World Cup '74 #17 (Attila Abonyi)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Following the completion of representations of members of the (or an) Argentina squad, the World Cup ’74 drawing Project proceeds alphabetically along the course of the qualifying nations & thus now begins to feature the Australian selection (at least as proposed by the FKS stamp album ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974'), then Finals’ debutants, with the portrait subject that both emerges from & is contained within the familiar matrix of graphite-toned squares being one Attila Abonyi, a name previously unknown to me & certainly not recalled from mostly hazy memories of the televised coverage of the tournament that served, essentially, as my introduction to an interest in football (hence its ‘hauntological’ significance to & generative force behind the Project, with the pair of collectors’ stamp/sticker albums that provide the original source material for the drawings’ processing providing equal inspiration &, more importantly, tangible object matter).

The habitual light research reveals that Abonyi, born in Hungary but subsequently qualified to represent Australia, was indeed chosen as a member of his adopted country’s official squad &subsequently played twice during the Finals, appearing as a half-time substitute in their second match, a 0 – 3 defeat to the host nation West Germany, & then being selected for the final fixture against Chile, a goalless draw which served to eliminate both teams from the tournament at the first hurdle.

In a new feature, here’s a scanned image of the original source stamp as it appears in its album.

In cultural news, the Uncut magazine special collectors’ edition devoted to the history & glory of The Smiths (& subsequent developments), compiled from various music paper archive features & interviews, & including reappraising album reviews amongst its contents, presented itself as an essential purchase, as well it would, & has rather influenced the working playlist since. What a pleasure indeed to hear The Smiths’ back catalogue, fresh, vital & utterly contemporary, necessary, & Morrissey’s ‘Vauxhall & I’ too, a cracking album itself.

World Cup '74 #16 (Hector Yazalde)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

The continuation of the World Cup ’74 project finally achieves some form of closure with this drawing, which concludes the first squad of players, those chosen to represent Argentina, at least, prior to the fact, by the publishers FKS & Panini, upon whose resources, in the form of their commemorative stamp/sticker albums ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ & ‘München ‘74’ respectively, the project draws for its raw visual material. From the outset, & given that the project is based upon such ‘hauntological’ sources, the decision was taken to follow the format of the FKS album & compile regular 16-man squads of players to represent each of the 16 nations qualifying for the tournament, as explained in more depth here – back in the (relatively) real world, the official squads comprised a total of 22 members each.

As we’ve discovered along the course of the Project thus far, not all of the footballers chosen, predictively, by FKS & Panini to appear at the 1974 World Cup were subsequently selected by their countries, but the portrait subject that simultaneously emerges from & is subsumed within the formal arrangement of the grid of graphite-toned 5mm squares on this particular occasion, Hector Yazalde, did in fact make the cut & went on to feature in 3 matches at the tournament after being omitted from Argentina’s first, scoring twice in their 4 – 1 victory over group minnows Haiti.

Prior to the World Cup, Yazalde had enjoyed a successful season at club level, scoring a quite phenomenal 46 goals in 29 matches for Sporting Lisbon as they won the Portuguese championship, a tally that proved the best in top-level European soccer, earning him the ‘Golden Boot’ awarded annually for such feats.
The following season, Yazalde continued in similar vein, scoring another 30 goals for Sporting, which saw him second in Europe: all in all, he achieved a remarkable goal-a-game ratio in his time at the club, for whom he appeared & scored 104 times.

Sadly to discover, Yazalde passed away in 1997 at the age of 51, one of two members of the 1974 Argentina squad to have died to this date &, in a most uncanny coincidence with the lyrics of a Morrissey song, ‘Hector was…the first of the gang to die’: it beggars belief, of course, that old Moz could be writing & singing coded messages about the 1974 Argentina World Cup squad & the members of, but still it’s a(nother) link between the drawing & music that so pervades TOoT.

Having reached this point in the Project, it seems appropriate, somehow, to provide evidence of the original source material from which the relevant stickers are selected &, following digitization of these image-objects, the drawings are processed, thus here are a pair of photographic images of the relevant pages from the collectors’ albums, the FKS first &, to follow, the Panini.

