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Broadside ballad entitled 'The Football Match' |
CommentaryThis long ballad, telling the tale of a game between the Swifts and the Macalvenny Wallopers, begins: 'A football match last Saturday I went to see ; / To have some fun was exactly what I meant, you see, / So off I goes like a sporting man so dutiful, / To see this game, which I reckoned would be beautiful'. The song was written by James Currns (probably James Curran, a Glasgow song-writer and parodist), and published by the Poet's Box of Dundee. It was sold for a penny. Football was rapidly increasing in popularity at the time of this broadside's publication. The 1850 Factory Act was instrumental in this because it established the right for time off for industrial workers and Saturday quickly became recognised as free time. Also, a cheaper and more efficient rail network made travelling to and from games much easier, and leagues were formed as a result. The Scottish Football Association was established in 1872. It is not clear what the connection between the different Poet?s Boxes were. They almost certainly sold each other?s sheets. It is known that John Sanderson in Edinburgh often wrote to the Leitches in Glasgow for songs and that later his brother Charles obtained copies of songs from the Dundee Poet?s Box. There was also a Poet?s Box in Belfast from 1846 to 1856 at the address of the printer James Moore, and one at Paisley in the early 1850s, owned by William Anderson. Early ballads were dramatic or humorous narrative songs derived from folk culture that predated printing. Originally perpetuated by word of mouth, many ballads survive because they were recorded on broadsides. Musical notation was rarely printed, as tunes were usually established favourites. The term 'ballad' eventually applied more broadly to any kind of topical or popular verse.
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Probable period of publication:
1880-1900 shelfmark: L.C.Fol.70(30b)
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