This summer the FBWL boys will be making a return for a one off special. They’ll be catching up on all the local news and goings on from the last year and all the usual Bristol gossip.
All the FBWL Classics
* Mayor Watch
*Club Reviews
*Gas Talk
*Nonsense Bristol Stories
*Local Politics
As well as the cream of Bristol’s music scene.
If you want a shout out you can Tweet Durston or Dick
or message us on the From Bristol With Love Facebook page
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Aaaaand weeeee’re baaaaack for a one-off Euro Elections special!
All the normal chitchat from Bristol’s Best Dick Gherkin and Durston Fletcher!
We give you the inside track on the bunch chellends standing in the South West Euro constituency!
The Gas Inquest: we chart the worst season in Bristol Rovers’ history, lay blame and name names!
With the Best of Bristol music from Dr Meaker & Steve Gough!
Get Some!
To listen to the show click here From Bristol With Love 50
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I was in a bar up London recently. I got chatting a guy and he asked me where I was from? When I told him Bristol he responded with ”You’ve got a great music scene down there. I love Massive Attack.” I asked him what other artist they liked from Bristol and he listed off Roni Size and Portishead. This is a common response when I tell people I’m from Bristol.
Now I also love Massive, Roni Size and Portishead. But if thats all you know of Bristolian Music you’re missing out on some diamonds.
So I thought I’d do a Top 10 Bristol Artists. This isn’t a list of highest record sales, just some of my favourites.
For more on Bristol music follow me on twitter Durston Fletcher or search #frombristolwithloveplaylist.
Also you can listen to the From Bristol With Love back catalogue
1.
2.QELD
3.
4.
5.
6. JAVEON
7.SEASFIRE
8.
9. JULIO BASHMORE
10. FANTASTIC MR FOX
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Hows things been? I’m sure you’ve all been experiencing a huge gap in your lives since From Bristol With Love has been off the airwaves. Don’t worry babes. We’ve got just the medicine.
In May we will be doing an Election Special for the Local and Euros. Letting you know who’s standing, what we think of their politics and more importantly hair cuts (hopefully we’ll see more of the legend that is Bill Payne).
In July there’s St Paul’s Festival which is always a blinder. We had a great time last year. I was meant to do some interview but ended up making loads of new best friends and dancing all night. Maybe I put Dick in charge of that this year. Festival is on Saturday 5th July and FREE!
And if you’re a big fan of the show you need to get yourself down to OutCider Festival. To start with tickets are well cheap. The Super Earlybird is £29 per person, camping included. So go buy them now while they are still available. It takes place on Fernhill Farm, Somerset. Which is only about 40mins outside of Bristol. The parking is right next to the camping, so there’s no Glastonbury mega walk.
The best reason to go is the line up. It’s like a who’s who’s of From Bristol With Love stars – Commander McNeil, Gaz Brookfield, Qeld, The Skimmity Hitchers and many more.
Look forward to seeing you there.
Keep your eyes peeled for our Election show in May and if you cant wait till then you can listen to the From Bristol With Love back catolog on mixcloud.
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ITS THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! FBWL IS DEAD! LONG LIVE FBWL!
On this last ever show of From Bristol With Love
– Travel Reviews: Barcelona and Berlin
– Revolutions: There Will be Blood
– Anti Gentrification
– The Politics of the Barbarian
– Migration in and out of Bristol, and learning a new language (if you move to Scotchland)
– Why All Politicians are lower than vermin
– Gas Talk! UWE Stadium, Sainsburys, the Blackthorn at its best – COME ON ROVERS! COME ON GAS! COME ON BLUES!
Music from Buggsy, QELD and Carasel
And there’s! No! More! Goodnight and Goodluck from Dick and Durston, its been a pleasure :0)
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Dick Gherkin and Durston Fletcher will be out of the FBWL office from 1/10/13 to 30/11/13. They will produce a show when they return, so stop banging on about it.
If you need to contact them, you simply can’t: they will be at the International University of Radio Presenters in Strasbourg. Not as students. No. As TEACHERS.
Dick will be taking up the position of Professor Emeritus of Audio Flow Theory and will present his latest paper “Spinning it Out & Bringing it Back in again: Dialectic Dynamics in Audio Synapse Orientation.” He has asked for his fee to be paid in Monster Munch.
Durston will be offering one-to-one coaching to students who have shown potential in Double Degree Level DJ Dopeness and General Skills that Pay Bills. He will also be offering his opinions on a wide range of diverse subjects, and offering out anyone who disagrees with those opinions.
Note to trained medical personnel: if any listeners begin to exhibit withdrawl symptoms, 46 hours of back catalogue is available here. Administer in controlled doses.