World Cup '74 #15 (Enrique Wolff)

graphite & puty eraser/30x20cm

Following the recent light ‘other cultural’ interludes in proceedings, today’s entry presents the return of the football World Cup 1974 ‘hauntological memories’ project & the latest slowly-processed drawing in the series (‘slow’ being the abiding philosophy here at TOoT, of course, although this can tip over into self-parody at times), the original photo-object source of which - then manipulated through digital procedures before being represented, ‘de-photographized’ & re-mediated, as handmade drawing (then re-digitized as a scan, of course, for (re)presentation on-screen) - was a sticker from the FKS-published collectors’ album ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’.

Thus, via the usual process/format of the matrix of toned graphite 5mm squares, the portrait subject that simultaneously coalesces & is fragmentarily obscured is, on this particular occasion, Enrique Wolff, who was selected for inclusion in both the FKS & Panini ‘Munchen ‘74’ albums that serve as the raw material for the project, & also the actual Argentina squad for the tournament. ‘Quique’ Wolff, who, research reveals, post-playing pursued a media career & now presents his own soccer TV programme ‘Simplemente Fútbol’, subsequently started Argentina’s first four matches at the ’74 World Cup, being substituted after 60 minutes in the second game against Italy & then at half-time in the fourth, the opening Second Phase 0 – 4 defeat to Holland, before being omitted for the critical match with Brazil (resulting in another defeat) but then reinstated & awarded the team captaincy for the final ‘dead rubber’ fixture against also-eliminated East Germany. In keeping with the majority of players who appeared in the sticker albums & the televised coverage of the finals themselves, which itself was essentially my entry into taking an interest in football, Wolff was another of those details within the generality previously unknown to me, thus the rendering of his image in monochrome.

Soundtrack:

My Bloody Valentine ‘m b v’ (vinyl LP & CD)
Vic Godard & Subway Sect ‘We Come as Aliens’ & ‘What’s the Matter, Boy?’
Moon Wiring Club ‘Shoes Off and Chairs Away’ & ‘A Spare Tabby at the Cat’s Wedding’
Laura Marling ‘I Speak Because I Can’
digital downloads of singles once owned on vinyl, including Repetition & Those Intrinsic Intellectuals

In Association With the Past

detail from David Hockney 'Pearblossom Hwy., 11 - 18th April 1986, #2'

Currently reading David Hockney’s ‘That’s the Way I See It’, as a follow-up to & follow-on from ‘David Hockney by David Hockney’, & this very morning encountered within the reproduction the photo-collage ‘Pearblossom Highway’, featuring, as it does, a flattened aluminium (or aluminum, given the subject’s US location) can on the ground, amongst other discarded objects: why didn’t I happen upon this referential revelation during all that time I spent finding, photographically documenting, drawing & faithfully blogging all those similar ‘roadkill’ objects? (see archives between November 2008 – October 2012)

m b v

It’s arrived - the vinyl LP & CD package of My Bloody Valentine’s longed-for album, ‘m b v’, as already heard via initially-acquired mp3 but required in physical form(s) to confirm, embody, the very existence of, lovingly presented in a gatefold sleeve (& dig the lounge carpet in our new bungalow too).

And here’s side two of the LP, come to rest on the turntable of the record player, the playing of & listening-to the platter a thrilling analogue experience, the perfect vehicle to complement the sound of the music.

A fine & engrossing sound it is too, not, perhaps, as immediately melodically developed as the many wonders of ‘Loveless’ yet extending the sonic boundaries of both that album & the preceding ‘Isn’t Anything’, to which reference is also made (in a sense, whilst going well beyond, ‘m b v’ also occupies territory between), intensifying that essential My Bloody Valentine aesthetic. From the typically woozy, entrancing opening, which draws the listener into the vortex, through the enveloping thrill of the electric & electronic soundscape, a pair of highlights have thus far emerged – the heavily-buzzing ‘Only Tomorrow’ with its vocal soars & repeated ‘glam’ guitar refrain, & the shimmering (relatively) poppy gorgeousness of ‘If I Am', which each occupying what are effectively the centres of the first two distinct thirds into which the sequence of the 9 tracks of the album are divided (although the 4 – 5 split over the two sides of the vinyl complicates this a little, of course).
Subtleties reveal themselves with each successive listen, via the various formats, but the encompassing comfort of the whole, a welcome addition to the canon, something of an unexpected pleasure after over 20 years of waiting, hoping, more than suffices for now: welcome back My Bloody Valentine & welcome ‘m b v’.