50 minutes ago, GHD said:

The problem there is that it was not our marketing people who were inspired to do this. It was allegedly a request from Everton to benefit them, which Rovers readily went along with

It seems to me that it's an arrangement that suits both parties - Everton have what they want and it's a perfect marketing opportunity for Rovers to play a game in the kit we will have launched 24 hours before. Of course it wouldn't be acceptable if it was a competitive game but for an early pre-season kickabout?

Although I'm somewhat confused by the Everton post above in that case.

40 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Our marketing people get (rightly so) pelters sometimes but on this occasion I can see the logic. They go on sale on Saturday morning and there will be many, particularly kids who want to wear the replica shirt we are playing in (my granddaughter is one of them).

If this helps to shift a few more shirts on Saturday then I say well done.

I thought when I posted above that it was non-controversial as I said but clearly that's a rare thing on here. I thought it made sense too.

The post above about Everton's shirt seems to contradict what we were told though.

I think I can allow myself a small non-controversial leak from Monday's Fans Forum.

The away shirt is planned to be launched on Friday. Rovers will wear it in Saturday's game as Everton have asked if they can use their home shirt, as it's so far the only one they have launched.

2 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Are they allowed to censure anything they dont want to be published?

Have a look at my post above. The final minutes are agreed between us.

At the end of the day I guess that they could insist that something should not be published. I have been secretary of the Forum since 2009 and it hasn't happened yet.

24 minutes ago, MickBet said:

As it's been reported previously, that the minutes published aren't an acriute account of the exact minutes, I hope the unelected members of the FF call this out and not sit there like nodding dogs as usual. It's been far to long that the club keep breaking EFL rules on consultation meetings and submit the FF as fan engagement.

As the person who has been writing up the Forum minutes for a long time I would be interested in knowing where it has been reported that the minutes are not an accurate account?

This is what happens - I come home and write the minutes as best I can. Then they go to the club and some changes are made. Often these are very minor changes, sometimes more information might be added. Whilst occasionally I and the Chair might go back regarding these changes nearly always we are happy with the end result. It's important to note here that we may very well not be happy with what was said, but we are happy with the factual accuracy of what we were told.

What the minutes can never be is a verbatim record of everything that everyone says during the meetings. That would be unreadable and provide no more clarity. What I think does happen is that the words on the minutes do not and I don't think can ever convey the full understanding of the level of debate. They are minutes, not a drama.

Finally in the past we have sometimes been told some confidential things that I am not allowed to minute. John Williams in particular did it all the time. There was none of that last night.

I have just sat down at my screen to start writing the minutes up. I would hope to have them done inside 24 hours and they will then be passed to the club. How long that takes can be very variable depending on when everyone is oil and can get chance to review them. Then I like to give Forum members 24 hours to review them before they go up on the club website in case I have misrepresented anything.

Ishmael was not there. in fact in all the years I have been on the Forum there has only ever been one manager who has attended - Gary Bowyer. In fact, in John Williams' day, any discussion of team matters was banned.

The minutes are not sent to the EFL. They are of course published on the club website so are freely available for anyone to read.

3 hours ago, only2garners said:

More than a bit of controversy here Den. Whilst Lancs have only offered 3 options for the future of the County Championship other counties have offered 5 options, including a 24 game one, essentially leaving things as they currently are. One thing that around 92% of county members across the country want but hasn’t been offered as an option is to play two Championship games in August alongside the Hundred.

Edit - the 24 games should of course be 14 games.

4 hours ago, den said:

5 day test cricket can be the best sport in the world.

As a footnote Lancs are ballotting members on 4 day county cricket. Lancs are a democratic club, owned by their members, having to abide by their members decisions. The ECB want to change the format of national cricket. Currently there are 14 games a season but Lancs aren’t giving their members the option of retaining that. They are giving them only three options. All of which mean cutting the number to 12 games in order to fit in the Hundred during the peak months of summer.