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Apologies for dodgy sound quality, we tried something new and it didn’t work. Revolution thru Trial & Error 4 REAL!
Stick with it and a show as beautiful as Dick Gherkin’s blood pressure will unfold before you.
Is Bristol the new London, as CNN says? Eff that, it’s twenty times better!
The Return of the Silent Producer!
An owl that sleeps thru a wedding!
A local paper that slams Domsetic Extremism and then promotes it two days later!
The return of the Queens Copper Corgi, shatting on the carpet and then resigning after taking management advice!
Gas Talk – Dick launches yet another tubthumping defence of a manager (he was wrong about Buckle, and McGhee, will it be third time the charm?)
And if that wasn’t enough – Gary Hopkins, everyone’s favourite Lib Dem councillor / taxi driver / failed butcher / early 80’s Brookside actor!
Eff London! This is From Bristol with Love!
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As promised (slightly delayed as always!) here’s the full account from our Platinum Club member as to the events from the Rovers end of the derby:
Like most Bristol footy fans I was looking forward to this game from the moment it was announced. Plans were made, time taken off work, and certainly from the Rovers side there was much talk about creating a ‘show’ and a positive atmosphere.
I shared a taxi down to the match with a female friend of mine. I was wearing my Rovers shirt, she wore a summer dress. The taxi picked us up at 18:30. The onlyother person in the van was the driver. We were just chatting the usual small talk with the driver when we found ourselves on Bedminster Down Road, directly across from the Miners Arms pub. The traffic had built up here and the vehicle came to a stop. I hadn’t had time to really notice where we were, and was actually mid-conversation with the driver, when the first glass hit. ‘SMASH!’ a pint glass
exploded on the rear passenger side window right next to my head. I turned to see approximately 150 baying City ‘fans’ who had noticed me in the back on the taxi and had decided that they were such big men they would prove it to me by way of coarse insults and schoolyard hand gestures. To be fair to them, it was 150 to 1, so I
accept they may have felt threatened and afraid.
Following the first missile came 3 more; two smashing on the road, one on the roof of the taxi. We had nowhere to go, so just had to sit there. Then, within seconds, came a full barrage of 10 to 15 pint glasses and bottles smashing and exploding on and near the taxi. The driver became
obviously distressed and I noticed a Policeman vigorously gesture us up onto the verge to drive swiftly on past the traffic in front of us and onto Winterstoke Road.
We left and mounted Police moved in to contain the swarm. As we drove down Winterstoke Road the driver, very agitated by now, wanted to turn
around and head back into Bedminster. I was able to convince him that the away end of Ashton Gate would be quieter, and this was the case as we exited the roundabout opposite ‘The Robins’ pub, which, to their credit, looked calm and well behaved.
At Ashton Gate, outside the Wedlock away stand, the atmosphere was relaxed and much more like a day at football. We waited here for another friend and her Dad who is blind. I chatted with the stewards, who were informative, and on realising there was no chance of alcohol on site we entered the Wedlock stand about 40 minutes before kick-off.
The Wedlock was already buzzing. It was busy, lots of Gasheads already in. I could see people had balloons ready (the release of which was one of the plans the Rovers community had discussed in advance for when the teams came out), everyone seemed comfortable, the songs and chants were already in full flow, and there was a really
upbeat and exciting ‘feel’.
Not too many City fans were in yet, but they were filtering up to their seats, of which the nearest to us, on the right-hand side was separated from us by nothing more than some sheeting laid over the seats. I don’t know if it was a form of advertising, or a flag or something, but it really was a mental barrier rather than a physical one.
About 20 minutes before kick off I was glad to see that a team of Rovers volunteers had managed to bring the large surfer flag down. We’d had concerns as a community about doing this, but to their credit, the volunteers had stepped up and organised themselves and the flag, and it made it’s way across the Wedlock and back again. Everyone pitched in to keep it held up.
The time eventually arrived where the teams came out. Everyone was so up for the game by now. The players appeared. We released our waterfall of blue balloons down the Wedlock; of which there seemed to be hundreds. We sang Goodnight Irene; and I’ve yet to see what this looked like on TV, but from the back where I was standing there was a real mardi gras World Cup feel to the whole experience. It was a really impressive look and I’m glad we carried it out. All Gasheads should be proud of this moment.
The match started and the singing carried on. The City group to our right seemed loud enough themselves to be fair, although somewhat more preoccupied with our fans than what was happening on the pitch. I’m always partial to a bit of chanting banter myself, but surely the main focus is the football on the pitch?
As the match progressed and went the way it did the chanting and singing on both sides become gradually more venomous. Booing started to creep in whenever we sang Goodnight Irene; also often followed by “You’ve only got one song, you’ve only got one song!” which I found a little ironic coming from a fanbase that sings nothing but ‘Drink up ye cider!’ and a very limited collection of generic footy chants.
