Independent Rs Messageboard

[Steve Russell]

I put this together over 25 years ago..

‘It’s the Cup Final but I don’t Care, I’m QPR’ – Glen Matlock

Every now and again the topic of so called personalities that follow the R’s is discussed.
What about so and so, he used to be seen at Loftus Road, does he still go ?

Some years ago, I picked up a copy of the ‘Metro’ and inside was a short interview with Glen Matlock,
one time Sex Pistol who proudly proclaimed his allegiance to the Superhoops.

The following year, the flyer for the Olympia Record Fair stated that he would make a personal appearance on both
weekend days of the Fair.

The Saturday also happened to be Cup Final day, but I was committed to doing the Fair and meeting him.

So I joined the line of old and new Punks, queuing up for their Pistols LP’s and photos to be autographed.
My turn eventually came, and I surprised him by remarking that I didn’t want anything signed, I just wanted to
have a chat about the Rangers.

He was born in Kensal Green and attended Clement Danes School. I was pleased to hear that he’s also a big fan of #
the Small Faces. As we were chatting the procession continued. I stood aside for a moment as one young guy asked
for his CD to be signed. “Who should I sign it to?” he enquired. “Just write fxxk off” came the reply!

I also took the opportunity to get a few publicity pictures signed with ‘Come On You R’s’ to pass on and I even kept one
for myself. I’m not really a fan of the Pistols, but I thought the least I could do was hand over a tenner for a ‘Philistines’
CD titled ‘Open Mind’ that was strategically placed on the table and then returned to my stall to eagerly await his mini
live set scheduled in about an hour or so.

His solo set more or less coincided with kick-off time. Some previously unfamiliar tunes followed such as, ‘Burning Sound’,
‘Different World’ and ‘Sad Meal For One’, a song from the ‘Open Mind’ CD which was about Yuppie types who buy their
microwave meals in the Edgware Road.

He stopped abruptly mid-way through one number yelling: “Its Cup Final day but I don’t care, I’m QPR” which provoked
a response from yours truly of ‘UR’ssss’ from behind the Punk ensemble. The Punks didn’t know what was going on of course,
but I did and it was wonderful. He belted out another song from what was then his current album, which was all about
having ‘shit for brains’ and titled appropriately ‘Idiot’.

The mini set concluded with the classic Pistols number ‘Pretty Vacant’ with as you can imagine, the chorus of
‘And We Don’t Care’ was sung by all and sundry, young and old. In his intro, he had termed the set, ‘Acoustic Punk’ and
it really was pretty special even for a non-believer.

He returned the following day for another signing session, plus of course more talk about the R’s before setting off for a gig
in Liverpool.

He told me that he couldn’t get down to Loftus Road as often as he would have liked because of his band
commitments and seeing his kids at weekends but he added that Gary Crowley was a fan. I had to tell him that I had respect
for him and Mick Jones and contempt for people like Phil Collins.

I gave him a badge which he proudly pinned on his shirt and he left me with a wonderful football and music related story.
He was at Loftus Road on one occasion and during the half-time interval, he was hanging around with Mick Jones and he
clocked a very attractive young girl eyeing them up and down.

Eventually she came over, but upon arrival, she pointed to a much older guy situated near them and said to their amazement.
“Is that Bruce Welch of the Shadows standing over there? ”

Glen Matlock is most definitely one of our own.

[Steve Russell]

From the Indy's Facebook group...

Dave King
Glen was my best mate when we were kids in Kensal Green. I used to go to his home in Ravensworth Road
every day after school and his mum, Barbera used to look after me.

When in the 70s I saw the Sex Pistols I couldn’t believe my mate was famous.

[Conor Campbell]

I went to The Libertines gig at Belfast’s Telegraph Building in September just a few weeks ago there.

I wore my blue and white hoops to the gig. I was in second row of the crowd and Pete wasn’t long before he
noticed the shirt. He pointed me out in the crowd and gave a big thumbs up and went into a wee footie mention
of Irish R Alan McDonald and other Irish footballers (Best etc.).

Some girls and non-footies were asking me why he picked me out. The Rs shirt is a rarity in these parts and not
easily identified by the untrained eye.

That made my night and I’m sure that Pete wasn’t expecting to see the hoops on show in Belfast.

As for the gig, the performance and the vibe was class. Crowd went wild for Pete - first time I had seen him
live - clearly an ultra-charismatic character.

[Steve Russell]

Great story mate.....btw did you see this?
Chris sent this to me 8/9 years ago.

