Words to Voices: Tania Mouraud and Dave Warner …and the tribes in the ‘tribunes’ of Ligue 1 and 2 French soccer
G’day et Bonjour de la France. I started writing this in Metz, a great town and much more fun than Paris. Their old city gates also take you back to when they resisted invading tribes.
They have a brilliant exhibition at the Metz Pompidou extension, one of several, about the French artist Tania Mouraud. Lots of Picasso, Masson, Miro and others there too and the great Asian artist, Yan Pei-Ming with important ‘portraits’.
Despite PP’s love of bullfights, and I muttered ‘Merde’ as the video proceeded, and two young children and their mother watched, spectacle is often good. Like footy and many other sports, bullfighting then appealed to advertisers, and crowds who also enjoyed theatre and festival just like some footy big events. It wasn’t good for bulls, horses, picadors, or matadors, but it was good for Franco, advertisers, and tribes of emotion, crowds who wanted blood. Fortunately, it is now in decline.
However, Tania was the standout as she came to come to terms with our crazy era as she lived through many wars. She sought to be a voice of our times.
So what, prey, you ask is the connection to Dave Warner. There are similarities, which takes the subject even further than Rick Kane’s small masterpiece, an EP of significance, regarding Dave Warner, who sought to be the voice of a new generation with roots in the suburbs.
Well, Tania, like Dave Warner from the Suburbs (not to be confused with the later Dave Warner, the sophisticated cricket slugger with the earthy ways and the moments to regret or not, with apologies to Piaf) sometimes was better at words than execution. While there are a few great works, like the 30+ photos of her over the years and the question ‘which one is Tania Mouraud?’, she was often better at words. Like Dave, they were her greatest skill.
Dave Warner’s words, songs from the suburban boy, were great…and there was a place for aggression as he declared war on conventionality.
When he sings the anthemic song, and some others, that English punk voice in which he sang doesn’t resonate for most Australians, except perhaps in ‘le Perth anglais’, or at least that part of ‘le P..a..’ with working class origins.
As I was sitting having my very big breakfast of many courses at the Ibis near the Gare, a family hotel despite the chain connection, as well as media coverage on the TV of Uber’s threat to all of France’s regulatory and licensing traditions, and the ‘manifestation violent’ of some taxi drivers, there was also another story.
A smaller story dealt with ‘La division nationale de lutte contre le hooliganisme a fait son bilan de la saison’. The figures from Ligue 1 and 2 were high and some graphic images of flares and fire told the tale of the tribal game.
(See the images and story in another French paper, 20 Minutes at http://www.20minutes.fr/sport/football/1639683-20150625-ligue-1-o-hooliganisme-stades-2015)
Perhaps neither the taxi drivers nor the hooligans at French soccer had such interesting words as Mouraud or Warner.
There is – according to the policy of Polonius, by indirections directions find out’ – a sporting connection between those great words and the unfortunate punk voice in which they were expressed, between those sounds and sport.
I am now signing off from the creative perspectives of Footy Almanac’s wandering international correspondent.
Away with canicules (heatwaves), bring on ‘l’hiver’ (winter)!
Addendum, aka Appendix. Courtesy of the ‘essais’ of Google translate, the Le Figaro report of the same matter on 25 June, in ‘les deux longues’:
En anglais
767 people were arrested on League 1 and League 2 matches in 2014-2015 with 367 stadium bans, announced Thursday the Commissioner Boutonnet Antoine, head of the National Division of the fight against hooliganism. Arrests are up 20 % over last season and banned from the stadium up 17 %.
En francais
767 personnes ont été interpellées à l’occasion des matches de Ligue 1 et Ligue 2 en 2014-2015 avec 367 interdictions de stade, a annoncé jeudi le commissaire Antoine Boutonnet, chef de la Division nationale de lutte contre le hooliganisme. Les interpellations sont en hausse de 20% par rapport à la saison dernière et les interdits de stade en progression de 17%.
Thanks Mr Alomes, and now I’m off to explore the artistic world of Tania Mouraud. Cheers