Bearing the scars and marks of our burgeoning musical taste

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

Most young fellas follow the English football team that was top of the table in the year that they first noticed all the glamour – which is fine if that was during Manchester United’s golden era or Liverpool’s period of domination.

But spare a thought for those who first tuned into Match of the Day and saw Blackburn Rovers coasting in for their one and only Premiership title and decided: “they’re the boys for me; I’ll ride that rollercoaster of success for the rest of my days.”

The Blackburn fans aren’t the only one to discover that their first experience would in effect be their only happy one; those who enjoyed Ipswich Town or QPR going close back in the 1970s haven’t had a whole lot to cheer about since either.

The smallest bit of not-scientific research would show the correlation between your age and your favourite team – because you pick your heroes at a key moment in your life and from then on you’re stuck with them for better or, more accurately, for worse.

There are other reasons to pick your team of course – Aston Villa have had a healthy support around Galway ever since the late great Chick Deacy played his part in their fairytale success – but for the most part it was the team that caught your eye when football first turned your head.

Thus, if you know an Ipswich supporter, he’s in his fifties because they came second to Villa in 1981 and Liverpool in 1982. Blackburn fans are a decade younger, because they won the Premiership in 1995.

Most of us sad dads are Liverpool or Leeds fans; the Man United brigade preceded us if they fell for the Busby Babes or post-dated us if it was Fergie time.

And as it once was with bank accounts, the first one you invest in is the one for life – which, as it turns out, is much the same with music.

Because a recent study of listening habits revealed that the songs we love in our early teenage years are top of our playlist decades later.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.