Then, as inevitable as pie on a fat man’s plate, there was the fighting. At first, from where we were stood we couldn’t really see what was happening. A pocket of handbag swinging seemed to have erupted to the far below left of us where we had entered the stadium between the Wedlock and the Williams stands. I don’t know anything about why this started but fans on both sides were gesturing, and the armadillo coppers were wading in. There was a very nice, brand new looking, England/Rovers flag down there that read ‘Dare to Dream’ or something, which was later stolen by a City fan and set alight outside the Nova Scotia pub in Hotwells, but that’s a separate story.
From this point that area apparently ‘had to be’ sealed off; leaving us with no access to the toilets. People were approaching the stewards near us, asking about toilet provision, and being told that it was just tough and they have to wait. The attitude of the stewards and the supporting Riot Police had definitely stepped up a gear. We were stood as near as you could get to the City fans to the right of us without being forcibly stopped. The City were baying and taunting, shouting a lot of generic shit to be honest, There were a smaller number of mostly young Rovers
fans doing the same back, and security staff becoming over enthusiastic in between.
Directly next to us, in the middle of the Wedlock, there were some gates which I think also lead to toilets, but these were locked as City fans had managed to access this area earlier to shout up to us about something or other that was obviously important to them. I saw at least one City fan be dragged off through these gates for something, and then rather alarmingly, one Rovers fan who walked up to see what was going on, got grabbed in the arm by a steward, turned to go back where he came, and then was manhandled down the steps by two stewards and a copper, as if he was a trouble maker?!? He literally walked one step past me, got grabbed, turned to walk away and was dragged down the steps. Bizarre!
The Wedlock/Williams toilets became accessible again at half-time, everyone calmed down. I assume that all the City fans went for a pint. We had nothing alcoholic available that I could see.
The second half chanting became obviously hate based. City seemed to be making most of the noise. The atmospehere was toxic. There was a build up of City fans quite clearly amassing at the bottom of the Dolman stand. They were openly abusing any Rovers players that came near. The only thing dividing them from the pitch were the 2 foot advertising boards. And then, that was it, they were on the pitch. Running around making a joke of their own club; stewards and security doing very little to
control the situation. You have to wonder what it is the stewards are paid to do. It was embarrassing. I felt embarrassed for City. This is on TV?!? You’re making yourself look like a clown club!
Come the end I think most Gasheads knew the way the match was going. Singing carried on, and we outdid the City a number of times, especially on the old “*clap-clap*clap-clap-clap*clap-clap-clap-clap* ROVERS!“ (they never seemed to twig that we could just copy their City version, wait for them to give up, and then carry on ourselves for one more round!), but the end was clearly coming. Final whistle went. City go the whole ‘pants-down, cucumber up arse’ hog of self embarrassment and
cover their entire pitch with cabbages. There’s grown men running over to the Wedlock spitting on Rovers fans and their children. All shouting big about what they’re going to do, but obviously not doing it. I saw some idiot pratting about with the Police horses, looking like he was actually considering hitting one of them, then the stewards formed a one-man deep barrier which forced the City back up the pitch. A one-man deep wall that must have been made of steel as it was more than sufficient to keep the big bad City ‘men’ from ‘doing the Rovers’.
After a short wait to see if things calmed down we left Ashton Gate by the middle Wedlock exit. There was no obvious guidance by stewards. As we walked across the car park towards the Winterstoke Road gate a coin fired down near my feet and I looked up to see both Rovers and City fans, presumably from the Wedlock and Williams stands all mingled together heading in the same direction as us. I’m not sure what the Police strategy was here, other than, there wasn’t one.
Outside was tinderbox tense. I had obvious concerns over the welfare of my friends and myself as I quickly came to the realisation that a bright blue ‘Bristol Rovers Snowboard Club’ hoody, with “GASHEAD” written across the back was possibly not the best chosen attire for the environment, especially as most other Gasheads were now boarding the coaches and I had a ‘walk’ home.
Thankfully, the hundreds of City fans that were heading in the same direction as me, did actually appear to be fans, and no trouble occurred during my journey. But it was an uncomfortable stroll ending a venomous evening. There were other much spoken about events that occurred that evening, but I managed to avoid them.
On the Bristol Post website the following day, I found a comment regarding the poor fan behaviour from a City fan named Jeff Ryan, aka ‘Vonner’, he commented that Rovers fans themselves “are no angels”, but one part of his post really rang true for me. He wrote: “It’s not a football disease but a social one – and games like this are simply a vehicle for these people to posture. And they do it with impunity
because they know they will get away with it.
Having said this, it has happened too many times under the banner of Bristol City football club.”
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