cafecalcio's posterous

Alright, alright! Enough already! It's here, the last in this the fourth series of Cafe Calcio. This season's been quite fun (albeit a little on the short side) and fear not, we will return with another series (at the arse-end of September we suspect).

So then here's the podcast. In this episode we welcomed author, journalist and all round pretty useful and dapper chap Paolo Hewitt to Resonance FM to talk about 'the other half' of a book which we had featured earlier in the series with its co-author Mark Baxter. The Fashion Of Football: From Best To Beckham.

In the first show (3rd March edition if memory serves) we decided mid way through not to pay lip service to fan fashion and concentrate on the togs of footballers themselves. We just couldn't fit it all in. So in this episode we explore the links between music, fashion and why the popular press didn't pick up on the casual movement and generally tie up the ends that we couldn't in the first show.

Also, it's been an interesting season for Wealdstone FC (Wealdstone are our only indulgent concession as regards talking about ACTUAL football) so we caught up with Roger Slater who let us know just how nuts it has been.

We also feature the usual action from Chris Roberts and David Stubbs.

Chris Dixon mostly sat there, hungover. Pro.

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So here it is – the last in the latest series of Café Calcio. Some of you will doubtless remember our footy fashions edition with Mark Baxter - fear not if you missed it, it’s up on our Soundcloud page - and in that edition we decided it better to spread the conversation we were having over two shows rather than try to squeeze it all into the one. 

So, tonight, to finish of our current run we’ll be welcoming Mark’s partner in crime Paolo Hewitt to Resonance to discuss not the fashions of players, but the fashions of fans.

Is he qualified to do this? I detect your suspicions and see you itching your beards, but yes. He is. 

See this? 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Fashion-Football-Beckham-Label/dp/1840188073

He wrote this with the above-mentioned Mark, so who better to get in to discuss the topic? No one, that’s who. Well, other than Mark that is, but he's busy promoting his new movie Outside Bet (very showbiz) so he sends his apologies, which we convey to you all.

We’ll also be talking to Wealdstone’s Roger Slater about the ebbs and flows of their season. It’s been quite the rollercoaster for them but you don’t need us to tell you about it now – listen in later so that HE can!

There’ll be another Masterclass from Chris Roberts – this time The Charleston and David Stubbs tends to keep the subject matter of his caustic little vignettes a secret so we’ll all find out together if you’re listening live – which you really should be.

We’re live at 7PM (BST) 104.4FM around London – and on resonancefm.com/listen for the rest of this here world.

Tune in!

This is a show containing a subject we had been looking to dip into for some time. We tried to examine the relationship between the children of migrants and the "mother country" specifically through their attachment, or not, to England and their local team. We had comedian Paul Ricketts http://www.paulrickettscomedian.com/ twitter.com/paulricketts10 in the studio relating his own experiences and those of other black Britons he interviewed for his show Kiss The Badge - Fly The Flag.

Chris Roberts takes us through the unlikely correlation between head-banging and Roy Hodgson

David Stubbs ruminates over the orgasmic exaltations of Gary Neville.

Chris Dixon does his best to hold it all together with a voice that has all the tonal qualities of a nail through an exhaust pipe. Apologies.

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In this edition we explore the relationship between football, fiction and storytelling. We welcome author and broadcaster Dan Freedman to talk to us about his series of books about a boy with a dream much like any of us lads and lasses have had; to grow up into a pro-footballer. We talk about the narratives of the stories and the social context of the books themselves.

http://www.dantheauthor.co.uk/books.html

We also welcomed Pat Ryan, a storyteller whose job it is to train football club staff (players, coaches, study support centre teachers, and apprentices etc) to tell and read aloud stories to children. 

Chris Roberts draws together similarities to Ghost Dancing and Portsmouth's 09/10 squad.

David Stubbs isn't happy. Again. This time it's the sheer number of red cards being dished out that has not just *got* his goat, but *taken* it, videoed it in a compromising position with Sepp Blatter and attempted to then ransom the poor Billy back to him.

Chris Dixon is what Chris Dixon does.

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The dance (Charleston) is named after Charleston, South Carolina and, amazingly enough, became popular after a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" from a Broadway show called Runnin' Wild. The steps (developed by Kathryn Wilson) spread internationally during the 1920s and became almost synonymous with the flapper fashion, drink, drugs, flash lifestyles and generally considered a bit immoral and provocative. The characteristic Charleston beat apparently incorporates the clave rhythm but quickly evolved to take in fresh fashions and influences.

Whichever style of Charleston one chooses, whether dancing alone, with a partner, or in groups, the basic step resembles the natural movement of walking, though it is usually performed in one place. The arms swing forward and backwards, with the right arm coming forward as the left leg 'steps' forward, and then moving back as the opposite arm/leg begin their forwards movement. Toes are not pointed, but feet usually form a right angle with the leg at the ankle. Arms are usually extended from the shoulder, either with straight lines, or more frequently with bent elbows and hands at right angles from the wrist.

As it is danced today, solo 20s Charleston often combines not only steps from dances associated with the 1920s but also jazz dance combining choreography with improvisation and creative variations on familiar moves which can be quite showy. There is even an aspect of audiance participation whereby audiences and fellow competitors encourage dancers with cheers, shouts, applause, physical gestures and other feedback to which the dancers may respond with off piste gestures of their own.

