Everton v SAFC: musician digs the Blues

Since M Salut is on the road in France, there isn’t time for much posting of new material before this week’s Who are You? feature which will run tomorrow as we approach the resumption, for Sunderland, of the football season.

But here is a sneak preview of that feature.

Our Evertonian is a pal, Frank Gallagher, known through his forays as a musician into the folkie territory of M Salut’s acquaintance.

I met Frank when he was in the band of the fabulous Irish singer Mary Black. He was also the youngest member of the band when they took me on a quick trip to Bahrain, where they played in a cavernous hotel ballroom for a largely expat Irish audience. I have a vivid memory of the nurses who had flocked to the event from Saudi forming an orderly queue for the Derry musician’s attention; or something like that, anyway.

We’ve met many times since. Frank is, like many from Northern Ireland, an Everton fan and he gives some great answers in tomorrow’s interview.

Here, for tasters, is one that appealed especially to me:

Question: Peter Reid, Howard Wilkinson, Paul Bracewell, Kevin Kilbane and doubtless many more I simply cannot recall while sitting in Soho internet cafe. Which Everton-Sunderland links, or games, do you remember?

Answer

You mean apart from the 7-1 drubbing in 2007, ahem? There weren’t a lot of games between the two in my formative years because Sunderland were in the old second division, sorry to mention it. I remember the ’73 final of course..I was 10 so I was the perfect age for all that wonder…the Stokoe hat, the Montgomery double save, the Kerr moustache…I also remember Billy Hughes being interviewed on Match of The Day that evening at the team party in their hotel and my mother commenting that he was “as full as a Lord”.

Come back tomorrow for the rest …