The Mirror Pictures are a 4 piece indie punk band from Reading, formed in early 2019.
We caught up with them this week to talk about their new album, love of football and their worship of Robin Friday;
‘The greatest footballer you never saw”
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us at Away day radio, as we’re a station that is based around the culture of Music and football, we’ll start off with asking you about your second single “Robin Friday” that came out late last year, now for those that don’t know about Robin Friday, it’s fair to say he was a cult hero at Reading and then Cardiff City, but what makes it remarkable is his professional career only lasted 4 years, what was it about him that gave him his legendary status and why he captured the hearts of fans past and present like yourselves?
Robin Friday is one of those characters who is firmly set in folklore around Reading. There is always someone in the pub who can tell you a story about him, or saw a wonder goal he scored. He was a lad from 30 miles down the road at Acton, and he really embedded himself in the town’s history with his wild lifestyle, improving the football performances and tearing it up in the pubs and clubs. When we came up with the idea for the song it was originally called ‘Only one number one’, and I remember sitting in the Victoria Arms in Reading talking about what we were gonna do with the band, when we got chatting to the barmaid, who was Robin Friday’s second wife! I was also reading Paolo Hewitt’s book ‘The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw’ about his life at the time. In the end, it all came together and the song became about Robin Friday. The song was popular at our gigs and we decided to release it as a single. To our surprise, it got played at a Luton Town match, and then things took off from there. Bristol Rovers played it at a match, but had to change the name on the listing as there’s no Robin’s allowed at the Memorial Ground! Hahaha (nickname for Bristol City). When they started playing the song at Reading matches it was like a dream come true. It continued to get played all over including Liverpool, Sunderland, Cardiff, Coventry City, QPR, and so on! We’ve always been football fans, so to become part of football and music culture was a really proud time for us. I hope they make a film about Robin Friday one day, it would be crazy! There’s a new book out at the moment by Stuart Kane called ‘Man Friday: The First Half (The Life and Times of Robin Friday) – Definitely worth checking out.
(listen to The Mirror pictures Robin Friday single here)
An insight into Robin Friday, a terrace cult hero.
He was voted the top “all-time cult hero” for both Reading and Cardiff in a 2004 poll.
During a game against Luton Town, Friday waged war with their goalkeeper Milija Aleksic and attempted to decapitate him with a high lunge. Aleksic, understandably enough, refused a handshake of apology from Friday. From the resulting free, Friday nicked the ball from the Luton centre half and stuck the ball past Aleksic after rounding him, flicking the v as he jogged past.
Friday’s style of play was described as “really quite bizarre”. It was more or less Robin standing in the middle and saying ‘Give me the ball and I’ll see what I can do with it'”.
Former referee Clive Thomas, a man who had seen the world’s best players of the era, remembers officiating a Reading game against Tranmere Rovers in which Friday scored a wonder goal.
It was a piece of magic from 35 yards out that Thomas described as “even up against the likes of Pele and Cruyff that rates as the best goal I have ever seen”.
Off the field.
According to his pal Syd Simmons, he obeyed the manager’s order not to drink 48 hours before a game. Instead, he took LSD and stayed up half the night listening to heavy metal music.
He was barred from one pub on ten occasions.
He walked into a hotel bar with a live swan under his arm after finding it outside.
Entering a nightclub wearing a trench-coat and hobnail boots whilst being stark naked underneath, and removing said trench-coat.
Performed “the elephant” a charming dance routine which involved turning his pockets inside-out and letting his crown jewels hang out of his fly.
Deciding to join a hippie commune prior to pre-season training without informing anyone.
Attempted to steal stone angels from a graveyard,
Robin Friday’s last significant action on a football pitch was to kick Mark Lawrenson square in the face.
Legend has it, after being sent off, the then-Cardiff forward then broke into Brighton’s changing room and defecated in the centre-back’s kit bag before leaving the stadium with the game still going on.
“If George Best was football’s first pop star then Robin was the first rock star”
Friday also employed the use of psychological tactics; aiming to spook opposing players, Friday would kiss them and fondle their testicles.
He served a prison sentence during the 1980s for impersonating a police officer and confiscating people’s drugs.
