Revenge

Following Brighton Writer Squad‘s visit to Brighton Museum, the young writers were asked to write a piece in response to an object (and another piece in response to a costume).

Satsang Barnett (15) wrote a response to the rag football in the World Stories: Young Voices Gallery,

I hate moving but sometimes you just have to make a new start. 24 Old Kent Road, small house but I like it though, I find it cosy, that was my new address, and after a 3 hour drive I finally arrived, at last, late at night. This time I’m going to sort myself out, a new beginning. But, little did I know, what living here would bring. The drive took a lot of energy out of me, so I just dumped my boxes of belongs in the hall and went to bed, excited about starting my new job tomorrow.

Rag Football

I hit the alarm on my phone, drag myself out of bed, climbing over boxes so I can reach the kettle, time for a wake up shot, bending down to check out the contents of the fridge (not expecting to find much). But what I found there was  a shock, I stumbled back in surprise. A hideous mass of what seemed like clothes on the bottom shelf, about the size of a small football. It seemed to be staring me in the face. I’m weary of touching it as it’s covered in what looks like animal remains. I reach in and pull out the tightly bound ball of encrusted fabric, the smell hits me, I fought back the urge to gag and I quickly threw it in the bin. I sit on a chair for a while trying to recover and curse as I spot the time. I was going to be late for work, on the first day too! I dashed out and thought nothing more of that grotesque ball sitting in my bin.

After a long embarrassing day of the boss warning me not to be late again, I unpacked, ate and went to bed. Later that night, deep in my dreams, I was woken by an over whelming need to look down at my feet, there in the dim light of the moon shining on the sheets in front of me, amongst  the sheets, was… the ball. I was paralyzed with fear.

How the ***** did this ball of horror get on my bed? I thought. The ball sat there. It looked alive, pulsating. My body was tense. Then all of a sudden started to feel like I was falling, this strange feeling made me close my eyes. Then I was falling, falling down through the floor into the earth below, darkness swarmed out to meet me then spat me out. I opened my eyes and it was broad daylight. I looked down and to my astonishment I was floating, very high indeed. Beneath me a busy football stadium was cheering and chanting. Everything seemed normal apart from it was clear they could not see me.

The audience’s fashion seemed to be at least a couple of years old. This must be some sort of flashback, I thought to myself. Suddenly, a player scored a goal and half the crowd went wild cheering, screaming with joy. The referee an angry strange man blew his whistle declaring that the goal didn’t count. The crowd stopped and went silent. A couple minutes later the game ended and the team that attempted to score earlier lost. Half the audience didn’t like this one bit.

A commotion was starting to build. Crowd members started climbing over the fence into the pitch. The guards were pushing them back but more and more of them were appearing. Someone threw a punch and ***** broke loose. The football match suddenly turned into a miniature war. A small group of the losing side went after the referee since it was obvious they thought it was his fault. The poor man tried to make a getaway, but they surrounded him. He was brutally murdered before my eyes. Then the world seemed to fade, my vision started fading… the last thing I saw was the murders wrapping the referee’s clothes into a …familiar looking… ‘ball’.

Revenge – photo of Satsang looking at rag football that inspired it

World Stories: Young Voices – My Experience, Sadie

Meet the young people who have been involved in developing the new World Stories: Young Voices Gallery which opens at Brighton Museum and Art gallery 23 June 2012.

Sadie operates the Boom for an interview at the Amex Stadium.

Q.  Who are you and how did you get involved?

A. My Name is Sadie and I’m 17. I’m currently a student at BHASVIC and I love sport, especially football. I got involved in the project through Hazel, (a youth worker who works with the museum) who came up and spoke to me and a friend about a project she was starting up that would feature in the museum. The project involved football which is a sport I love so I couldn’t wait to get involved.

Q. What was the project about?

A. The Football in Brighton and Bamako project was a comparison between young people in Mali (Africa) and young people in Brighton, and how football has an impact on their lives. It shows the similarity and differences between football in two very different parts of the world.

