#and I repeat: stop trying to ruin wembley for us

[taylorverse]

My Taylor Swift Story

@taylorswift 

hello taylor! can i just make a big point to say how incredible you are. so i don’t really make these sorts of posts because it just seems unrealistic to be not just noticed by you but by any other swifties. You, Miss Taylor Alison Swift are the actual reason why some people are still living their day to day lives. I have literally grown up listening to your music and there’s always been an element of happiness that it brings me, whether its the vibe of the song or the melody or the lyrics or the sweet and pure way your voice echoes the words. I have had every single album of yours on repeat for all the times i’m hovering over the bath shaving my legs, procrastinating doing revision and literally jamming to old tswift songs in my bedroom. I have spent hours laying in my bed looking up at the ceiling playing all too well whilst i cry my eyes about relating the lyrics to how hard life can be and how difficult it is to keep going. But your music has always been a huge element of my well-being as it just provides a sense of stability; the songs you’ve sung is the poetry of my emotions and the lingering thoughts that I just can’t seem to say. My younger self didn’t even realise what a toll you had on me growing up, I always bought every single calender and all the albums. I remember my dad buying me the signed version of RED and it was just the happiest day of my life. I so clearly remember just holding it in my hands and feelings so happy in that moment. The years where i was beginning to get a bit older and things started to shift, your music was the constant that was always there and never left. I had dance parties where I would be alone in my bedroom singing with the huge poster of you hung above my bed (which once actually fell on my face in the middle of the night and was absolutely terrorfying). My favourite memory was sitting downstairs late at night, when I was like 9 and watching the livestream for RED when you sat in nashville and played acoustic songs on your guitar. I was so happy in that moment, to be able to just feel so connected to a woman who didn’t even know I existed was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Then came my birthday where my dad surprised me with Red tickets I LITERALLY CRIED. The night came and it was my first concert, it was one of the London nights and we sat right at the back. My most vivid memory of that night was the two people behind us who were obnoxiously going on about how they were gonna meet you after and that the show didn’t matter as much. Me and my dad would look at eachother with a jealous smirk and enjoyed the show. To be honest, I can’t actually remember that much but of what I do, I could have sworn you waved at me (even though there were probably about 4894 people in my direction) and the small kid i was held onto that as we trecked our way back on the train at midnight. As this was my first concert and I was so young, it felt so cool to be awake so late and I was in awe of the night I had experienced. 

Being at school, I was always known as the swiftie. I bought the drawstring Red tour bag from the concert because my dad said i couldn’t buy a top as he said “there’s no point in buying it if you’re going to grow out of it”. Anyway i used it as my PE bag and still do to this day. Everyone would tease me and I used to just SHAKE IT OFF and ignore the haterzzzz. My life was completely altered by that night, I wouldn’t stop thinking about it and I remember doing a show and tell in class where I played the videos I took of the concert on the big screen to my whole class as I passed around the rubber wristband I had too bought from that night. Everyone was so amazed by my experience, I was just so happy that I had seen my role model and that my life felt fulfilled at that point. 

I’m now in secondary school, I have never ever stopped playing your music. I even got an app to see how many times I had replayed songs and it turns out i have listened to Speak Now all the way through 800 times (not including the years of listening to it on my iPod). Then when one day I was sitting watching greys anatomy (wink), I got an instagram notification that you had posted a picture. My heart sank as I began to wonder WHAT THE HELL YOU POSTED since you had disapperred from earth. Seeing the what i know now as the snake, I literally jumped out of excitement & an overwhelming burst of confusion built up as I tried to figure out what the hell was happening. More pictures posted and my lil swiftie inside of me came rushing out as I just skipped around the living room. I still remember staying up late to watch LWYMMD music video. It was insane. I lay in my bed with my headphones plugged into my phone and quietly shrieked at the BEAUTY of it. At this point I wasn’t as indulged in the online fandom as I am now, so I started to follow accounts like @marthaswiftie on instagram to be more involved and find out all these crazy theories. The reputation album came out the year right before my life kinda went downhill. I remember the tickets came out for the tour and I didn’t even ask my parents to go because we were going through such a tough time that my own selfish wants were not the priority. 

