Divers

Musical Hammers

Quite a few bands and singers have been open about being Hammer fans, like Iron Maiden, Cockney Rejects, David Essex, Cock Sparrer, Dave Grohl, Billy Bragg, Rod Stewart!!, and a host of singing soap actors.
But really don't know if this Rubettes cover is good for the image of the club or not? hahaha.

Couldn't stand the band, but praise for the guy wearing the shirt.

Trouble and Strife

The first of many Hammer youtube vids I'm going to post.
This one courtesy of ASync Productions, tells of the woes of last season.
Not sure if it had the happy ending as it seems to have been cut, still good though.

Mug?

Might be able to throw this away now (hopefully)

Trouble

My experiences of football trouble
I'll start by listing the 5 worst things that have happened to me at football matches.

1) Having a petrol bomb thrown into a crowd of us (West Ham fans) by a Newcastle fan at St James park in the late 70's
2) Narrowly missed being killed by Liverpool fans throwing lumps of concrete from a bridge onto us while walking towards Anfield, again 70's.
3) Having my head split open by a full beer can (beer? or piss?) lobbed from the Liverpool side of the Holt End at Villa park during the 81 League cup final replay.
4) Being run over after the same match by a Liverpool fan who just drove his car at about 20mph into a crowd of Hammers fans, luckily no one was seriously hurt except maybe him after his car was turned over.
5) Being punched in the face by a Liverpool fan outside Upton park, just for asking him if any gates were still open, as I'd arrived late for the match.

I've been to a lot of away games at places like Millwall, Old Trafford, Leeds, White Hart Lane, Stamford Bridge and others who get tarred as having bad fans, so this is my top 5 list of places not to go.
1) Liverpool (see above)
2) Stoke (rock throwers and mobs of angry kids)
3) Newcastle (mainly because of the petrol bomb incident)
4) Portsmouth (lots of abusive drunks)
5) Spurs (police policy of keeping you back after the game, causes aggro)

Been to Millwall 6 times (including 3 games against the Hammers) and not been involved in any trouble, tabloid hype builds that one up, although we do hate each other.

Hooligans

Thought I'd start with posting some stuff I'd previously put on another blog.
So first up here's this.

I thought I'd put the links up for a series of films taken
from the documentary "Hooligan" based mainly around the ICF
"the Inter City Firm" as West Ham's hooligan element were known.
(Thanks to Simon7s the uploader).
This TV documentary was made in 1985 so you'll have to forgive
the dodgy haircuts, but it's well made and Mr Danny Dyer could learn from it.

1 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=E4cKSR0sL3o
2 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=akF5iAM0T4Q
3 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=YHSo_xTvPEQ
4 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=4x1eezCQwVY
5 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=qywrsvX4KfE
6 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=fWFMF1ChXDA

I have to admit I was at most of these games and don't remember seeing most of this trouble, although I was told at the time it did happen.
Just goes to prove you can always find trouble if you want to, and in 95% of cases you can avoid trouble if you don't look for it.

Intro

I've been supporting West Ham United for as long as I can remember, probably from the early sixties when I first went to school.
Went to my first game in 1973, and became a regular in 1976.
Been a bit of an armchair fan over the last few years due to the high costs and not living that close.
But I'll always be a fan.

Going to fill this blog with memories and pictures etc, plus all the latest stuff as well.
Hoping some of you bloggers will send some comments to make this worthwhile :)