Off Topic And Now for Something Completely Different

I met Puskas one time in a hotel in Port Said in Egypt when he was coach there. Very nice guy.

 

There was an occasion to savour.

 

It certainly was, he could certainly play the game.

 

All us old'uns saw this, on telly at the time...

 

Remember as a 10 year old watching that. A rare treat in the days when few games were on and before satellites made transmissions of games around Europe something we take for granted.
Nearly didn't take place. Puskas had alleged that West Germany, who beat Hungary in the 1954 World Cup had taken drugs and the German FA had forbidden their teams to play against a team with him in. Puskas had to write a letter of apology to the West German FA before the match could go ahead.
Eintracht Frankfurt were no mugs. They had beaten Rangers 12-1 on aggregate in the semi-final. I think any top ten of footballers would include Puskas and Di Stefano.
Alex Ferguson was there as a young lad. Bill Shankly's dad died at the game. The way Shanks talked when he recounted it you got the impression he was thinking if you have to go what better way...

 

Hearing the intro I thought they were going to break into Sorrow by The Merseys.

Seeing a bunch of well known people together reminds me of this clip of one of my favourite singers singing one of the greatest pop songs of all time.Amazing how many turned up to play for union minimum rates just to play with Roy Orbison. Great to see the look of admiration on Springsteen's face at the end. And a rare chance to see the legendary James Burton.
The backing band was the TCB Band, which accompanied Elvis Presley from 1969 until his death in 1977: Glen D. Hardin on piano, James Burton on lead guitar, Jerry Scheff on bass, and Ronnie Tutt on drums. Male background vocalists, some of whom also joined in on guitar, were Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther and Steven Soles. The female background vocalists were k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes and Bonnie Raitt.
There were a host of well known stars in the audience as well.

 

I love that concert film.

 

So do I. Often watch it. Not many can fill a programme of that length with classics. Even fewer can sound as good singing songs they recorded nearly 30 years earlier.

Mentioned it before but I know two people who played in backing bands, one a regular at Batley Variety Club. Both said without doubt the best, most pleasant petsonnthey backed was .Roy Orbison. One said the most obnoxious was Joe Brown closely followed by Tom Jones. The other put Tom Jones top of his most obnoxious list.

 

I meant to watch it when it came out (about ten years ago I think) but didn't. Completely forgot about it until now.

Will put it back on the (seemingly) infinite list.

 

You are not missing too much, truth be told.

 

On gut feeling/perception, I'd have deffo pegged Orbison as a good bloke too (saw a docu about him on BBC4 a while back which, I think, confirmed this) and at the same time, I'd have pegged Tom Jones as a bellend.

Proof positive.

 

On my list of the greatest- saw him play and would loved to have met him.

One who played/ trained with him I did meet when I was in South Africa in the mid-60's. He had been part of the Hungarian reserve squad of the early 50's team but did not travel for the England '53 match.

I shared a company house with him in Sasolburg for about 15 months when we both worked there. Had many photo's of himself with the Hungarian squad.
We both played football for Sasolburg. He was a chain smoker, whisky drinker and well overweight, but even in his mid thirties with no pace, was several classes above the rest of our team.

He quit Hungary soon after the revolution in 1956 going to Greece and then London before ending up in SA.
His name was Lance Kun. I lost track of him when I left SA.

 

Blimey, at 108 he's more lucid than half the people who post on here

 

This was on CI last week. He now lives in Alton, Hampshire a pleasant town about the size of Driffield.
Only half an hour's drive to watch PL football at Southampton or an hour to Bournemouth.

Surprisingly, there are 170 people aged over 107 in this country. The vast majority of them women.

 

Released on this day back in 1972...