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The title of this thread reminds me of a column that appeared years ago when FourFourTwo was a fledging magazine.

 

 

Chris England (writer of "An Evening with Gary Lineker") is a fairly passionate Latics fan, and one of his regular columns wrote about the phenomenon of Clubcall (you can see how dated this is!). The article went on about how this terrible service was advertised on the ITV teletext pages, with headlines flashing next to clubs names and the extortionately priced phone numbers.

 

You would see the title flashing "Graham Sharp - Out!", and against your better judgement you would dial the 0871 number at 60p a minute to find out what was going on. 10 minutes of listening to other articles about the club cat, and the fact that the lawnmower needed new blades you eventually get to hear the big news story.......the story you have just spent £6 on your phone bill to hear.....and its "when we called Graham Sharp for his weekly interview he was out walking his dog".

 

Ah the heady days of only hearing about the club from the programme at the game, the Chronicle and this overpriced and terrible service. Those born after the internet don't know how lucky you are.

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The title of this thread reminds me of a column that appeared years ago when FourFourTwo was a fledging magazine.

 

 

Chris England (writer of "An Evening with Gary Lineker") is a fairly passionate Latics fan, and one of his regular columns wrote about the phenomenon of Clubcall (you can see how dated this is!). The article went on about how this terrible service was advertised on the ITV teletext pages, with headlines flashing next to clubs names and the extortionately priced phone numbers.

 

You would see the title flashing "Graham Sharp - Out!", and against your better judgement you would dial the 0871 number at 60p a minute to find out what was going on. 10 minutes of listening to other articles about the club cat, and the fact that the lawnmower needed new blades you eventually get to hear the big news story.......the story you have just spent £6 on your phone bill to hear.....and its "when we called Graham Sharp for his weekly interview he was out walking his dog".

 

Ah the heady days of only hearing about the club from the programme at the game, the Chronicle and this overpriced and terrible service. Those born after the internet don't know how lucky you are.

Oh the joys of Clubcall .... back in the day working in Macclesfield I had to work late into the evening and Latics were two legs awat from Wembley and up against West ham and above all it was St Valentines day ...I stormed around work like a bear with a sore head ....sulking as I was about to miss the kick off ... when I realised 0898 12 11 42 ... I sneaked in to my office and dialled .... and dialled and dialled .. around a month later the bill arrived and I casually signed it off thinking I had got away with it .... You dont want to know the rest as I am so so ashamed ....Karl you took one for the team !!!!!

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Oh the joys of Clubcall .... back in the day working in Macclesfield I had to work late into the evening and Latics were two legs awat from Wembley and up against West ham and above all it was St Valentines day ...I stormed around work like a bear with a sore head ....sulking as I was about to miss the kick off ... when I realised 0898 12 11 42 ... I sneaked in to my office and dialled .... and dialled and dialled .. around a month later the bill arrived and I casually signed it off thinking I had got away with it .... You dont want to know the rest as I am so so ashamed ....Karl you took one for the team !!!!!

 

I recall getting dragged in for a "discussion" by my parents about an excessive phone bill. They had scanned downed the bill and seen the 0898 number and assumed I was calling the sort of line that they wouldn't want a young teenager to call (if you know what I mean). I recall my Mum being relieved when it came out I'd just been catching up on Latics news. An outcome of this was that my Dad started getting the Chronicle so we had a daily news update from the club.

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Latics Clubcall...those were the days. Was it Jack Dearden who used to do ours? He sounded like he was sat in his toilet with the extractor going in the background but next to the microphone.

 

Today on Latics Clubcall... verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ... we have exciting news about a player signing on loan from... verrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ... United

 

Manchester? Leeds? Newcastle? You then spent £4.50 listening about mugs on special offer in the club shop until the very last news item was discovery that we'd signed a youth striker from Colchester United or somewhere

 

I'm certain that they had a "verrrrrrrrrr" dump button to entice you into listening into the whole 3 minute recorded loop by dumping at the important bits

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