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Home | Interviews | Podcasts | Film | News | Follow @PUBrentford
This is where you will find latest news and information on the project.
Brentford FC Community Sports Trust have been into 6 local primary schools and run workshops with 360 pupils in 12 different Year 5 and Year 6 classes.
The workshops looked at local and community history and utilised film clips and material collected during the Push Up Brentford! project.
One of the components was to look at Brentford's local rivals and why those rivalries were established. Apparently, the classroom singing of 'Bees Up, Fulham Down' went down particularly well!
We have been working with Brentford Community Sports Trust using the oral histories and the film to put together a fun and interesting series of activities to take the project into schools. When possible the team at the Sports Trust will be going into primary schools in the area, or hosting them at their centre, but in the meantime these will be available as online sessions.
Thanks to the great generosity of the Kew Steam Museum [London Museum of Water & Steam - to give it its official title!] We were able to have a socially distanced film launch for 27 people.
We would have loved to have a bigger audience but because of the restrictions we were only able to invite the project volunteers, interviewees, funders and partners - and even then had to rely on some of them not being able to attend!
The film was very well received at its world premiere and those who had seen the rough cut and made comments and suggestions for improving the film were pleasantly surprised as to how much better it was.
We had a Q&A after the film screening with some volunteers and interviewees coming up front to answer the audiences questions.
The film is now online for all to watch. We hope you enjoy it.
The socially-distanced stalls
the Q&AToday we conducted two of the interviews that were postponed because of lockdown. We kept the team to a minimum and followed social distancing guidelines but had a great time listening to stories and finally being in the same room with people!
We thank Clare and Gerhard, our hosts at The Griffin pub, who allowed us to use their restaurant area for the interviews and really looked after us.
Gearing up to the publication of our series of 6 podcasts we were interviewed by Beesotted and provided a taster of what was to come. You can catch up with it here.
We were also interviewed by Bees United for their newsletter and you can read the article here.
In the meantime, we have uploaded a further seven interviews to the interviews page. And the first of the podcasts has dropped at Beesotted and our newly created podcasts page.
Keep up to date by following @PUBrentford on twitter.
The interviews have ended for now. We did have a few more lined up but because of interview spaces shutting down and social distancing being a pre-requisite we found it impossible to continue right now.
The good news is that we have plenty of wonderful interviews which we can now use to edit for some podcasts and the film.
The full interviews will be uploaded to this website as soon as we've gone through them and created typed summaries from our notes. We have plans to complete the interviews when things get back to normal and although these will be too late to include in the film and podcasts you will be able to listen to them whole on this site.
Do you remember that picture of Ron Noades holding two footballs? Well, that was taken by photographer Huw Powell who worked for the local press covering Brentford. We interviewed him for the project and he had us in stitches throughout!
We also had a marathon interview with some bloke in a tank-top. Lots of fantastic stories about his two and a half years as manager of Brentford. We would have gone into a third hour with him if the staff at GP weren't keen to get home before midnight! Rest assured, Martin Allen loves Brentford as much as any fan.
You will be able to listen to all the interviews recorded for this project as and when we get the chance to upload them. Keep up to date by following @PUBrentford on twitter.
Today we conducted our first six interviews and they all went swimmingly!
We had memories going back as far as our record attendance in 1949 against Leicester City and the smell of ralgex seems to bring back strong memories!
Filming an interview
Sound recording
Before the game against Blackburn we went to a local pub to both practice our new-found skills in interviewing and sound recording and to widen our interviewee base with a dozen or so vox pops. It was great fun and we'd like to thank all those that gave their time to talk to us.
Developing QuestionsToday we spent the morning discussing the themes we wanted to cover and started to develop the questions we will be using in the interviews.
We learnt that we need to use open questions and ask them in a chronological order so the interview can flow. We actually found this difficult at first as the phrasing of the questions is very important, especially when you are asking about change, it's easy to bring people up-to-date when you want to keep them talking about the past.
We did more work on interview technique and ended the day with some dress rehersal interviews complete with camera set up to get used to all the roles required.
Dress Rehearsal
Discussing oral historyWe began the day with a look at the strengths, challenges and ethics behind running oral history projects and how memory and subjectivity play a role in people's experiences. We looked at how editing can change a listener's perception of what is being said and to be alive to this and to avoid any occasions where this might misrepresent an interviewee. We also discussed the importance of other sources, be they documentary evidence or other interviews, in providing a rounded picture of events for the sake of historical accuracy.
We then looked at sound recording, locations and microphone technique and had hands-on practice and familiarisation with the sound recording equipment.
We then moved on to interviewing techniques, body language and responses and put everything together with some practice interviews.
Practising interviews
Learning the sound recording equipment
A big thank you to Adam and James at the Local Studies Centre at Chiswick Library for hosting a visit from the volunteers. There was a great collection of books, pamphlets, press cuttings and other ephemera but the real jewel was the incredible collection of photographs, mainly covering the 70s, 80s and 90s.
Gunnersbury Park Museum have kindly allowed us to upload the edited, themed extracts from their 2004 Oral History Project of Brentford Football Club. Have a listen here.
Do visit the museum to listen to the full interviews. It's well worth it!
Our 16 volunteers congregated at the Griffin Park Learning Zone to meet each other for the first time.
Following introductions and a brief outline of the project, Chris Barrett, BFC Community Sports Trust Education Officer, gave the group a tour of the stadium. We can all see why away teams don't like their changing room now! The home team's one isn't much better though!
In the afternoon the group was treated to a fantastic illustrated history workshop from David Lane, publisher of a whole series of books about the history of the club. There was plenty in it for the fans of the club who have been attending matches for over 60 years and those that have never been to a football game in their lives!
We finished the day with thoughts about who to interview for the project and the kinds of themes we wanted to pursue.
All volunteer places have now been filled.
Thank you to everyone that enquired, sorry we could not fit you all in.
We'll leave the call out below online for information purposes.
We are looking for 16 volunteers to get involved in this exciting new project which will record and preserve the history of fans, players and staff of Brentford Football Club. With funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund this project will explore this important part of London’s history. You will receive training and support to conduct oral history interviews. You will form part of a team supported by digital:works to go on to meet and record interviews with various people related to the club and its history.
We will be working with local archives in Chiswick as well as accessing the archives of the football club.
These recordings will be given to local archives and Digital-works will be filming the interviews to make an oral history based documentary that will be shared widely, online, on TV, and at community history groups across the UK.
Some volunteer expenses will be covered.
Find out more about the project and history here.
Places are limited so please contact us asap to find out more and book your place.
Matthew Rosenberg: mat@digital-works.co.uk or 07949 107 023
digital:works have been running oral history projects across London that connect Londoners new and old with the history of the city. We provide high quality and fun training to all volunteers. To find out more about us please visit our website at: www.digital-works.co.uk