More than a bit of controversy here Den. Whilst Lancs have only offered 3 options for the future of the County Championship other counties have offered 5 options, including a 24 game one, essentially leaving things as they currently are. One thing that around 92% of county members across the country want but hasn’t been offered as an option is to play two Championship games in August alongside the Hundred.

On 11/07/2025 at 19:31, Exiled_Rover said:

Tonight's game at Old Trafford is why I can't take Hit and Giggle seriously.

A boatful of mishit shots and yet Yorkshire are racing along at 11 an over with only 1 down. It's a game of luck as much as it's a game of skill. 

I regard the 3 forms of the game now as different games and can enjoy them all in their different ways. 
 

The Roses games are frankly less interesting than games against the other teams. Around 20K at Old Trafford on Friday but about 15K were just there to drink and arse about. They don’t turn up to any other games, although some will no doubt be there for a quarter final if we get a home game. 
 

The Sky branding also ruined things a bit with me as for some reason one of the screens had a terrible score card on it and there had to be diff people on the commentary. This afternoon’s game was better. It obviously helped that Lancashire won but it seemed that the crowd were actually interested in the cricket as well. And a bigger crowd than there has been for the other home games.

11 minutes ago, lraC said:

Pasha is attending then?

As I said above I am expecting him, but there are no absolute guarantees.

23 hours ago, arbitro said:

Normally apologies are sent in advance of meetings so if that's the case they should have an idea beforehand but I don't know how these meetings operate in respect of normal protocol. 

I'm sure I've seen pre meetings mentioned in the past too but maybe that was only for FF members.

We are never sure who will be turning up from the club for any Forum. Normally Lynsey Talbot and Christina Haines would be there and I am expecting that Suhail will be there too. At the last meeting there were a lot of the management team there as well so I would expect a good turnout.

A number of years ago we used to hold pre-meets for FF members to set the agenda but they fell away and completely went with covid. There was a pre-meet for this meet though, although I couldn't attend.

On 07/07/2025 at 13:30, waggy on the wing said:

I went to Anfield a few weeks ago to see Springsteen,I have`nt been there for a while and I could not believe the changes. statues, plaques and monuments all over the place. every where you look they are showing off their achievements. Ok they have lots more to celebrate than Rovers but surely we can do better after 150 years than one statue of Jack. The powers that be could do a lot worse than visiting Anfield and getting a few ideas.

The most successful Town team in the country deserves better.

I was at the Springsteen concert as well sat in the Kop. Christ, it was uncomfortable with hardly any leg room. It all has safe standing bars and you needed to keep standing for a bit to keep your legs working 

The next forum is next Monday night 14th,

On 23/06/2025 at 11:37, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Yeah I read that. I’m not too impressed with the new “ Sunday Observer “ . That article was interesting but on the whole the sports bit is abysmal. No mention of the England v Spain U-21 game the previous night at all ! I’m of a mind to cancel it after about 40 years of being a reader.

I meant to comment on this but on the train this morning reading the Observer reminded me.

The sports section is quite different to under the old management but I prefer it. The Observer and the Guardian have never usually carried reports of sports games played the previous night, so no real change. There was always a good stats page but these days that’s all available quicker and in no more detail online.

The new sports section is more like a magazine with a number of longer articles not necessarily about immediate news, which I find refreshingly different.

I also saw him with Los Straitjackets 2/3 years ago at Glastonbury, but this time it was just him and his guitar. Quite a contrast to some of the other shows on the Pyramid!

I don't get the chance to see a huge number of bands at Glastonbury but my highlights this year were Nick Lowe, who played another glorious hour on the Acoustic Stage to a crowd of about 200. More obscurely my son recommended that we see Duo Rout - a pair of Estonian women playing the same weird zither and singing fabulously in a small tent in the Green Fields. He wasn't wrong - they were sensational.

I wish the BBC would just send a few cameras round everything else that is happening at the festival instead of concentrating on just 5 stages.

On 29/06/2025 at 01:58, Upside Down said:

Is there anyone playing this thing that was born later than 1965?