So beginning 2018, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. We soon found out that it was terminal, which just broke our family individually in different ways. Our family is extreamely close and for something like this to happen, it was such a huge surprise that we just didn’t know how to react. My closest memory was sitting Physics class, just staring into space and all of these horrible thoughts were flooding my mind and all of the worst case scenarios just ruined me. Yet my naive self was so unaware of my emotion that I just carried on with my life, instead trying to be overly happy about life. At this point, my dad was is hospital most of the weeks spending time having his radiotherapy and chemotherapy done. I tried so hard to not think about it, that I ended up having so many breakdowns of which I spent crying my eyes out in my room just trying to hold onto hope that seemed so far away. Selfishly, I so wanted to see you on tour just to give me a pick-me-up but i felt so bad about wanting something for myself since I shouldn’t even be thinking of anything but him. Yet instead, I was so broken that I just ignored what was going on around me. This is what I’ve been learning to cope with and i think at points i felt so defeated. The tour month came up, i watched endless clips of people going and felt so hopeless in seeing you. I was in such a rut of trying to feel happier, yet trying to cover up the way I dealt with things by watching every Youtube video under the sun and literally all the shows on netflix to exist. Even writing this now feels so narrow-minded but it was just the way I was going through it. The literal day before the tour, my sister surprised me with tickets and i canNOT TELL YOU the rush of happiness I felt. I sobbed so much, I did not sleep as I lay thinking about what I was going to wear and the fact that i was going to see you in the flesh. 

The day came, and there are truly no words to describe it. I left school early, rushed home and did my makeup and hair. We hopped on the train and made our way up to london. I remember getting into Wembley and as soon as we walked out of the station I saw a huge group of people wearing merch tops and that’s when it started to kick in. We had a few hours, so we walked up and down the streets, me noticing all the outfits from music videos and award shows that people were dressed up in. Then we sat in nando’s, literally starving and as we ate our food just kept repeating to eachother, “we’re gonna see TAYLOR SWIFT” and every time it gave me goosebumps. A little girl came in as we were finishing, she had little cat ears on and a tutu. She had a top that she had DIYed herself that said I LOVE TAYLOR on it. My heart melted as we made our way out of the restaurant and grinned our way up to the stadium. The closer we got, we saw so many people with VIP necklaces and we looked at eachother rolling our eyes because we were jealous haha. I was so shocked by the diversity of people there, literally every type of person was surrounding us obviously in awe of the event that was about to occur. My favourite bit was walking up the huge pathway to the door entries, we came super early so I could get merch and our route was filled with girls screaming at the sight of eachother. My sister was so confused so I filled her in on the details of how so many people meet online through fan acounts and these concerts are where some of them finally meet. The merch queue was huge, but i had saved enough for a hoodie so we made the decision to stand in it. There were a few girls behind us complaining about the outfits people were wearing, we were annoyed because they kept saying “why do they dress up so much she’s not gonna see them” and my blood just boiled as their remarks piled on top of eachother. As we reached the front of the queue, we heard Charlie playing from the stadium because this line ended being 2 HOURS LONG. I didn’t care though, I said to my sister that the whole fun of it is to wait the long hours and dedicate our time to this day as it was a once in a lifetime. I bought the black hoodie with the zipped hood, they didn’t have small so I got Medium which ended being HUGE, but I love it because I snuggle in i every night. Straight after, my sister took a cute pic of me in the hoodie to send to my mum right before we were about to go through security. It was my first time at wembley so I had no idea what I was doing, but I just followed my sister as we got our bags checked and prepared ourself for the view we were about to whitness. My heart began beating so fast, I was in complete shock and my sister gripped my hand as we found our entry doorway. My first thought was, WHAT THE HELL. I had never been in such an overwhelming place. IT WAS HUGE. the amount of people there just left me in a sedated state for a second before we trudged down the stairs to find out seats. We were in block E, on the floor. It was my first time not being super high up, so i felt so privileged as i strut across the metal walkway feeling so happy about where i was. The struggle to find our seats was REAL. We spent ages when they ended up just being right in front of us the whole time. As soon as we scooted through the others, we sat down and just took a second to realise that we were about to whitness TAYLOR SWIFT PERFORM. My adrenaline was going crazy, my sister took tons of pictures and videos to send to my parents and they were so jealous! Then Camila came on, she was incredible. Everyone stood up as my short height meant I was staring at the huge screen, miming to lyrics to consequences and never be the same. She left and the stadium began to flll up and it just got so much louder. Anticipation grew, every single person in that stadium was just so happy. The Ready for It tune started and that’s when it all kicked off. I lifted myself from my seat, screamed to my hearts content as my sister sang along whilst also watching me give a performance in front of her. Every song was just so amazingly performed. Then when the b stage was next, the whole floor just legged it to get closer. I was nervous to lose my sister or the bags so i remember turning behind me as my sister grabbed the bags and said ‘go’. Little old me bent through the crowd, I ducked beneath and tried to get as close as I could. I remember standing on a chair and as I did i realised that i was less than 5 metres away from TAYLOR SWIFT. I sang along to So it goes and turning back every now and then to see where my sister was and I kept saying ‘Emma, I AM SO CLOSE I AM GONNA CRY’. Every now and then I would pull my phone out for videos but I wanted to grasp this moment as I let all my worries wash away and I whitnessed the most insane moment of my life. As the move for the next stage came, I followed the movement of the crowd as the security officers began to strictly tell people to stop standing on chairs. There I was, spinning around every now and then to see the crowd. Dress was the current song and my eyes lit up at the beauty of Miss swift. The concert followed with so much energy, the seats we had were right at the back of the floor but it was amazing to feel the lit up souls of everyone around me. There was just so much energy, so much love. One thing I remember was grooving to a song when the confetti began to float over us. We were so far back that it didn’t quite reach us yet this one piece was slowly floating mid air quite far back. I followed it with my eyes and reached to grab it as another girl took my opertunity. I was slightly annoyed, but the scenery of lights and idea of my idol being in the same room brought me back to happiness. The night ended with me and my sister talking on the phone to my mum, praising the show and just feeling so blessed. The nightmare of getting home began, as we got on the wrong train and then as we finally settled we were so tired that we almost got lost. My sisters boyfriend picked us up and we got home in a blur of sleep.