So we have a slightly flash dance style, fashion conscious, whiff of dodgy money here and there. Who else could this be but Chelsea in the Abramovitch era? Even the first couple of letters fit and the English Chelsea is, after all, the most sung about suburb in the world before one adds in the various songs about the New York one*. In other ways the style fits too the back and forth movement, switching sides of the field, encouragement of solo performances and team efforts. Not to mention some really annoying synchronised goal celebrations.

Charleston for non historical types.

*Chelsea walk, girls, lovers, Monday, bums, dagger, bridge, smile, not wanting to go there and a host of others from UK. Chelsea morning, hotel and girls from the US. Chelsea Rodgers by Prince is clearly a person not the area.

Purists may question the inclusion of headbanging as a dance in that there are very few traditional (or even modern) steps in it. However it remains a series of movements in response to music and, like other dances featured in this series has a number of styles. These variants can be blended but largely the difference is down to the speed, volume and weight of the music. Weight in this respect refers to layers of guitars and preponderance of bass and drums, for headbanging is pretty much exclusively the preserve of the fans of heavy rock or heavy metal as it came to be known.

Although based on the blues, heavy developed in the 1970s in the English Midlands and elsewhere into a hugely popular genre which subsequently split into a number of offshoots including speed and death metal. The standard headbanging manoeuvre starts with both feet firmly planted on the ground, slightly apart and bent at the knees though stances may vary from the long stride with one foot farther in front of the other to feet wide apart to either side. In the end it is all about balance with this dance style. Once happily rooted the dancer shakes his or her head vigorously in time with the music in combination with hand gestures (such as the sign of the horns), singing, yelling, and lip syncing or air guitar playing. Eyes may be open or shut whilst head bangers' bodies usually bang with the head thereby reducing the strain on the neck and making the body move in a serpentine, up-and-down fashion to the music.

It is this “classic” style rather than the offshoot “windmill” headbanging which has the closest links to football. Headbanging is most popular amongst managers and trainers who take up their stance either wide (like Graham Taylor) or long (Roberto Mancini amongst others) though many are happy to switch throughout the game. The moves though are fairly proscribed from the head shaking, grimacing, and hand gestures of stadium rock to additions contributed by stadium soccer which are rarely seen at a concert venue. These include the “give it wide” or “release it” gesture and the allied sweeping “get it up field” signal. Other steps seldom seen away from the touchline include the hand roll, forehead bash and face wiped in disbelief.

Roy Hodgson gives a fine example of managerial headbanging

More traditional instruction.

In tonight's show we're welcoming a storyteller, Pat Ryan (patryanstoryteller.co.uk) to talk about his experiences with Sports Stories and Kick Into Reading - two projects that use the power of stories to promote reading, writing and speaking to produce a book written by the fans, for the fans. Also Dan Freedman, author of the Jamie Johnson series and presenter Colourful Radio joins us in what we reckon is going to be a pretty interesting conversation on football as represented in fiction.

You're welcome to drop in from 7pm (BST) live on 104.4FM around London and resonancefm.com/listen wherever else you might be - we look forward to having you along for the ride!

So in this episode we talk to David Hartrick. For those of you who don't know, he's one of the trio behind inbedwithmaradona.com and he came on to talk about his brand new, spanking, shiny book 50 Teams That Mattered.

In the show we obviously talk about the book, its genesis, realisation and editorial concerns. We examine a few of the teams within the covers and examine just why it is that some of these teams erm...

... mattered, obviously.

Want the book? Before you answer that question, let us answer for you. Yes, you do. We know this from experience.

All that's necessary is for us to inform you where can buy it:

http://ockleybooks.co.uk/

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It’s a pitiful sight and one would have to have a heart of stone not be moved as the battered troop of shirt wearers helplessly circle, to the beat of a drum, trying to ward off defeat, summon up a miracle and pinning great faith on the shirt to get them out of a difficult spot.

In the 1890s a religious movement swept through the North American Plains Indian tribes which refocused the traditional round dance (a circular community dance held around an individual who leads the ceremony) into something more modern and millennialist, which even incorporated elements of a muscular Christianity. The Ghost shirts they wore were sacred vests supposed to guard against being shot to pieces, which failed to deliver on this belief as Kicking Bear, Short Bull and others found out at the massacre of Wounded Knee.

So we have a dance featuring slow predicable steps, followed by elements of awkward atavistic movement which incorporates religious faith, superstition, kicking and a short bullish man alongside a misplaced faith in a shirt with musical accompaniment. I think it’s clear the parallel between the ten nations of the Teton Sioux and the 2009/2010 Portsmouth squad which included David James, Linvoy Primus, Papa Bouba Diop, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Nwankwo Kanu alongside an annoying man with a bell.

The ten nations of the ten points deduction

In this episode we talk about two markedly different football publications; independent quarterly Blizzard and teenage footy mag, Match. To take us through what these are and what they mean we speak to one of the main brains behind theBlizzard.co.uk Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) - a man who's football knowledge is frankly, at times, frightening and Matt Read (@mattread66), Features Editor at Match magazine.

We also grab an interview with Deano Standing, Head Of Media at Millwall FC on what goes in to the ultimate glossy - The Match Day Program.

Chris Roberts' Masterclass looks at Tap Dancing and Liverpool.

David Stubbs gets well narky.

Chris Dixon sits and gawps, as usual.

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