"A gem" The verdict from Radio 5's Adrian Chiles on this 75 minute CD.

Everything changes...

...but we're City till we die.

These photos of Gareth were taken after his "Bristol City Ruined My Life... But Made My Day" record launch on May 25 2001. A high-octane 25 minute live performance of highlights from the album and a post-performance bottle and a half of red wine have taken their toll by the time Ian Stratton (Daily Express and Brentford FC) took these snaps.

"BRISTOL CITY RUINED MY LIFE... BUT MADE MY DAY" (75 minutes)
My most successful record by some distance. A couple of copies have even reached Australia. Favourite track a glorious rough-throated crowd chant of "Everywhere We Go" from the City terraces at Kenilworth Road on our way to a 3-0 away victory over Luton. Lots of crowd noise, and red-hearted poetry for men. It also features more of my attempts to be Dylan, Bowie, Led Zeppellin and The Clash with the help of genuine rock star Les Chappell. And it includes Paul Cheeseley's millennium announcement at Ashton Gate about John Atyeo. Some of it has since been performed live at Ashton Gate.

Purchase Information
To purchase a copy of 'Bristol City Ruined My Life... But Made My Day' visit the purchase page.

Football Links within the site
Home Awayday (A lager saga)
Football As Myth (from Secondary English magazine)

Some Soundbites
“A little gem”
Adrian Chiles, Radio 5

“Great title - a labour of love, songs and sounds reflecting the ups but mainly the downs of life as a city fan - from a red-blooded lad whose mum and dad met at Ashton Gate”
BBC Points West.

“Calway is passionate about the English Language but there are other passions in his life, a 40 year old passion for his hometown club... Danny Wilson now has the job of ensuring the Bard of Bristol and fellow supporters have something to smile about.”
Anglia TV.

“I loved it. Gareth’s produced a memorable tribute to all those who endure the annual disappointments of following Bristol City through the occasional highs and ultimate lows of virtually every season. It’s a must-hear for anyone who supports a club in football’s unfashionable lower leagues. His emotional involvement with all things Ashton shines through, while his observations manage to both wickedly pointed and humorous. Push me to choose some favourite excerpts and I’d have to plump for his msarvellous wedding reception recital It’s Just Like Watching Bristol City, his Seven Reasons Why I Never Played For England (part of it to the tune of Space Oddity) and Norman (in praise of Messrs Hunter and Royle)”
Tim Davey, Bristol Evening Post

"a sort of Fever Pitch in verse, I thoroughly enjoyed this."
Jane Bluett, National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) website

“Top-quality footy-angst including City-related “poultry” readings and wry match commentaries”
Mick H, Bright Cider Life

Some Articles

Gareth's Match Of The Day
Die-hard Bristol City fan Gareth Calway has produced a new CD dedicated to the football club he loves.

Its title – Bristol City Ruined My Life... But Made My Day – may raise a few eyebrows at the club's Ashton Gate headquarters.

They shouldn't worry. For this is the story of one man's lifelong, totally committed, support for a football club which consistently under-achieves.

Gareth, now head of English at a school in Norfolk, claims to have been conceived at Ashton Gate during the club's last great Championship season of 1954-55.

His 29-track album is a mix of music, poetry, comic monologues, readings and recordings made by him of crowd reactions on location with City at Wembley, Hillsborough, Kenilworth Road and - of course - his beloved Ashton Gate.

On the album's sleeve notes Gareth says: "I was born in 1956, too late for the last great Championship season and learned to talk in Bedminster and to walk in Hartcliffe. I spent the Sixties in Frome before moving to South Wales at the end of 1968.

"In 1964 my father, Don, took me to watch John Atyeo play at Eastville against Bristol Rovers and so began the relationship charted on this record. It is one small part in the vast history of football and what football has meant to fathers and sons.

"The crowd you hear – complete with drums, trumpets, bugles and the Ashton roar of voices – must be the loudest and most ardent in the country when measured against the all-too-little they've had to shout about."

