Andrew Mangan - So Paddy Got Up: an Arsenal anthology

Arseblog Presents:

SO PADDY GOT UP

Edited by Andrew Mangan

Bejesus, said Paddy I sang it so well,

I think Ill get up and Ill sing it again!

So Paddy got up and he sang it again,

Over and over and over again.

Bejesus, said Paddy I sang it so well,

I think Ill get up and Ill sing it again!

So Paddy got up and he sang it again,

Over and over and over again.

(repeat to fade)

Arsenal fans traditional

To Mrs Blogs, for understanding

First published in 2011 by Portnoy Publishing

1 Digital edition, Kindle

Copyright arseblog.com and the contributors, 2011.

The Authors have asserted their moral rights.

The right of Andrew Mangan to be identified as the Author of the work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior and express permission of the publishers.

This ebook is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be circulated in any form or binding other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 0 956981 36 3

Cover design: David Rudnick

Portnoy Publishing

PO Box 12093, Dublin 6, Ireland.

www.portnoypublishing.com

Twitter: @portnoypub

LINE UP

1 - In the Beginning Andrew Mangan

2 - One Georgie Graham Amy Lawrence

3 - The Arsenal: From Open Sewers to Open Sandwiches Tim Stillman

4 - Dennis Paolo Bandini

5 - Highbury v Emirates Jim Haryott

6 - Continued Evolution Tom Clark

7 - Herbert Chapman Philippe Auclair

8 - What is Arsenal? Julian Harris

9 - Lets Get Digital James McNicholas

10 - All Hail the Almost Invincibles Chris Harris

11 - Arsenal and Family Sian Ranscombe

12 - Arsene Wenger and Tactics Michael Cox

13 - Our Private Garden Tim Bostelle

14 - Arsenals Standing in the Modern Game Stuart Stratford

15 - Wembley. Bastard Wembley Tim Clark

16 - Behind the 8-Ball Tim Barkwill

17 - On Arsenals Finances: A Game of Two Halves Kieron OConnor

18 - Supporting Arsenal From Afar Leanne Hurley

19 - Strength From Within: From Mee to Graham David Faber

20 - Stan Kroekne: Investor to Owner in Five Years Tim Payton

21 - Glory Days Jake Morris

22 - From Champ to Champignon Jonathan Swan

23 - On the Arsenal Beat John Cross

24 - A New Arsenal: Built on a Bell Lane Dynasty Nigel Brown

25 - Mr F Nick Ames

26 - Were On Our Way Andrew Allen

Acknowledgements

1 IN THE BEGINNING - Andrew Mangan

How do you write a blog every day for 10 years?

Well, its quite simple. You get up every morning. You go to the bathroom, after which you make coffee, you take said coffee to your office upstairs/across the hall/in the back bedroom (location has changed due to various house moves), and you sit down and write it. Depending on seasons/location you work wearing a dressing gown and slippers or shorts and flip-flops (this is what I call the Dublin/Barcelona dichotomy). You do that 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, for nigh on ten years and it becomes something of a habit; part of your routine. If you wake in the morning with a bladder that needs emptying, soon enough you wake up with a head that needs emptying. Not of piss, thankfully. That would suggest a serious leak or some badly plumbed pipes. But essentially thats how. You sit, you drink coffee, you scour the morning papers (well, their websites), you flooter around on NewsNow, perhaps a bit of Google News, lately a bit of Twitter, and then you bash it out. Spell check it, still miss a few errors, wait for le correction, and publish. Simple.

Why have you written a blog every day for ten years?

Well, because I found a subject matter I love, because, as I explained above, my head needs to metaphorically (no Redknappian literally here) piss out words, and because I really love doing it. Ok, there are some mornings when I might have taken a drink the night before when I dont exactly feel full of the joys of spring, but I could count on one hand the amount of times Ive opened an eye and said Mrs Blogs, there are about 513 things Id rather do now than write a blog. And you know me, being a moderate drinker at the best of times, it tends to affect me if I have more than a couple of halves of shandy. Or halves of bottles of Havana Club.

The why, back then, was because it was something new, interesting, exciting and which allowed me to write. The why now, well, I write a blog because thats what I do. Some people have peculiar talents. Contortionists, for example, who can pick their nose with their toes, or that bloke who was in that freaky circus and discovered that he was able to lift heavy weights which were attached by a hook to his scrotum. Dont ask me how he discovered this was his talent, but I find it unlikely that Scrotumy Joe had a moment of serendipity when his lifes calling was made clear to him. What I do might not be as niche as those two but after forty years on this earth Ive realised the thing Im best at is writing a blog about Arsenal. So thats why I do it.

Ok, but what made you write a blog about Arsenal in the first place?

Ah, heres where it gets interesting. In so much as a condensed version of four years of my life can be interesting. We have to go back in time a bit, to late 1997. At the time I was a DJ, amongst other things. Not a particularly great DJ, Ill admit, but I could slap together a few hours of bouncy house tunes with only the odd horrendous, beat clashing mix. So, my friend Daragh called.

Do you fancy doing a gig this evening?

Well, I was going to sit around connect to this Internet thing with my spanking new 28.8k modem but sure go on then.

Right, Ill pick you up later. One more thing, youre from Ibiza.

I am?

Yeah, we sold tickets saying some cool DJ from Ibiza was coming.

Who?

We just made up a name

What name?

Jon The Mixinator Jonson.

Ah here

Seriously.

Fucks sake.

So youre him.

Youre an awful spoofer, you know.

Pick you up around 9.

So, I got my records together, thought of something to say when the first person said You know, for a DJ from Ibiza youre not very tanned, are you? and soon we arrived at the venue. A suburban nightclub more used to Sing Hallelujah and bottles of Ritz than a load of pilled-up, face the DJ merchants who would stop occasionally to gasp water water for fear of over-heating and dropping dead.

I should have known the night was going to be bad when I set up the Technics and tried to plug them in. It being 1997, and at that time the height of modernity, the plugs were standard. You know, square pinned. The plug sockets, however, had obviously been installed some time in the late 50s and accepted only round plugs.

I think we might have a small problem here, I said to Daragh.

Have you got any CDs? he asked, looking at the two nicely-plugged in CD decks.

I think I have a copy of Brothers in Arms at home but thats not much use to us here.

Oh fuck, he said.

Yeah.

Quite how the situation was resolved, I dont remember. I have vague recollections of standing around drinking things until someone found a late night hardware store not easy to come by in 1997, let me tell you or we cut the plugs off the CD decks and attached them to the record players. Anyway, despite the round-pinned plugs, the gig was fine. I dont think anyone asked me why I was so milky for an Ibiza-based DJ as I stood there and played records until 2am or so. Not quite as seminal as Sasha at Renaissance or anything but generally fine and I pocketed a whopping 40 for my nights work (hey, back then you could buy a nice suit, go on a foreign holiday and still have enough left over for a night at pictures with that kind of money).