Ade Edmondson
Monday 1 August 2011 16:02, UK
Comedy hero Ade Edmondson talks Exeter City, Arjen Robben, and the 1973 FA Cup final.
Comedy hero Adrian Edmondson talks Exeter City, Arjen Robben, and the 1973 FA Cup final
Where Bambi failed in obtaining a straight answer from Adrian Edmondson, skysports.com succeeded. Whether mocking 'University Challenge' in 'The Young Ones' or threatening a gas man with a cricket bat in 'Bottom', the former 'The Comic Strip Presents' star has been a comedy hero since the early 1980s. At the same time, Edmondson is an award-nominated musician and is due to start a 21-date 'First Farewell Tour' with his folk-punk band 'The Bad Shepherds' in the autumn, before taking an extended sabbatical in 2012. Edmondson is likely to spend some of his time off watching Exeter City, having been a season ticket holder for the past six years after also taking in Chelsea along the way. And skysports.com was therefore more than happy to listen to how an interest in football has developed.
Exeter City
It's a long story. When I was a small kid, I lived in Bradford. I supported Bradford Park Avenue, but I had never been to see them. The reason we supported them was, because they were so poor, they used to train in the public park down the road from our school. I didn't really get properly into football until I started having kids, so this was late 1980s, early 1990s. When the kids were small and staying up all night crying, I had Sky television and started watching reruns of football matches at two or three o'clock in the morning. I started to become enthralled and so I bought myself a season ticket at Chelsea, because it was just around the corner from where I lived. I watched them for about six years. I saw some cracking stuff there. It was the Ruud Gullit, Gianfranco Zola and Gianluca Vialli era. I left it when Chelsea started winning. I left a) because they moved my seat in the West Stand and b) because that was when I was living down near Exeter. I went along to see Exeter in what was kind of an exercise in schadenfreude. They were about to go out of the League. My mate andwent along to see the local team lose, but we couldn't get in, because it was packed! We had to watch the game by standing on a shopping trolley in a neighbouring garden to look over the wall. There was a great atmosphere. There was a guy selling cider for extortionate prices. In the next season they got Manchester United in the FA Cup, but I couldn't get in, again, so I watched it on the TV. Watching Ronaldo taking corner kicks against a sign for 'Ivor Dewdney Pasties' was a thing of great beauty. I fell in love with Exeter and so two mates and I bought season tickets and we have been going for about six years. I even own shares in the club. In the 'Bottom' TV series, which you wrote and starred in with Rik Mayall, your character, 'Eddie', was a QPR fan. How did you make that decision? At the time we were writing, QPR were the joke team of the Premiership. They were laughably poor. It wouldn't be right if Eddie supported a winning team. And, of course, they were Hammersmith boys.
Scarborough v Bangor
It was in about 1972, it was a 0-0 draw, and I didn't bother going to football again for a very long time! At Scarborough the food was s**t, the atmosphere was s**t and it was all a bit pants. I had a band at the time and it was much more interesting on a Saturday to rehearse than go to football.
Stanley Matthews
I had some boots when I was at primary school which had the words 'Stanley Matthews' written on them. I obviously never saw him play, but we all talked about him a lot. The same way we did with Stirling Moss. They were heroes of a bygone age, but we referred to them a lot. Everyone wanted to be Stanley Matthews, even though we had never seen him.
Arjen Robben
One of the reasons I stopped watching Chelsea play was because of Robben. He was on my team, but he was just such a cheat. I felt so robbed every time I watched him play. The first time he played, he was brilliant. I had a seat at the front of the stand and he was playing up and down the wing right in front of me. He was stupendous. He never played like that ever again. He would always run as far as he could and then blatantly throw himself to the floor. I hated that. It was one of the reasons I stopped watching Premier League football and moved to the Blue Square Premier League. I want the Corinthian spirit in football. I want people to win, not play to cheat.
Playground football
I never really played. I played at school, but that was two goalies and 20 people in a circle around the ball. I never got into it properly, plus I went to a school that played rugby. I wasn't very good at that either.
1973 FA Cup final
I remember watching the FA Cup final between Leeds and Sunderland at school in the common room, because it was a boarding school just outside Yorkshire. Our school was nearer Leeds and there were a lot of Leeds supporters. There was this one guy, he was the tough guy from school, and he burst into tears when Leeds lost. I found that very, very funny.
