{"id":806,"date":"2021-03-01T22:40:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T22:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gonbys.com\/?p=806"},"modified":"2021-03-01T22:40:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T22:40:16","slug":"manchester-city-1970","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/?p=806","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City, 1970"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story is about an actual fever. For cup fever, see Derby St. Lukes, 1884<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word opened up when he said it, split, creating a vacuum and sucking in the air all around us until the telephone wires above the streets of Moss Side vibrated like guitar strings. I had to look away. For some reason I began to imagine that all of the houses in the tight terraced streets were bigger than they looked, closer than they seemed, and that they contained normal-sized houses inside them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G—-o—-n—-b—-e—-e—-e—-e—-e! <\/em> The voice was compressed, soundwaves tailored for the human ear, fitting exactly and passing smoothly into the brain. I understood the message. It was a complicated, multi-faceted message. Names are curious things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G—-o—–n—-b—-e—–e—-e—-e!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this an aesthetic? Yeah, well, kinda, uh-huh. See, if you belong at a football ground, you belong at any football ground. It isn\u2019t that Molineux or Maine Road is your spiritual home, it\u2019s that the football is your habitat, and the rest of the local fauna, the boot-boys and the comb-overs, the Beatles haircuts and the NHS frames make up your eco-system. You<\/em> notice the differences \u2013 of course<\/em> you do \u2013 but if you were dogs you\u2019d all be the same breed. Even the eccentric old dear with the\u2026 is that Percy Belter\u2019s rattle!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G—o—n—b—e—e—e—e—e! <\/em>Now it\u2019s a whisper, but it\u2019s louder than the call was. There\u2019s no perspective in the sound, no frame of reference. This is what it is to be part of a crowd. This and the smell of fried onions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then another voice begins: calm, controlled, unwavering in force coming from so close that it feels almost inside you. But actually it\u2019s as distant as can be — distant in time, across a forbidden border. Your father is saying you don\u2019t have to be here if you don\u2019t want to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Oh hi, Dad; how silly of me to have thought you were dead. Oh, do you really have to go\u2026?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this your aesthetic? It\u2019s factory architecture. Don\u2019t you spend enough of your life under asbestos roofing? This is not beautiful. Do you really want to be here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G—-o—–n—-b—-e—–e—-e—-e! <\/em>My face is the face of a crow. I knew that anyway. But it moves when I don\u2019t feel myself move and it is mouthing words at me. Am I sure that\u2019s my own face?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cerberus got big. I see his tail wagging behind the houses along Kippax Road. His teeth would be valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G—-o—–n—-b—-e—–e—-e—-e!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whistle is deafening. The crowd is silent. The ripple of the corner flag sends draughts back through the air and it rushes in to the gap in the word and makes it whole again. The word was \u201cManchester\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We\u2019re here, Gonby.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You step onto the platform at Piccadilly. You\u2019re not well. You should have listened to Dr. Slaughter and stayed in bed. And now you have to make the journey all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I fed Cerberus before I left. But still, I shouldn\u2019t have come. But I am kind of needed. \u2018Yes,\u2019 the TV Sociologist is saying, \u2018You are both audience and participant. You are part of the spectacle, and there to be entertained. An extra in Spartacus<\/em> throwing rotten veg at the hammy lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Are you sure you\u2019re all right, Gonby?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Where are we going for a pint?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an okay pub, the Pepperhill, but something\u2019s wrong. Everybody\u2019s too tall. Or are you shorter? And those cats on the bar, climbing over the electric pumps\u2026 they\u2019re rats!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Jack! What are we doing here?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We don\u2019t have to be here if you don\u2019t want to be.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Why does everybody keep saying that?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You still haven\u2019t tasted the beer. The rats are climbing over the people, now. In and out of their mouths. The people don\u2019t mind. Well, they don\u2019t seem to. But I bloody mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G—–o—–n—–b—–e—–e—-e—–e!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You never get to taste the beer in dreams. Maybe you\u2019d never wake up if you could. We\u2019re here now, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You light a Woodbine and step down from the train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beer, football, beer, football, beer, beer, beer. Train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, an enjoyable fever, and a point from Maine Road is never a bad return. Come on me babbies!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6,50,69,70,77,82],"class_list":["post-806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-6","tag-fever","tag-man-city","tag-manchester-city","tag-moss-side","tag-percy-belters-rattle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}