From The Desk Of The Pogues’ Spider Stacy: The Arsenal Football Club

The Pogues on record are never short of inspirational, and in person, they might be a life-changing experience. This hackle-raising blend of traditional Irish folk music, politically charged broadsides and electric rock ‘n’ roll, delivered by charismatic frontman Shane MacGowan flanked by a grizzled band of veterans that includes penny-whistle virtuoso/alternate vocalist Spider Stacy, was formed in the King’s Cross district of north London in 1982. Despite occasional time off for good behavior, they’ve been playing ever since and have a handful of festival dates planned for this summer. Here’s hoping it lasts for at least another 10 years. We are proud to say that Stacy, who is currently appearing as a street musician in season two of HBO’s Treme, will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.

Stacy: The Arsenal Football Club was founded in 1886 as Dial Square. We were originally a works team at the Royal Arsenal Munitions Factory in Woolwich, South London, hence the club’s adoption of a cannon as a crest. Given the subsequent history, this could also be interpreted as a signal of intent. We won our first game 6-0. In December 1886, the name was changed to Royal Arsenal and, in 1893, to Woolwich Arsenal. Later that year, we joined the football league, becoming the first Southern club to do so. Nothing much to write home about before WWI, beyond a spot of yo-yoing between the two divisions and a couple of FA Cup semifinals, except that in 1913 we dropped the Woolwich and moved to Highbury, in North London. We’d been relegated from the First Division the previous season and so when football resumed in 1919, we were still on a second-tier side, having only finished sixth in the last season before the war intervened. But never underestimate the power of bribery and the lure of the smoke-filled room! We were elected back to the top flight, in the place and to the eternal disgust of our neighbours, Tottenham Hotspur (fuck ’em) and have remained there ever since (a record). We gallantly allowed ourselves to become the only English club to lose the FA Cup to non-English opposition (take a bow, Cardiff City, 0-1, 1927). Then in the 1930s, we were the best club side in the world.

We were pretty bloody useful in the late ’40s/early ’50s and then nothing. Until 1970. We won what was then known as the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a competition involving high-ranking (but not champions or cup-holders) of the various European leagues. (4-3 on aggregate against Anderlecht, who are Belgian.) So that was good. What was better was winning both the English League and the FA Cup. Not only was it completely unexpected (well, it was to me), but it also wiped the smirk of all the Tottenham fans who’d spent the previous decade gloating about how they had been (and were destined to remain) the only side to pull it off in the 20th century. Of course, a lot has changed since then. I shall jump forward. In 1998, after some barren patches punctuated by periods of dour, obdurate magnificence, we hired as manager (coach to you) Arsène Wenger. He transformed us beyond recognition. There have been times in recent years when Arsenal Football Club have created pure athletic art of a such a degree of refinement that words are rendered redundant. There’s also been some times when I’ve found myself wondering just what the fuck it is I’m supposed to be watching. This is usually down to a combination of factors, normally involving mad, incompetent goalkeepers, central defenders with the pace and turning circle of an oil tanker and a disconcerting habit on the part of the team as whole to start acting like a bunch of thoroughbreds in an electric storm. Frustrating isn’t the word. Fortunately, some of these problems seem to be ironing themselves out. But spending a few million here and there wouldn’t hurt. Still, there’s only one team in London.

Since writing the above, we have crashed out of the Champions League, Europe’s most prestigious club competition, pretty much in the manner I described.

Video after the jump.