Q.What did you do?

A. My involvement within the project as well as others was to create a video to show how football affects young people’s lives. We interviewed professional footballers from Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club to see how football affected them as a young person, as well as young people at a community tournament run by Albion in the community to see their opinions on football.

Q. What has been the most important thing you have learned during this project? 

A. The most important thing I have learned in this project is how similar the effects of football are on young people all over the world and how it brings people together to share the same passion and hobby.

Sadie is interviewed by the BBC

Q. What new skills do you feel that you have developed?  

A. For our project we had to make a film so we got to use all the equipment such as the cameras, the boom and cans. Also with our film we interviewed people, so we got to learn how to interview people properly and ask the right type of questions. Also I was lucky enough to be picked to be interviewed by the BBC along with 3 others in our project. As well as interviewing people, I learned how to be interviewed properly too.

Q. What did you enjoy the most?

A. Overall, I really enjoyed the whole project and my involvement with it, and felt it was a really good experience, and a great project to be a part of. I really enjoyed making the film as a whole and seeing it come together at the end was really nice. Also getting to meet new people from different backgrounds and with different opinions about football. One of my biggest highlights though was getting to have my football boots put in the museum because you really feel part of it.

Object of the Month – Brighton & Hove Albion Football Shirt

Brighton & Hove Albion have made an impressive start to the season in the new Amex Stadium. Some fans may already be thinking back to past glories, such as the 1983 FA Cup final. One of Brighton’s goals in that final was scored by Gary Stevens, and his shirt is proudly displayed in our Exploring Brighton gallery. Back in the less optimistic days of 2005, one of our volunteers, Wills McGuigan, was so impressed by this shirt that he wrote down his memories of that final.

Football shirt belonging to Gary Stevens, Brighton & Hove Albion player in the 1983 FA Cup final.

Brighton & Hove Albion Football Shirt

If you were to tell someone that Brighton & Hove Albion were playing in the FA Cup final this year, they would eventually (no doubt after a hearty laugh) look on you with pity and accuse you of living in a football-shaped dream world.

Way back in the early 1980s however, when this fan was just 9 years old, the Seagulls commanded respect that stretched all the way to the Anfields and the Old Traffords of the domestic game.

Gary Stevens played for us – an England international no less! Irishman Gerry Ryan represented his country too. Steve Gatting, Michael Robinson,…..Steve Foster was heroic, deadly, extremely hairy (he wore a headband too and STILL looked cool),… the mighty lanky Graham Moseley in goal (who I’d actually met at Sussex General – I had stepped on a weaver fish near the West Pier, he was visiting his son who was in the next bed)…. In 1983 Brighton & Hove Albion had made it to the FA Cup final!

At 9 years old you would have forgiven me for believing that this was just the beginning of a golden era for the Seagulls – a Golden era at the Goldstone with silverware pouring out of every trophy cupboard.

The enemy was Manchester United. It was David and Goliath. I watched the game at home on Goldstone Road in Hove. Manchester United were 2-1 up with only a few minutes left to play…. and 22 years later in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery I can actually listen to the hero of the day, Gary Stevens, talk about how he hit the ball as hard as he could at the target, scoring the equaliser!

Brighton & Hove Albion had made it to Wembley and hadn’t lost to Manchester United. That was our victory.

And yeah we lost the replay of course, but the Seagulls came home to a hero’s welcome all the same. The procession passed by the end of my road. I ran out to join in and waved furiously at the Seagulls as they passed by in their very own open-top bus (Brighton & Hove Albion’s answer to the Batmobile, I thought at the time). I looked up and saw them all – Gary, Graham, Gerry, Steve, Michael – and the rest waving right back at me.

It was like the end of that Nick Hornby film ‘Fever Pitch’, except that everything was blue and white instead of red, and we hadn’t won the league, we’d lost the FA Cup. But you can ask anyone who was around back then – losing never felt so good.

Wills McGuigan