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Post by andy on Jun 1, 2007 21:45:17 GMT
150th Birthday of Edward Elgar tomorrow, and he has featured significantly on BBC H&W today. One of the items they focused on was his love of football, with stories of how he would cycle to Molineux to watch Wolves. It set me wondering whether or not he may have ever taken in a game at the Lane.
This is conjecture, but I believe there to be a strong argument that he may well have watched an early incarnation of City, if not necessarily at the Lane.
When City were formed in 1902, the Club president was Lord Beauchamp (having just returned from a short stint as Governor of New South Wales). Beauchamp and Elgar formed the Malven Concert Club together, and Beauchamp also had a sister, Lady Mary Lygon, to whom Elgar's 13th Variation in the Enigma Variations is dedicated. So the two obviously knew each other pretty well.
With Lord Beauchamp the City President, Elgar a close friend and clearly interested in football, one could never prove it, but there is a reasonable chance that Elgar may well have spent some time watching City.
Lord Beauchamp was later 'outed' to the King by his brother (as part of a political rivalry), and is cited as the likely foundation for one of the principal gay characters in Brideshead Revisited.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2007 14:06:55 GMT
Great minds think alike Andy. I was wondering the same thing. Surely someone who is prepared to cycle to Wolverhampton to watch a game would occaisionally take an easier option and watch a local side? There are diaries etc that could well tell us. It would be good to find out.
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Post by andy on Jun 2, 2007 14:47:49 GMT
That bit about taking the easier option than a bike ride to Wolverhamption certainly occurred to me - although there was probably a decent enough train service at the time. Clearly, City players used to travel to away games by train in the early days, as evidence here (well, I suppose they werent going to travel by car, were they!): www.worcesterpeopleandplaces.com/articles/20050701032705.aspHave to be a bit careful with the chronology, though, as Elgar moved from Worcester in 1904 to Hereford, only returning to Worcester in 1923, before moving to Hampstead in 1927. So, perhaps at Severn Terrace in the very early formative years, or - more likely - at some time during the 1924 Championship season, perhaps when City attracted nearly 10,000 in the 'decider' against Kidderminster Harriers. After all, what Worcester-born football lover would have missed that! |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2007 15:01:08 GMT
The subject of one of his Enigma variations has never been deciphered. He kept its identity hidden by using cryptic clues. Since his death thousands of music scholars have failed to work it out. It must have been something enigmatic; indefinable; inexplicable and exasperating. One subject fits perfectly. WCFC!
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Post by andy on Jun 2, 2007 15:18:25 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2007 19:33:29 GMT
I think the cypher could be an early version of "Oh Wocestershire is wonderful..." or "If you all hate Albion clap your hands....." which Sir Edward was working on at the time.
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Post by LeedsWCFC on Jun 3, 2007 1:52:33 GMT
Clearly, City players used to travel to away games by train in the early days They've done it since then too. I remember travelling by train to an away game - if I remember correctly it was at Hastings at the start of the 1978/9 season - and getting off at Paddington and seeing Nobby and the team on the platform. |
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Post by DazaB on Jun 3, 2007 7:19:57 GMT
Its obviously oh worcestershire because every few squiggles theres a tall squiggle which is the capital O at the start of Oh.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2007 10:01:51 GMT
Yes, I also believe he was collaborating with Rudyard Kipling as lyric writer on " You're sh*t and you know you are...."
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Post by DrAgony on Jun 4, 2007 10:10:32 GMT
And with Enid Blyton on "The Famous 4 - 4 - 2"
...or was it with Tolstoy on "War & Preece"?
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Post by tim on Jun 22, 2007 8:44:30 GMT
but he didn't write arguably the finest City song of all time, which is now frequently heard on live Premiership matches. The song? "my garden shed is bigger than this....." The composers? Me, Big Al and Dorset!
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Post by B*ue dragonstander on Jun 22, 2007 11:26:21 GMT
Its not arguable Tim it is fact! An excellent ditty much loved and admired from near and far and widely copied. Witty, clean and insulting (in the nicest possible way) especially from the fans of a club with arguably one of the largest garden sheds in the world nestling comfortably in the corner of the Lane
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Post by dorothy on Jun 22, 2007 11:58:36 GMT
Such a large shed as to be home to a dragon as was once penned.
"Georgie the Magic Dragon lived in the shed and frollicked on the footie pitch at St. Georges Lane"
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Post by tim on Jun 22, 2007 13:01:42 GMT
Its not arguable Tim it is fact! An excellent ditty much loved and admired from near and far and widely copied. Witty, clean and insulting (in the nicest possible way) especially from the fans of a club with arguably one of the largest garden sheds in the world nestling comfortably in the corner of the Lane And to think that the initial recipients of this ditty, Salisbury City, are now a league above us  We used to have some fun in the old days making up new songs between pub and ground. They didn't all work, Andy Clay's "My Girl" being one such example, but I guess the Ronnie Oliver song will live on despite his passing, and the Anton song may be redundant these days (written by George Rooney no less, possibly his greatest contribution to WCFC?  ) but the glee with which George rushed round the touchline to me behind the goal to tell me the song will never be forgotten. For those that weren't there, it was a pre-season friendly at Evesham, Anton Thomas's first game for the club. George had been onto me the night before in the Vine about coming up with a song for Anton, and it was pure Rooney inspiration to use the tune of 2Unlimited's "no limits" to the words "Anton, Anton, Anton, Anton, Anton, Anton, Anton Thomas......." |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2007 13:11:42 GMT
The Vine! I thought I was the only person ever to have gone in there!
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Post by wakefield on Jun 22, 2007 13:19:51 GMT
may be these days.
Has gone downhill I'm told.
Saw GR in the Northwick a few years ago. Good beer too.
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Post by tim on Jun 22, 2007 13:55:41 GMT
The Vine is now a horrible dump, a real shame. Never was the best pub in the City, but it is really poor these days. Went in there at Christmas for a trip down Memory Lane, wish we hadn't bothered. Northwick Arms is much better.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2007 15:01:11 GMT
My Grandad spent the family's money in the Nothwick. They used to live down Newys Hill - before it was carpeted with houses.
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) but the glee with which George rushed round the touchline to me behind the goal to tell me the song will never be forgotten.