15 seconds of fame

by Rick Johansen

I’ve achieved national fame today, sort of. Very sort of actually, but fame nonetheless. My name was mentioned on BBC Radio Five Live!

It was Rachel Burden, co-presenter of 5 Live Breakfast, who referred to the time she was “dragged along” to the Memorial Stadium to watch Bristol Rovers. And who was the person to do the dragging? Yours truly! Actually, Rachel didn’t take much dragging. At the time, she was presenting the Radio Bristol Breakfast show and in those days a small offshoot of Rovers’ Supporters Club had a terrific relationship with the station with presenters coming to our social events and us appearing on their shows.

I just happened to mention to her that it would be great fun if she came to a match and she agreed there and then. She was offered the opportunity of sitting with the rich and famous in one of the boxes, but our Rachel preferred to join the great unwashed on the West Stand Enclosure. I do not recall the opposition, the game, or anything trivial like that, not even the year, but I do recall an evening packed with laughter and the usual terrace banter. Rachel has got what us laughing experts call “a dirty laugh”, if you know what I mean, and it was in evidence throughout the evening, because of, or perhaps despite, our awful puns, not least those of the legendary Sladey, a fellow terrace dweller of the day.

Despite the fact that Rovers were rubbish in those days, there was very much the feeling that we were all in it together and unlike the world in which George Osborne lives, I believe we truly were. Despite the fact that we were bumping along near the foot of League Two, there was a feeling that we had a genuine stake holding in our club. How good it would be to get that feeling back again.

I have documented regularly my own issues with the football club, or rather issue as it is these days. I decided to never again watch the Rovers for as long as my friend Kevin Spencer remained banned and whilst it was very upsetting to miss out on yesterday’s Wembley triumph, I am nothing without my principles, no matter how warped they may seem to anyone else.

Yesterday, Kevin and I both, independently, contacted the current chairman, Nick Higgs and the chairman but one before that, Geoff Dunford, to offer our congratulations at the club’s return to the Football League and we meant it. I know I speak for Kevin too when I say that we are both genuinely pleased for our many friends who celebrated yesterday’s win and what it means to people who have suffered for their team for many years.

I hope to be meeting Mr Higgs in due course, ostensibly to thank him for his and the club’s immense support for the family and friends of Ben Hiscox who was so cruelly taken away from us last month. Whatever my issues with Mr Higgs and the club, they pale not into insignificance but complete irrelevance by comparison. I lack many things but not a sense of perspective. When it really mattered, Mr Higgs and his club delivered and showed what it means to have a club with a beating heart at the centre of the community.

I am undecided as to whether I should even raise the subject of Kevin’s banning order when I meet the chairman. I suspect he regards it as water under the bridge and it probably is now. Kevin has moved to the south west so probably wouldn’t be able to attend matches anyway, even if he wanted to. I just think that, even if only for symbolism, if the ban could be lifted the final barrier to a completely united fan base would be lifted once and for all. I am not totally stupid and understand completely that the overwhelming majority of supporters will neither know nor care about this minor event in Rovers’ history and would rather I just left it. Perhaps they’d be right.

It was certainly nice to be reminded on national radio of how things used to be at the club but it is also important not to dwell too much in the past, nor is it healthy.

Whatever happens, I no longer have issues with anyone at the club, including Mr Higgs. His actions in supporting a stricken community have reminded me that some things are more important than petty squabbles and point-scoring. And I thank him for that.

Meanwhile, if you’ll excuse me, I have to start practising my autograph for when I meet the adoring crowds who will have heard my name mentioned on national radio. My 15 seconds of fame!

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