That night was unforgettable. It was just all my needs in one place, i felt so satisfied and i watched the videos I filmed of it months and months after, remenising on it. Coming back to present, TS7 is on its way. I woke up at 5am to see the ME! music video as soon as it comes out and see all of the hype. This has been the best day in ages. I have bought the song on itunes and streamed it on every device & app. My fingers literally ache from typing this in one sitting, but it was amazing because I just went through that night all over again from writing about it. But my point is. Whoever is reading this, Taylor or even just my grandma; there is happiness out there. I live by Taylor Swift and her music, she will always and forever be my role model, I LOVE YOU @taylorswift

[365footballorg-blog]

A 'watershed' in hooliganism - when England last met Tunisia

World Cup Rewind: England v Tunisia 1998 Date: Thursday 7 June (12:00 BST) Coverage: Watch the whole game ‘live’ on the BBC Sport website and app. Live text commentary online

Prime minister Tony Blair called it “a total disgrace”, the head of the Football Association said he was “sickened”, and the sports minister said a “moronic minority” were ruining England’s reputation abroad.

At least 32 people were injured during three days of rioting and violence when England met Tunisia in Marseille in their opening game of the World Cup in France in 1998.

Much has changed on and off the pitch in the 20 years since, but England will again play Tunisia in their first match of a major tournament when the sides meet in Volgograd on 18 June.

So what happened in Marseille? And why?

You can watch the whole match from 1998 in full on the BBC Sport website and app on Thursday from noon BST.

Marseille ‘a recipe for disaster’

After the World Cup qualifying failure of 1993, the game with Tunisia in Marseille was England’s first in the tournament since their excruciating defeat to West Germany in Turin eight years earlier.

Expectations were high, and even manager Glenn Hoddle’s decision to leave Paul Gascoigne at home did not deter thousands of fans from making the journey across the Channel.

But not everyone was happy with the decision to play the opening game at the Stade Velodrome. Sir Brian Hayes – former deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police – was recruited by the FA as a security advisor for the tournament and says they wanted the game moved.

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“In the build up to the World Cup we tried to get the game switched to a different venue,” Hayes told BBC Sport.

“I fought personally quite hard, and the chief executive of the FA tried because of the large resident north African population in Marseille. It was going to be staged in very hot weather, there was obviously going to be a lot of drinking by the British fans and the whole climate was wrong, the venue was wrong.

“We tried to get them to switch the matches around so that the Tunisia game could be played in Lens, for example, but they couldn’t or wouldn’t bow to that at all.

“The recipe was there, from a security point of view, for a disaster. And that’s what we got.”

‘Tear gas in the air’ – the build-up

England fans had to wait five days after the start of the tournament to see their side in action, the Tunisia game scheduled for a Monday lunchtime kick-off. As millions back home booked time off work to watch, thousands poured into the Mediterranean port over the weekend.

