It was supposed to be a long and glorious day, footie followed by a show, but in fact footie turned out to be a wee bit a downer.
The magical FCSP had a glorious “run” in the 1st flight following 2nd league championship and promotion. At least when you put it into perspective, give it financial capabilities or value of the player rooster. Or Bundesliga experience of the rooster.
How ever people looked at it, they came to the conclusion that FCSP will go down again. In reality only the first 4 games FCSP stayed on a relegation place and since November 2024 they did not even were down to the 16th, which would be relegation games vs. someone from the 2nd league.
Comes May 2025 and with a tough 2:2 away in Frankfurt they cemented the lead to place 16: 3 points, 13 goals. Almost safe.
FC St. Pauli – VfL Bochum (Millerntor, Hamburg, 17.05.2025)
(c) gehkacken.de 2025
But the final home game vs. VfL Bochum did not turn into a glorious finish of the season, it turned into a sour summer kick without energy, without winning 1:1’s and without a score – like so many other games. 2nd best defense in the league, by far the worst offense (if counted in scored goals only).
But, ending 14th is a great season result. Lets see what the club is able to do in the transfer season and lets hope that key personnel can be kept, up to and including the coach.
No clue why many others in the stadium wanted to party directly after the game on the pitch, for me and me mates around me it was a too poor finish to be cheerful.
So the only way to cheer us up was a quick bite prior to the short stroll over to the Indra. To an extend it did work…
… and got us early to the Indra, doors still closed. Many others arrived early too, many being fellow FCSP Fans that attended the game.
It was unfortunately still some time until the reformed Spitfires would take the stage, so it was chatting and sipping. And fortunately the show was a birthday show for Sam (who runs the Indra and the Monkeys), so the sipping part was supported by some gracious free beers.
The Spitfires took the stage around 21:45 and faced a ready for the action audience. The original band was busy from 2012 to 2022, when they called it a day. It was largely due to Covid and falling out with they record company as this got them deprived of the financials to keep a touring band (not able to tour) afloat.
Comes 2025 and Billy Sullivan, who kept a solo act running, is back with a new, reformed, 4 piece outfit. And back in Hamburg, where they played and recorded a couple of times.
The Spitfires (Indra, Hamburg, 17.05.2025)
(c) gehkacken.de 2025
It ain’t necessarily my mu-sick-al niche but you can see that Billy (like so many others in the UK) grew up with loads of Mod and Punk references. And taking that into a slick combination of harmonies, storytelling and – my guess – what some people call “Brit Pop“.
Also throw in some undercurrent of Reggae and Ska and you are bang onto their turf. And that one they delivered with precision, to the point and – to widen the sound – with some organ and brass coming from the computer.
The Spitfires (Indra, Hamburg, 17.05.2025)
(c) gehkacken.de 2025
Specifically the 2nd guitar added some nice soundscapes to their live sound, it gave many songs both depth and something listen up to. Anyway, the overall sound was almost full, perfect and without any sort of miss.
I guess they played for the length of a full football game (like in 90 minutes) and finished the set of with this one:
And, frank, they convinced me – that was great entertainment in the purest sense. And whilst i nodded to it, large parts of the audience danced to it. And the Mods in the first row even … had the old classic “We are the Mods, we are the Mods, we are we are we are the Mods” out.
It definitely did more then cheering the day up, it made it end on a high. I guess Sam got himself a nice Birthday present there, well deserved.
The other birthday boy, also a Spitfire but of Stevens make, was also happy though now officially can be called an old man. But as much as we love him, he loves us back.
After the long day i called it a day rather early than late, also because of my ride home nowadays is a wee bit longer.
But i did that happy and with a smile. As #thereaintnuthinbetterthanlivemusic and #thereaintnuthinbetterthanstayinginthetopflight.