He was often criticised for the number of bookings and sendings-off he received, Friday believed he was justified to chase victory by any means, explaining his attitude in a 1977 interview:
“On the pitch, I hate all opponents. I don’t give a damn about anyone. People think I’m mad, a lunatic. I am a winner”
Sadly Robin was found dead in his Acton flat on 22 December 1990 at the age of 38, having suffered a fatal heart attack.
Are the four of you all Reading fans? and pre-lockdown did you get too many games?
Three of us are Reading fans, our guitarist Martyn is a Chelsea fan. I’ve held season tickets in the past, but it’s hard to have two passions in life. Football is really expensive and so is music. These days I tend to go to about 10 home games a season, and try to get to a few away games as well for the tear up! We’re always on the lookout for spare tickets for matches, and really just go when we can. Even writing about it now is making me miss being in the stadium!!!
Who are your favourite players now and what expectations do you have for next season?
If I’d have written this 2 weeks ago it was a different picture, but the club has had a massive clear-out already and there are more players set to leave. John Swift has been excellent this season, but it looks like he’s going to Sheffield United for £5 million. Our Brazillian keeper Rafael was rightly player of the season this year, and we now have two decent goal scorers in George Puscas and Yakou Meite, who both managed double figures. I’m excited about the signing of attacking midfielder Josh Laurent from Shrewsbury Town, he looks decent. I’d love to say the aspirations for 2020/21 are either playoffs or promotion, but I’ve seen in the news the club’s Chinese owner is being looked at for money laundering, so it’s always a bit worrying. C’mon you Royals!!!
I mentioned the enforced lockdown, which has obviously affected us all, and having listened to your excellent single “love on lockdown” how did you guys cope and adapt to it, what with being in a band? and did you use this time to reflect and write new stuff?
The band have been writing new stuff during the lockdown and are building some great material. It’s been really hard for everyone. One frustration is that we’ve spent a year recording our debut album ‘You Can’t Change The Past’, and we couldn’t finish it until about 2 weeks ago. We haven’t been able to meet to rehearse, so songs like ‘Love on Lockdown’ had to be recorded individually at home. Thankfully we are now back rehearsing and recording, although it’s fair to say these are uncertain times.
(listen to ‘love on lockdown’ here)
Have you got a release date for your debut album “You can’t change the past”?
Not quite… We’ve agreed that the album is going to be released on Musical Bear Records, it is going to be sold on Bandcamp as a vinyl LP, CD and download, but it hasn’t quite gone into production yet. Lockdown has had a big impact on the pressing plants in Europe so we’ve having to navigate our way around this at the moment. Hopefully, we can release the record on 30/10/20.
Who were the musical influences that gave you a passion for music and the indie-punk sound you play?
We grew up in the 80s and 90s. We’re influenced by everything. Our singer Mark is a vinyl record dealer, he loves everything from the 50s onwards. Early Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett, Joe Meek’s space-age pop. Gee and Martyn are more Guns and Roses, Stone Roses. Stuart is a huge Oasis fan. Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Who, Led Zepplin, Verve, Bowie. Tonnes of great new bands out there like Skylights, K’s, Crimson Bloom. The music scene is exciting again.
What style of fashion are you fellas into, and has it been influenced by the different decades of football culture?
It’s a mixed bag with us, to be honest. Gee is a Stone Island man and wears it proud. Stu loves a bit of Liam Gallagher’s label Pretty Green. Martyn is a bit artier in the way he dresses. Mark the singer is one for band T-shirts and whatever he can find! We never look out of place on a terrace or in a pub : )
Now that things are starting to get back to some normality have you started to plan any tour’s in the near future?
The live music scene is a total write off at the moment. All our shows were cancelled at the start of lockdown. Some bands are booking tours for March 2021, and I wish them the best, but venues are still all closed, football stadiums are still closed, it’s bleak. There’s a long way to go yet… As soon as we do start booking gigs we’ll be promoting them hard on our social media on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mirrorpictures1.
Thanks again for taking time talking to us, we wish you all the best with the new album and the future, and look forward to playing your music on Awayday radio, oh and let’s hope the Royals have some success next season!
