The mixture of football and music at the time was pretty hardcore. Later on they would feature quite cleverly on a punk compilation album ' A country fit for heroes ' on the Crass label, cementing their place in the punk rock world. Local Swansea band Pseudo Sadists were often sighted outside the bus station, hanging around and sniping at all the passers by. The Clash said ' Hate and War ' and I agreed.įor me though I found a certain friendship in Swansea away from football, mixed up at the market by the bus station were a host of skinheads, punks and anarchists who tolerated each other because they too, like all of us ' alternative types ' back then - were outcasts. This was 1979, and the country had been trying to go bang for two whole years. It was, not to put too much finer point on it - ferocious. This is well documented, even in Wales where I recall seeing The Dickies at The Troubadour in Port Talbot as the huge crowd fought out a Swansea / Cardiff war that raged all night. The divide then was skinheads and punks who would regularly battle it out on the dance floor as Stiff Little Fingers or Chron Gen played their challenging sets of music. As a spiky haired studded punk clone of Exploited persuasion I often ventured to the ' big city ' meaning Swansea, and of course for most punk rock gigs it would be Cardiff where you would take your life in to your own hands at the Top Rank, or worse still the smaller venues hosting the anarcho bands like Conflict or Crass. Wales too had some decent input from The Oppressed ( Cardiff ) The Partisans ( Bridgend ) Venom ( Swansea ) and my very own Picture Frame Seduction, a life's work still unfolding. It led me on to discovering real street punk bands like the UK Subs, Discharge ( who I would later proudly be a member of ) The Varukers, Chaos UK and so many more bands, and yes, I could spend the rest of the day listing many, many more. Yes, I consumed everything that was The Sex Pistols, Stranglers, Buzzcocks, and Damned including their clenched fist and uncompromising attitude towards society and values, for me though these were the musical catalysts for far better things. This reminds me very much of the solidarity I first encountered as a very young man hailing from those blinkered West Wales borders and discovering the legend that was punk rock. Its what we like best ( in our case football ) that brings us together, however you really wouldn't choose some your football mates, football chooses you to have those friends, by virtue of the team you follow, your age, gender and location - it happens in many cases. But that can change, especially when the ball hits the back of the net ( at West Brom a bloke I have never met before - or since - embraced me like he was having an ecstasy fit ) and a moment like that brings us all together, albeit for a brief few seconds we are brothers and sisters united. We all come from a plethora of different backgrounds, no matter the job, study, benefit or tax you rely upon one thing remains true, the success of our football team brings us together. We cant all get along, just because we follow the same football team, and to be honest, Im pretty thankful that is the case. Keith Haynes is back and looking at Swansea City through his own eyesįollowing our beloved Swansea City is very much about opinions, no matter the line we walk as people out there in the big wide world, its the results that matter to us all.
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