07 02 05 + 6 - 10 Old Rums
in the the same breath
As time mushrooms theres a few things i recollect with a small measure of blushing pride and one thing what i done which i will never regret is that i founded - (along with a greek god called julian jones) - a football team called 'the old rums'. this was the fairest kindest bunch of men you could expect to amass around a leather ball and - in fact its a veritable diaspora that has spread far far and wide. the rums numbers movie stars and millionaires among its alumni (not that any of them were then) - it's its sort of own da vinci code and a byword for dignity at all times. its where i met mark long.
we met every tuesday night without fail for years at the back of hoxton on Shoreditch redgra - a floodlit seven aside cage - the redgra a mix of gravel and red sand that stuck like old dough in your hair and lined your lungs for eons afterwards. on a summers night you could just make out the red shirts running against the reddening white shirts in a russet dustbowl - each player with the signal bloody gravel stones in the palm of his hands and grit dried eyes. we played an hour and a half and then fell hawking into the carpenters arms for killer darts and killer poole.
every fathers day we went down paddington rec or battersea park and played a tournament and each year new wives and girlfriends and boyfriends and kids would come to the picnic. theres still some old rums playing five aside on the concrete behind brittania leisure centre in hoxton. the others are all off running the country or somesuchlike.
it was no doubt a mixed ability bunch. some sublime raking midfield passers that could cut the game in half - some clodhopping dunderers for whom the ball apparently appeared as if square. some of the dunderers could still incredibly have moments of galactico ability -some of the better players could have nights of crushing shame. i tended to have nights of square balled shame. i remember one night when i had played myself into the ground - if the score was 28 - 24 -(we had rather high scoring games) - i must have netted a good eight of them - id had a glorious night and i set to in the pub to relive replay and generally reenact the hightlights (it wasnt unusual for us to commentate AS we played). but that night mad mike had videod the game and we strung it up to the pub tele and watched it back. i think Match of the day had just finished - there was only the briefest of pauses before we came on. what i saw that night , i still have difficulty accepting was in fact me. a man bent double for sizeable portions of the game, his hands on his knees, head down, mouth agape, like some spent martin keown, socks in a bundle at his ankles. at other moments of the game he was berating and moaning to his fellow players, taking a step there, a turn here. just very occassionally - he broke into a slow trot only to collapse moments later into his now familiar bent double position. for an hour and a half we watched in growing silence as the headless chickens on the screen stumbled through their premiership romance. probably less than seven minutes after it had finished we fell as a man - as was our wont - to the post match punditry - and the glories of the evening were gradually restored. we always had the most uneerring ability to slide from discussing say the latest beckham brilliance wed seen that week on the tele to some cross mark burdis had just executed on the park. with no apparent in take of breath we could relate some david seaman-catching-the-ball-with-his-moustache moment to stevie raynes catlike defence of my corner. it never worried or indeed seem to even occur to us the acheing difference (and nor should it) between our own meagre contributions and the sublime moments of some of the greatest players in the land. all these could be encompassed IN THE SAME BREATH with no visible embarrassment or signs of irony.
and so.. the other day i was remembering this when we were discussing the album . so many times in the last weeks so many astonishing albums have been mentioned. with similar insoucience ive talked about the sound of one of my songs and moved seemlessly to marvin gayes whats going on, radioheads the bends, bob dylan , blood on.... im getting a slight flush of embarrassment even thinking about it. It seems true too that almost everyone who listens to anything new immediately puts it into some category - 'reminds me of sting.. ' or...sounds like that song from the joe strummer... i spose its natural. it just feels a bit hilarious mentioning some of these landmarks - even when they are naff. but we all need yardstcks. i might even post up a list of all the albums that have been mentioned during this process by all the people involved in it for whatever spurious reasons - itd cetainly make for some fab listening. the albums almost done. so im sitting here wondering if its any good..And hoping it isnt the audio equivalent of that bloke bent double with his hands on his knees, mouth agape, socks around his ankles...
seven comments, already:
just to tsay that isaw the debut , and what a shining moment it was. right up there with mido on saturday! all of us are bent double most of the time,it’s just that some of us can leave them on the training ground or the living room, (bedroom with a tennis racket and mirror?) few step out ontop the hallowed turf and give it as much welly and, dare i say it, dignity as the rum i saw at ye olde dingwalls for the toon army, so thanks and ishall always remember you bent double and smirking, catching your breath to let fly some timely quip to encourage another or deflate a rampant ego. thanks mate foir the rums and for the songs.
killerricky - 08 02 05 - 11:40
So here you are wondering who is going to relate your style to who .. and you never know .. yours might be like no other … and until we hear it ..! Anyway .. Gomez – Bring it on … nothing like anything …nothing like anything recorded or live in fact .. except may be … those gravelly Ben Ottwell vocals that sometimes … hang around in Joe Cockers-ville (did I really say that?) .. so you see..sounding like someone can in fact be beneficial – it’s how people buy music .. ‘did you hear that .. blah blah’ ... David Gray made a bomb by some bloke starting off a ‘sounds like Bob Dylan’ rumour … of course, there are now a million disappointed Bob Dylan’ers out there who thought they were getting fed some more of the same .. when in fact they were get nothing like …David Grays a happy man methinks! Come on .. it’s all gonna be cool .. and I’m expecting a CD from Mark any day now! Keep the faith 
nettie () - 08 02 05 - 12:18
If the singing career doesn’t make you rich and famous… perhaps you should try writing. You clearly have a great talent there – came out all goosepimply and watery eyed.
Funny thing – that blurring of the boundaries between professional and amateur… if you are a true “amateur” – a lover of something, you love it no matter what. Many a walk through the park with my boyfriend on my arm, he providing running commentary for the jumpers on the ground matches, the kids with dad’s running up and down the touch line, boyfriend shouting at the player not passing into the space and jumping for joy when the ball thwacks into the back of the net. I never understand how such a transitory moment, with no emotional attachment to the players, never to be seen again, can elicit such passion.
Mrs Danvers - 08 02 05 - 13:37
but thats what life is, those moments that cant be explained…maybe a child would call it magic …and a grown up would call it “love”.........
mark - 08 02 05 - 15:07
oH YES, THE RUMS, IT HAS GIVEN ME MANY GREAT MOMENTS AND SOME SHOCKERS ( LAST NIGHTS 13-0 DEFEAT SPRINGS TO MIND ) BUT THE RUMS ARE ONE OF THE TRUE CONSTANTS IN LIFE. GREAT LADS, GREAT WIVES AND GREAT KIDS. THANKS FOR THE RUMS
DAVE NELLIST - 09 02 05 - 11:37
Hear hear Dave N. AND Thanks to the Rums – I get a few hours on my own on a Tuesday night to check my emails and write a bit of rubbish. Someone keep him in the pub next time, so I can try and write that novel
Mrs D - 15 02 05 - 21:23
Ah, the beautiful redgra, what memories – makes us remember how much faster the game’s got since you left, Doug. Love and luck with the excellent album. Sorry we missed the HMV signing.
THE RUMS - 25 02 05 - 18:15