Let me start by saying no two weeks in my life are ever quite the same but this week has been extreme.
I knew it was going to be different when I received the final details of the trip of new Swansea City Minority Director Snoop Dogg for the home game against Preston North End. Having been one of the Match Day hosts at the stadium for some time I have a fairly good idea of how a typical mid-week match plays out.
For most away supporters the trip to Swansea is a big commitment. If the game is on a Saturday there is a chance for them to make a weekend of it. Travel on a Friday, take in the game, spend the evening enjoying the nightlife, Sunday walk along the beach and then home in time for Monday morning. Midweek games mean they usually travel down during the day and then its probably a long bus ride home. That means 2 days out of your life mostly travelling. In the winter as well…that’s commitment.
At the start of the season I don’t think anyone looked at the fixture list and thought I must make sure I book my tickets for Preston at the end of February. I expect the sponsors themselves where wondering who they could invite to the game and the commercial team were wondering what they could do to make sure they reached their targets.
Then came the news about Snoop Dogg.
I decided to make sure I arrived at the stadium nice and early just in case it was busier than usual. With so many people already there it took me ages to get into the car park and then to get through security. Security is always very good at the stadium on a match day with people needing the correct lanyards to access the various lounges. This was on a different level. As well as lanyards everyone had a different coloured wristband which allowed them to different parts of the various lounges with the most colourful wristbands reserved for the holy of holies, the ‘Snoop Lounge’.
In normal circumstances I wouldn’t have mentioned the Snoop Lounge at the Stadium but in the end it played a key role in the evening’s events. By the time I arrived Snoop was already there with his entourage. By Tuesday morning the internet was already full of videos of Snoop playing a special gig at the AU Vodka headquarters. Lee Trundle had posted some videos of the gig so to be honest I wasn’t terribly surprised to walk in only to see Snoop talking tactics with Trunds.
The night itself is still a bit of a blur. The stadium was packed to the rafters with The Swansea City Song sharing centre stage with Snoop classics. The first half wasn’t great, and we came in at half time one goal down. This is where the facts need to come out. Snoop has spent the last few weeks working as a special USA Team Coach at the Winter Olympics. Then it was a flight to Swansea for a whirlwind tour of the city and the club. The man was tired, he needed to ‘chill’ so he watched the second half from the Snoop Club room at the stadium. As the videos show he stayed the whole time enjoyed the last minute equaliser and then went to chat to the team in the dressing room.
The late night news and the following morning’s newspapers and new bulletins where all full of the Swans Snoop. Swansea City are competing against teams in the Championship with far bigger budgets. You actually couldn’t buy the publicity Snoop brought to the club this week.
On that note everyone at the club knows we need to ride this wave whilst not losing the soul of the club, which brings me to Thursday evening. The Swansea City Supporters’ Trust had organised a screening of ‘Ivor Allchurch – Golden Days’, a film they had commissioned from David Brayley and Max Webborn. It was a terrific turn out on a wild Thursday evening and proved that the club know that if we forget our history we will be in danger of losing what makes our club so special.
Anyway, back to Wednesday. I spent most of the day wearing a Bowler Hat as I worked on the video for my new single ‘Moving On’. The video was filmed at the Headquarters of Coachhouse Pianos in Forestfach and I think will be something really special… but more of that next week.
Which brings me to Bingogate!! I should have known that when it comes to bingo there are no margins of error. You have to get it right otherwise you will suffer the consequences. My first introduction to the serious world of bingo came during the years where my band ‘The Jacks’ started playing the old social clubs. We would do our first 45 minutes, usually to a raucous reception and dancing. Then came the bingo and compete silence would descend upon the room as everyone waiting for the shout of ‘Line’ or ‘House’.
I had been asked to host a special ‘Celebrating Everything Welsh’ event at the Brangwyn Hall. The afternoon was full of music, food and the chance to try some sports like ‘Indoor Curling’. Then came the bingo.
I thought the first game had gone quite smoothly. First I called the numbers in English, then I check my sheet for the ‘bingolingo’, you know 2 little ducks 22 and then said the numbers in Welsh. By game two I could hear the odd murmur of disapproval. At this stage it was decided that from then on I would only call the numbers in English.
The next disaster wasn’t completely my fault. The first shout that went up in game 3 was ‘house’ not ‘line’. You need to know the difference is crucial when playing bingo. A line is one line on your bingo card and a full house means all of the numbers on your card and a bigger prize. The laws of probability mean that you are much more likely to have a line before a full house, but ‘House’ was called. We checked back the numbers and the prize was paid.
I then made yet another crucial mistake of clearing all the numbers out of the system. The room nearly erupted. I was stood in the stage completely unaware of my blunder. Slowly one of the organisers walked to the front and explained the error of my ways. From then on in we played the rest of the game with everyone being placed on their honour to not claim numbers that hadn’t been called prior to me wiping the board.
The final game went as smoothly as it could have possibly gone but by then I was a broken man. I finished the game paying out the prizes and announcing my retirement from the world of bingo calling. I felt it my duty to walk around the table and apologise for my mistakes. In my defence I said it was the first time I had even called Bingo. The response from most tables was ‘you could tell!!!’