debacle.
So, no time like the present.
It's meticulousness was hard going at first, and there are only so many ways to say ‘we won, we lost, we drew’. It was not ideal bedtime reading either. Mostly because of the clenched teeth and and the tension in my shoulders and the desire to throw the book across the room, not wanting to know what That Man thought or felt about anything, but also because of the unremitting grubbiness of it all.
As I progressed, as it's timelines drew closer together, I was drawn in. I succumbed. I don't know if I ever actually enjoyed the experience, but events started to fall into place, things began to make sense, it was almost possible to understand why he'd taken the job (though never why it'd been a good idea to offer it to him).
Some things I remembered, some things I'd never known, some things I'd conveniently forgotten.
(I still have a photo cut out of the Yorkshire Post, of the great Duncan McKenzie jumping over a mini, pressed between the pages of my 1976 Collins diary).
Then last night I finished it.
Wish he’d stuck to his original intention and it’d been about Don Revie.
Brilliant Mind - Furniture
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - Postal Service (DJ Downfall remix)
Goodbye Lucille #1 - Prefab Sprout
Underdog - Turin Brakes
Late For The Sky - Jackson Browne
One More Mile - Tom McRae
Black Heart - Calexico
Sara - Ben Weaver
Labels: leeds
