Yellow and Black

I am a lifetime support of the Aussie rules football team the Richmond Tigers. To paraphrase Nick Hornby in his book 'Fever Pitch', I fell in love with the Richmond Football Club as I was later to fall in love with men: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it. and that the natural state of the football fan is bitter disappointment.  I think that this is particularly true for the Tigers fan. I have and lived and breathed this my whole life. I can't actually remember the premiership win in 1980 and I only just remember the loss in 1982 most probably due to the beautiful Helen Domenico and her Carlton scarf. Then one day in September, it happened, 37 years of waiting was over. I still get emotional just thinking about it. My beloved Tiges won the whole shebang. I didn't know that such unadulterated joy was possible. All the disappointment, all the pain of false hope was gone. My longest held dream had come true and it was even sweeter than I could have ever possibly imagined.

After watching the match another four times and reading every article on how fabulous the Richmond Football Club were, I needed to share my joy with others. Not necessarily with friends but I just needed to be around people and let the joy just overtake me. So on Sunday evening I grabbed my Tigers scarf and headed down to The Republic to catch whoever was playing.

It turned out to be band called 120Y.  I know that I am a sucker for a band with a fiddle but this was great fun. Was 120Y great?  No, but they were fabulous.   Somewhat like the Datsun they are named after. The room was filled with joy and many danced in an expression of that joy. Or maybe I was just high on the premiership win. Even better 120Y seemed to have got ahold of my playlist and turned it into their setlist - Paul Kelly, Weddings Parties Anything, The Cure, The Cars, The Pixies, the Steve Miller Band. I sat and listened and cried with joy (again), sang and generally had a fabulous time. It was a perfect meeting of the minds.

Go Tiges!