Warning; this is very silly, so don't take it seriously. And yet...
So I've mentioned before my Czech buddy who has an anorak vintage rock and blues show on the otherwise hip indie Prague Radio 1. He's not a footie fan, tennis is his game. But as someone who was imprisoned by the Communist regime for daring to trade such music, he likes to hear my stories of seeing bands like Wishbone Ash and Thin Lizzy in pubs in the 70s, and eventually the two big concerts at the Valley. I bought him the posters that were recently offered by the Museum, and he was made up. So then i explained my sadness at my underperforming team's fortunes, and he announced that he would big them up on his show. I thought that was daft, what would his audience make of it? He didn't care. On R1 the DJs play and say what they want. He went ahead and quite randomly dedicated a song to Charlton Athletic, the team that play at the Valley. His show runs on Saturday morning. It was 21st December. A few hours later I was trying to process that out of nowhere we had won 5-0 away at Northampton.
This of course greatly pleased him. He'd invited me to be his guest on his Christmas show, and among other British Christmas gems (some suggested on here) I got the Red Red Robin shoehorned in , on the grounds that the robin is a Christmas symbol. We beat Cambridge next day, and then , after another big-up from him, Wycombe. It started to look like something was going on. I kept asking him if he was sure about doing this, but he insisted, every week, we got a mention. I thought about posting something on here about it earlier, but I was afraid of jinxing it. He started to refer to the "Cosmic Power of Radio 1" behind us. A couple of weeks ago he mentioned somebody else as a fan of Charlton. I asked him WTF? He said it was a Czech listener in London who at first had asked WTF? too, but then decided to.. er...check us out - and became a fan.
Every week since Northampton away, Tomaš has mentioned us, and here we are.
So this Saturday, he's doing a special for us. In the first hour he's going to feature tracks from the Who and other bands who played those Valley concerts in 74 and 76. Maybe not Lindisfarne. Too folksy for him...but expect Humble Pie, Bad Company, Montrose, Stone the Crows...
Of course he'll be speaking Czech and the music will only be of interest to those of you of a certain vintage (even though he says he's got a young cohort in his audience ratings). But now he's seen the photos and videos. The Valley clean-up. The Valley Party. The beautiful photo of the Valley from a drone. The big entrance at a packed Valley on Thursday. Matty Godden's winner. Had me misty-eyed putting that together, but he gets it now. For him and his mates, the old rebels who risked their necks just to get their hands on a Who album, the Valley was already a legendary place and seeing it on its knees, and then on full power, that got him.
Saturday, 10.00 a.m. UK time. You can listen
from their website or any of those global apps like Radio Garden. If you like what you hear, mail him on studio@radio1.cz Like any radio DJ, he'll be bouyed by the engagement.
It's all nonsense of course...isn't it?
Comments
I'll raise a glass ( or three) to Tomas when we celebrate post match on Sunday.
Surely this has to be " It's a kind of magic".....
Followed by Streetwalkers with Roger Chapman on vocals. I'd forgotten them.
Emailing now to see if I can get a shoutout for my brother 😂