Brighton based indie pop outfit The Maccabees have spoken to ClashMusic about their love of classic British sporting traditions.
Britain is a sporting nation. Sure, we might not be particularly good at it – anyone watch the Winter Olympics? – but countless thousands of us take part in team sports every day.
The Maccabees might not strike you as the sporting types, but the indie group recently told ClashMusic about their love of tradition. Singer Felix White claimed that his school days are marked with sporting memories.
“My earliest memory of school is closely associated with cult playground games, of a more primal, but similar spirit” he explained.
“Football stickers (got, got, got, NEED!) was the god of ages nine to ten. Hugo’s completed Premier League ’94 album is still lovingly stored amongst family photo albums. Pogs and marbles were both huge phases, probably at most schools, but we had them controversially banned because both were being used as weapons in heated match-ups.”
Meanwhile, the singer mourned the passing of British sporting traditions. “Other sports of a similar vein include pillow fighting, pancake racing, barrel walking, duck herding, bog snorkelling and the list goes on.”
“All these sports have in common is that they have almost all been running for more than a hundred years and are kept alive by local communities, generation by generation. At first glance they can all be written off as ‘sport gone crazy’, perhaps annoyingly wacky pointless competitions. But in fact there’s an understanding of culture, escapism and, as mentioned, a community spirit to them. Those traits are sometimes – rightly or wrongly – missing in modern life.”
Read the entire article HERE.