Here's a few: -

Charli XCX - 32

CMAT - 29

Raye - 27

Matt Healy - 36

Noah Kahan - 28

Olivia Rodrigo - 22

It's just us old farts on here talking about people we remember from our youth.

On 29/06/2025 at 23:46, Gav said:

The Torygraph giving Rod Stewart 3 stars for his Glastonbury set???

The guy’s 80 for uks sake and the fact he can still knock out the golden oldies for 90 minutes in 30C degree heat in front of 200.000 fans is worth 5 stars out of 5 in anybody’s book.

Bitter press, who haven’t got a clue.

I was there for most of Rod's set and 3 stars would be generous in my book. The wonderful grainy, gravelly voice he had in the 70s has gone and the general show appeared pretty shambolic to me. Now I start as someone who believes that he hasn't done anything worthwhile since Every Picture Tells a Story so I might be biased but the general view from people I spoke to afterwards was an overall meh - so the Telegraph seems fair to me. The Guardian also gave 3 stars and the Independent 2.

I guess that it probably didn't come across on the TV coverage but the screens that the vast majority of the crowd watch the show on mostly showed some "arty" videos rather than what was happening on the stage. Right at the end when Lulu came on (after Rod's false introduction the number before) the screens showed Rod in various football shots for half of the song rather than Lulu.

Anyone who wanted to see what a proper slick production looked like just needs to watch Olivia Rodrigo's headliner show. I can't personally warm to her voice which seems too harsh and shouty but the bit of the show I watched live in a break from my shift showed what could be done as a spectacle.

For me it was also pretty painful to watch Proud Mary being sung (while Rod did a costume change) barely 24 hours after the guy who wrote the song had done it on the same stage. 

Also I doubt that there were more than 100,000 there tops. It was some way from the biggest crowd at the Pyramid stage and the biggest crowd of all was for Charli XCX on the Other Stage.

Just had as good an evening as I’ve ever had at Glastonbury at my 15th. Had a break from my shift to catch most of John Fogerty’s set, followed after shift by Pulp and then Nick Lowe. Just relaxing on a sofa in the crew bar behind the Acoustic stage waiting for my wife, son and several friends to get up after Neil Young.

I bet we have to play all the teams home and away. It’s the same every bloody season.

17 hours ago, Waggy76 said:

The fact he is Portuguese is very worrying! 

If it helps you feel a bit easier he has dual nationality with Cape Verde.

Andy Zaltzman has a fascinating stat in his Observer column today. Across the world and in England & Wales except Headingley runs per wicket have been greater in the first innings, then 2nd, then 3rd and then 4th, as you might expect. At Headingley it is exactly the reverse - the best innings has been the 4th.

On 18/06/2025 at 11:39, Herbie6590 said:

I’ve found some old concert tickets 🙂.
Here’s #1 Genesis at the NEC in December 1981. 
Hadn’t long passed my driving test, borrowed my aunty’s Mini, drove down from Accrington after work, got home roughly 2am…in work for 8am.
Oh to be young & foolish…😁

Sorry to be an old fart, but this reminds me of seeing Genesis at the Amethyst Club in Preston. A quick google search tells me it was 30th September 1971 - no idea how much I paid but something online tells me that Genesis were paid £75 for it. My memory thinks there were only about 20 of us there. The Amethyst was a Thursday night residency at the Hibernia club on Avenham Lane and all sorts of other bands also played there around that time.

I also saw them earlier that year at the Floral Hall in Southport with Lindisfarne and Van Der Graf Generator - the latter were top of the bill. Ticket price 50p.

A genius indeed. The first record I bought with my own money was Good Vibrations in late 1966 as a 14 year old. I’m not sure whether it was prescient to buy one of the best ever pop songs at such a young age or a curse to realise that it was all downhill from there.

I was privileged to see him several times from 2005 when he finally got his life back and before dementia caught him.

To paraphrase one of the great lyrics - “I might not always love him, but as long as there are stars above him”.

I’ll be seeing the Boss again at Anfield on Saturday night. Third time for me, plus his cameo with Paul McCartney at Glastonbury a few years ago.