A Blade supporting mate mentioned that our Paul Heaton interview had found its way onto here. I was lucky enough to meet Paul for the interview, so for the record thought I'd respond to a few of the comments on here. First up though, as a Brighton fan I'll be genuinely sorry if you go down. We've always enjoyed good games against you and although I wasn't Micky's biggest fan when he was with us, and some of the football wasn't the greatest to watch, he is a good football man and deserved a bit more luck than he has perhaps had. Our hope was that you could pull away from relegation and drag Palace into the drop zone.
There were a few comments on here that I thought were worth clearing up. On the money front, the money Norman Cook gave Brighton were payments to keep the club going - covering wages and the like, without that we would probably have gone under. These weren't big cheques to sign a million pound centre forward and before that money came from the record label he was signed to, not from him directly. Almost uniquely amongst the pop fraternity, Paul's bands have been set up as a co-operatives and all money has been shared equally. To an outsider it seems that the way Sheff U has been set up and run is at the root of your problems, a few quid from someone wouldn't really make much difference.
The comment about watching the match on teletext in the pub may have been tongue in cheek, but I've certainly done it! I was at Bramall Lane in '89 for the 5-4 (in that pic I'm on the right) and if he was in the pub he missed a cracker.
He's never hidden his time with the BBC, we didn't talk about it in depth as it's not what our site is about. The on the pitch escapades in '85 at the Goldstone were at the time nothing unusual, especially on the last day of a season. Fashion and popular culture are part and parcel of football history, whether you're a mod, casual or prefer to wear a bobble hat, there are a number of tribes which make up a football crowd. In my experience none is more "loyal" than the other, they all love the club they follow.
There's bigger plonkers than Frank Skinner when it comes to the modern malaise of celebrity fans - Tim Lovejoy would be top of my list, though fantasy football was part of the whole explosion post-Italia 90.
I can only speak as a I find, Paul was incredibly knowledgeable about all aspects of football, european and domestic, above anything else he is a huge Blade and was generous in the time he gave me, all in all a very nice bloke.
Good luck for the rest of the season and you may not think it now, but Micky will get you up if you go down, but I'd say Div 1 is his level. Keep him for next year then plan properly for the future.