The album opens with a rendition of the Bristol City Club Call line and is followed by maniacal laughter before moving swiftly on to the sounds and chants of the Auto Windscreens 2000 Final at Wembley against Stoke, which City lost in front of 35,000 of their fans.

Gareth has dedicated the album to the memory of Canon Vyvyan-Jones who was, he says, the "Blitz-surviving vicar of St Michael's, Lord Mayor of Bristol, Bristol City director and my father's surrogate father."
Bristol Evening Post, 25/05/01

Dicks Out!
“From the 1954-5 Championship-winning season to the Auto-Windscreens Final of 2000, it's all here. Over forty years of thrills and spills, but mainly spills, are lamented and recounted in tracks such as "Why I Hate Wolves", "Sing When We're Losing", and the "Underachieving Sonnet".

There are a number of audio clips taken straight from the hallowed ground itself, Ashton Gate, and a memorable rendition of "Everywhere We Go" at Kenilworth Road. Blending these terrace rantings in with what is described on the CD as "poetry for men" was a bold move, and one that works.

There's no doubt that Bristol City Ruined My Life… will have you nodding in agreement and chuckling to yourself as you drift through the collection of songs, comic monologues, sonnets and poems looking back on an affliction that cannot be cured - being a City fan”
Ross Wilkinson, B.E.P.P.online, July 2001

Dubbin'
Poems spawned by soccer are few and far between - surprising, perhaps, given the passions aroused by the Beautiful Game. Poet, teacher and life-long Bristol City fan Gareth Calway proves a football pitch can be fertile ground for the feeding imagination. His new CD was recorded at such stadia as Wembley, Hillsborough and City’s Ashton Gate and comprises poems , stories, comic monolgues and songs performed against the boisterous chants of City fans ingeniously cast as a Greek chorus. Brings a whole new meaning to Dubbin’... Gareth, whose previous poetic subjects have included that most tribal of icons, Boudicca, begins his soccer odyssey at Wembley with the Auto Windscreens Final 2000 and then looks back into the club’s not always glorious history before returning, chastened but defiant, to the present.
Eastern Daily Press, 02/06/01

Exceptional CD
A brilliant new CD has been released which records City fans in full voice around the country, mixed with songs, poems, memories and humour - capturing the real passion evoked by football in the eyes of a long suffering fan. Gareth Calway gives audible proof that the club's fans "are the loudest and most ardent in the country when measured against the all-too-little they've had to shout about".

Actual digital recordings of City's support in full voice both at home and away will stir even the most passive of Ashton Gate fans, and Calway's creation intersperses these with songs and poems, memories and humour, all covering the highs and lows of following the club for nearly 40 years.

With 29 tracks packed into a hefty 75 minutes of audio, 'Bristol City Ruined My Life ... But Made My Day' offers something for any City - or indeed football - supporter, capturing the real passion evoked by the sport, and the poignant, entertaining, and often amusing commentary of a long suffering fan.

Calway - an English teacher now based in Norfolk - was born in the shadow of Ashton Gate, and with 37 years as a supporter under his belt, this release marks a long time labour of love with the club.

The compact disc opens with nearly 36,000 City fans at Wembley, and eventually closes with the familiar sound of one or two thousand hardy travelling fans saluting current manager Danny Wilson - on this occasion away at Luton.

In between, the audio treat reminds us of supporters at a variety of venues including Hillsborough, Griffin Park, and of course Ashton Gate, all the time woven together with Calway's musical, poetical and comical efforts.

"It is one tiny chapter in the vast history of football and what football has meant to fathers and sons," admitted the City fan of this memorable recording, concluding that the passion captured on the CD was "The Western soul music of commitment."

'Bristol City Ruined My Life ... But Made My Day' has already received high praise, and comes highly recommended
Rob Fernandes, Bristol City Net Centre