Pete Doherty & When it was: ‘All Quiet On The Western Avenue’

The following excellent article was written by Chris Hewitt and originally appeared in a recent issue of the
German sports magazine ’11 Freunde’:

I first met Pete Doherty when he was a gangly 14-year-old kid. We nicknamed him ‘Young Pete’ for obvious reasons.

It’s well known that he is a Queen’s Park Rangers supporter despite being born nigh on 300 miles from London and
living all over Europe due to his father’s career in the British Army. His father, also named Pete, is a QPR fan and the
baton was handed onto Pete at a very early age.

In the early 1990’s Pete started turning up at QPR reserve team games when they played at Harrow Borough’s football
ground.

As his father knew a well known QPR fan named Alan Barnes, Young Pete would talk to Alan at games and by
virtue myself too as I would stand with Alan and other friends. We were all in our 30’s and 40’s at the time.

My first impression of Young Pete (his father was sometimes called ‘Big Pete’ or ‘Pete Senior’) was of a very funny kid
who seemed to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of QPR games that took place 20 years before he was even born.
I’m guessing he would listen to stories from his father and had a great memory.

Young Pete also seemed to have a broad knowledge of rock bands and music genres.

It was at one reserve game at Harrow Borough in about 1994 when Pete announced to Alan Barnes and myself that he
was going to write a football fanzine about QPR. He asked us if we would write articles for his magazine and we both
agreed to do so.

That magazine was called ‘All Quiet On The Western Avenue’, the Western Avenue (A40) being a major road near
to QPR’s stadium in Shepherd’s Bush, London W12.

To those who don’t know him, Alan Barnes is possibly THE uberfan of Queen’s Park Rangers. Since 1958 Alan has missed
no more than five QPR first team games anywhere in Europe, one of which was when he broke his leg in 1984.

That did not stop him from travelling to Belgrade to watch QPR lose 4-0 to Partizan Belgrade and going out on away goals
having beaten Partizan 6-2 in the first game in London. Alan also watches the under-21’s, under-18’s, under-15’s and
literally every representative football team of Queen’s Park Rangers.

Not only that, he has an amazing memory of EVERY player that has ever played for QPR, even if they only played for a
month for one of the youth teams. So Alan’s articles were all about the youth teams and the individual players, telling
those that didn’t watch these more obscure games how they were getting on etc.

My articles on the other hand were of a comical nature with me taking the piss out of certain players
(in particular I did a critique on THE worst professional footballer I have ever seen, one Brian Croft).

There was also an article that I found in ‘The Sun’ newspaper with the then QPR first team centre-forward Daniele Dichio
appearing in a photo story from the ‘problem page’ with him playing the role of a lothario waiter who bedded a female
English holiday maker in some Mediterranean resort.

Then there was the article that I wrote that got Pete into BIG trouble. In 1995 there was a famous British TV advert for a
well-known ladies sanitary product called ‘Bodyform’. In the advert it showed a group of beautiful women playing football
on a sandy beach.

My article came in the form of a rant about women not knowing the rules of football as, when one of the women scored a goal,
she was actually in an offside position. The next five or six lines contained literally every swear word known in the Oxford English
Dictionary in the form of puns.

Pete printed it verbatim and even had the comedic nous to add “we have given Chris’s details to the Police” at the end of the
article. As usual, Pete sent me a copy of the fanzine by post. About two days later I travelled up to Anfield to see QPR play.

On seeing me, Pete came running up all apologetic and very red around the face as he begged me to forgive him.
I was perplexed as to why he would apologise but amused to find the reason. In his magazine, he had tippexed out EVERY
swear word I had used after they had been printed.

It turns out he was staying at his grandmother’s house in Liverpool when he had collected the magazine from the
printers. He proudly showed one to her and, on seeing my article, she became very angry.

Considering he was still only 15 at the time, he had to explain to her that I was in fact a real person and he hadn’t used a
pseudonym and written the article himself. So she forced him to tippex every swear word in every copy, of which I think
there were about 500 printed.

When Pete left school and started at University, I lost touch with him. The fanzine ceased after five issues, I believe,
in late 1996. Then about eight years later in 2003, I was watching ‘Top of the Pops’ when I recognised Young Pete singing
‘Time For Heroes’ with a band called ‘The Libertines’.

The first person I telephoned was Alan Barnes who confirmed: “Yes, that is Young Pete”, as I couldn’t believe it.

So if anyone were to ever question Pete Doherty’s love of QPR, I can confirm that he has been a very loyal and enthusiastic fan
from a young age.

ChrisPTenner

[Conor Campbell]

Great read. Enjoyed that very much. Thanks Steve.

Great to have all the IndyRs content at our fingertips. A very rich resource indeed.