After some isolated trouble on the Saturday night, Sunday saw 400 England followers involved in pitched battles with Tunisian fans, local youths and police during seven hours of violence which left at least 32 people injured.

Police fired tear gas to break up groups of several hundred England and Tunisia supporters, there was a constant hail of bottles and missiles and as fans retreated they destroyed shops and premises.

Two Britons required operations for serious injuries, one for a slashed throat and the other for a knife wound to the stomach. There were nearly 50 arrests. Hayes’ prophecy had come to pass.

England fan Tim Rolls: “We realised Marseille could be a flashpoint and best avoided in terms of staying there.

“Our mood the night before the game was not helped by images on French TV of England supporters fighting with police and locals in Marseille and, worse, setting fire to a Tunisian flag. You didn’t need to be a diplomatic genius to realise this was going to crank up the tension a few notches.”

BBC commentator Jonathan Pearce: “There was some trepidation about the fans. Bad fighting had broken out in what is always a spiky city on the eve of the game. There was talk that England would be thrown out of the World Cup if there was a repeat.

“I was worried because I had family there who had tickets. I remember the relief when I met them outside the stadium and they were OK.”

Hayes: “The English fans didn’t start it. Some of the African population started lobbing cans of beer at England fans, and even if England fans don’t start a fight they are up for one.

“I had seen occasions where England fans started trouble but in Marseille I can say they didn’t – from what I saw. They were heavily provoked. It was not a good experience.”

BBC news correspondent Robert Hall: “I remember the Sunday very clearly. We jumped out of the van as we arrived in Marseille and saw the trouble down by the harbour and ran off towards it.

“There was tear gas in the air, it was very hot. There were a lot of young north African guys, locals, who came into town to join in with any trouble.

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“It was full on. French police in full riot gear with tear gas charging the fans. I’m always careful to use the word fans as it was the usual hardcore group of people you always find in any sort of trouble like that. We stayed at a reasonably safe distance.”

England fan Matt Stewart: “We were aware that there could be trouble due to the reputation of England fans at the time, so we decided to stay in Avignon.

“The night before the game there were hundreds of fans in Avignon but the atmosphere was good. Around 11pm a huge football match broke out in the main square. It was about 80 a side! There were locals and England fans on both sides.”

The UK’s home secretary of the time, Jack Straw, backed the actions of the French police, saying there were no excuses for hooliganism.

“I don’t want to hear any kind of examination of whether these people had bad childhoods,” he said at the time.

“I’ve seen football hooligans myself. They always have a huge amount of money, get completely drunk and then commit this kind of act and then offer excuses.

“We have to try to get a grip of it.”

Prime Minister Blair said the fighting was a “total disgrace”. He added: “It may be a small number of fans, there may be other fans that have been involved, but that is no excuse, there aren’t any excuses for it. We have to put a stop to it.

“These people have the absolute condemnation of everyone in the country.”

‘An air of bristling tension’ – game day

As the tear gas cleared overnight in Marseille city centre, it was time for action on the pitch as Hoddle’s England lined up against Tunisia live on BBC One.

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Thankfully – unlike during the England v Russia game in 2016 – there was no trouble inside the Velodrome itself, but scuffles were ignited down on the beach fanzone following Alan Shearer’s opening goal in a relatively comfortable 2-0 win.

During the BBC coverage of the game, FA chief executive Graham Kelly hit out at the “400 drunken English people who have come here and caused immense inconvenience and distress”.

“We have made progress but as long as people are allowed to leave the country and have the inclination to sit in bars and drink for 24 hours – there is something in the mentality of the English that they are going to cause trouble,” he said.

“Their behaviour sickened everyone connected with the England team and all the genuine supporters. It really is terrible. They are not fit to be allowed here. It was frightening, to be honest with you. The only silver lining is that it showed this must be nipped in the bud.”

At the time, Kevin Miles of the Football Supporters’ Association said England fans were caught up in tension between locals and French riot police.

“What happened was a war on the streets of Marseille between the local Arab population and the police for their own reasons about French politics, not English football,” he said.

“English fans have been caught in the middle of that with no protection from the police.”

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The Ref Online reporter Alex Griffiths: “Knowing demand would exceed supply, it was agreed to stage a proto-fanzone before fanzones were yet really a thing, and this was where most of the innocent day-trippers were hurt as they made their way to and from the screening of the game in the unfamiliar sunshine. The violence in the city itself was far more of a consensual affair on the Monday, and if you were able to persuade a hotel to take you in, that was the safest place to sit it out.

“The scene at the port’s front became more akin to a film set, with TV lighting paraphernalia up in one corner and extras virtually bussed in direct from Luton, in the days when budget airlines were also a relatively new phenomenon.”

Hayes: “That was another thing we advised against – having a big screen on the beach. It was relatively peaceful until England scored and then it kicked off again. England fans were being provoked all the time.”

Pearce: “There certainly was an air of bristling tension hanging over the city. My family came in by train and were quite frightened by all the reports. There had been bad clashes in the build up to the game. Marseille could then be, as it is now, quite intimidating.

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“I remember seeing groups hanging around on street corners waiting for something to happen. But inside the ground it was fine.

“The interesting conflict was between England’s genuine belief, and mine, that they could win the World Cup against the real fear that they could get thrown out of the competition for crowd trouble.

“The Stade Velodrome is different these days. Then it had a huge bank behind the right-hand goal. The England fans had turned the whole place into Wembley. There were flags and banners everywhere. No trouble inside the ground. Just a wonderful atmosphere. 60,000 fans. It still makes me tingle to think about it.”

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England fan Martin Cloake: “I remember being amazed at the sheer numbers who’d travelled – about 40,000 England fans in a 60,000 stadium. We met some really good people, and fans were obviously aware there had been problems, but most of the people we spoke to were fairly determined to keep out of it.

“We could see tear gas and some running about in the streets outside while we were still in the stadium, so obviously we knew there were still problems, but we didn’t know the extent of what had happened on the beach until later.

“Most of the conversations we had were with fans who were annoyed that some fans had obviously been involved in trouble and that this would take the focus away from the great support we had. The point is that plenty of fans managed to stay out of trouble, despite the very real issues there were.”

Stewart: “We saw the news reports of overnight violence in Marseille when we woke up on match day so were apprehensive when getting the train to the game. On arrival we saw lots of English supporters with cuts, bruises and bandages. Most victims reported they were attacked by locals on mopeds.

“Post-match we saw some running brawls as we headed to the metro. We got to the station to return to Avignon and a large number of English fans were there trying to leave Marseille. Some on our train stated they had nowhere to stay but a park bench was better than risking further attacks in Marseille.”

England fan Jeremy Lockley: “We were staying in an apartment about an hour from Marseille. We had heard about the trouble and a few of us considered not going to the game.

“On the morning of the game we decided quite late that we would go, but that we would travel in by car. As we tried to enter the ground we were refused as it was after kick off but eventually we were let in by two policeman who agreed with our point it was better for us to be in the ground than out.

“We ended up in the Tunisia end but inside the ground there was no trouble at all, the Tunisia fans were very friendly and the atmosphere was very relaxed. We celebrated the Paul Scholes goal forgetting where we were and, although we had some funny looks, there was no trouble.”

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‘It was a watershed moment’ – the aftermath

England’s second group game against Romania in Toulouse was also marred by trouble – one fan was stabbed – but not on the scale of Marseille.

In the 20 years since then, England fans have been caught up in trouble again – but Hayes believes the Tunisia game was a turning point in how travelling fans are policed.

Hayes: “As a result of what happened in France there was a lot of work between the FA, the police and the Home Office to strengthen the legislation and that’s where banning orders came in.

“In the years that followed, measures were put in which pretty much knocked it on the head. Identifying the troublemakers beforehand, stopping them becoming members of the FA travel club, getting passports withdrawn on occasion – strong measures.

“We have only seen sporadic incidents since, nothing to equal what was going on in the 1990s. It was a watershed in a way, that game. It disappointed us but it led on to strong measures being taken. There was a feeling that enough is enough.”

Griffiths: “The daily French paper which invented the European Cup were kind enough to supply me with passes, a car, a list of hotels and 24,000km worth of petrol in return for a month’s reportage, and were unkind enough to call it ‘Diary of a Hooligan’, because clickbait, even then, was kind of a thing.”

Twenty years on the sides meet again in Russia. Can England manage better than their second-round exit to Argentina that followed the sides’ game in France?

Pearce: “We stayed on the air for a post match phone-in and the fans were genuinely optimistic that England could win the World Cup. This wasn’t the usual hype. The hope seemed real.

“I had commentated on all but two England games from 1987 up to that summer of 1998. But my optimism about their chances has never been as high again as it was on that June day in Marseille.”

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A 'watershed' in hooliganism – when England last met Tunisia was originally published on 365 Football