Do I really want to own Hibs?

Ok, so the post title is perhaps a little misleading, but it does lead me nicely into this blog, where I'll be taking a look at the BuyHibs group's proposal to, well, buy Hibs.

At the start of last week, BuyHibs emerged as a potential vehicle for Hibernian fans to crowd-fund the purchase of Hibernian Football Club from Sir Tom Farmer and take it into the hands of the support.

Fronted by (Sir) Pat Stanton (by some distance the greatest living Hibernian), along with former player Paul Kane, the group of business-folks put forward a proposal that would see Hibs fans contribute voluntary monthly payments to pay for the club and ultimately increase the spend afforded to the manager for players.

Previously, Paul Kane had fronted Forever Hibernian, whose mandate was to remove Rod Petrie from his position at the club, the general consensus amongst the vast majority of the support being that Mr Petrie's time is well and truly up. 'Kano' got as far as a meeting with the board and had his request for Petrie's exit knocked back, and my feeling is he was told to come back with a better offer. That better offer, it seems, is BuyHibs.

Positioning themselves as the credible alternative to the certain doom that would undoubtedly hit the club if Petrie remains anywhere near the vicinity of Easter Road, BuyHibs have certainly got the Hibs fans talking, however from what I can make out, very few people are taking them as seriously as they'd like. I would like to take them seriously, however I think their launch has had some fundamental flaws.

For a start, I have reservations about the timing of the launch. At a time when the football club is absolutely crying out for stability and unity, the BuyHibs campaign really couldn't have landed at a less opportune moment. In fact, a supporter survey that was conducted prior to the launch indicated that fan ownership was some way down the list of priorities for the Hibs fans - well behind getting a winning team on the pitch.

On the subject of the survey, BuyHibs have scored an own goal. There were in fact two surveys put out for completion, one sanctioned by Hibs themselves to see the appetite for fan ownership and different ownership models, and one that was positioned as an independent survey. However, it transpires the independent survey wasn't that independent at all, but rather was released by a BuyHibs member.

This apparent lack of transparency does nothing to build trust in BuyHibs, and when I reflect on the wording on the questions it seems clear to me that the questions were loaded to get the responses that BuyHibs wanted. Rather than having a neutral and inquisitive survey to gauge opinion and appetite for fan ownership, it was simply designed to get responses that supported the view that people wanted fan ownership. Even then, the responses weren't exactly overwhelmingly in support of that model.

The next issue I have is that there appears to be a sense that Sir Tom Farmer should simply hand the club over, either for nothing or for next to nothing. There has been talk of debt forgiveness or arrangements to be made with the banks to clear or substantially reduce the debt. At the same time, there is mention in BuyHibs' mandate that they will cap dividends at 10%, so my take on that is they think Sir Tom Farmer should take the hit, while the new guys get their money back. It doesn't sit right with me.

A Q&A produced on www.hibs.net sought to clear up the dividend issue but only succeeded in clouding it further, this isn't about a return on investment but instead a vehicle to attract a lender as it would ensure some return on the loan at a rate in line with business lending rates. That was the explanation, at least. To me what they are referring to is interest repayments, not a dividend.

There is also a chronic lack of detail into what the club would look like after the handover. Where are the projections and plans? How many people need to pledge how much money to make this work? What's the back-up plan if the pledges dry up post-purchase when we've committed to spending them already - this would be the case if, as they plan, the pledges were to form part of the manager's budget. If the pledges dropped and Hibs have committed that money as salary to players, or transfer fees, what happens then?

I also believe that Hibs have an excellent Chief Exec at the club already, in Leeann Dempster. She has restructured the club and put in place foundations that will hopefully address many of the failings of Petrie's time in charge. Hibs look as if they have the right people in the right places at the moment, and BuyHibs are not clear on what would happen with those people and those places should their purchase be successful.

The Hibs board also extended an invitation to sit down with BuyHibs and talk over the proposal, an invitation that was publicly declined by BuyHibs, who are holding out for a sit-down with Sir Tom Farmer instead. From the outside looking in, it seems a bizarre decision to refuse to meet the current board, and I can't help but think it makes any purchase less likely, rather than more.

I'm also concerned that despite dressing it up as fan ownership, because of the practicalities involved in getting everyone who 'owns' the club to agree on decisions on how to run the club etc, to your average 'pledger' they would see very little in the way of a benefit or difference to the current set-up. In fact, it'd be really similar just a lot more expensive. My season ticket at Easter Road is already amongst the most expensive in Scotland, so do I really need to be shelling out half of that again with no real gain?

So far, so critical. There are however some positives about the proposal. For a start, I give credit to these guys for doing something. Fan ownership is not an unattractive proposition, and having seen the early success of a similar scheme at Hearts, there are signs that it could work.

Getting the club back into the hands of the community is another big plus in principle, however in practise is it necessary? I don't think it's really important so long as it is part of the community, and an integral part at that. Hibernian can play a prominent role in that respect regardless of the ownership model.

I can't imagine the uptake on the pledges would be high, at a guess I doubt they'll have reached a thousand yet. It is early days though, and I'd hope that BuyHibs revise their plans and come back with a better proposition as time goes by, perhaps keeping their powder dry until the fate of the team has been decided this season would be a better idea. Certainly, if we're stuck in the Championship for another season the clamour for change at Board and Owner level amongst the support will be huge, and people's appetite for supporter ownership might just be at the right level to generate some real movement towards the BuyHibs model.

I'll hold off for the time being. I am still very cynical and dubious about it at this stage, however I wouldn't dismiss the idea in principle and I genuinely hope a serious and credible alternative to the current set-up emerges from all of this.

You can read more about BuyHibs at their website : http://www.buyhibs.org/

Keeping Out of Date With Music

Earlier this week I was nominated by my good 'pel' Stevie Lewis to list my top ten albums of all time on Facebook. Usually I don't tend to join in with the nomination stuff, I've ignored this request before -shamefully, when my Dad nominated me for something similar, and I dodged the ice bucket challenge when the whole world and its auntie were drenching themselves.

I've purposefully not listed my favourite books, tv shows, films, places, whatever. It's not that I think I'm above all that stuff, it's just never really floated my boat.

However, I knew Stevie would be interested to see what I'd listed, so I took a few moments and started listing the albums that meant the most to me (the list is below, along with a little detail as to why I chose those particular albums, if you're interested).

It was only after compiling that top ten that it really hit home how out of touch with music I've become. The newest band/artist on the list is Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and to be honest, given the length of time he's been around the charts, I've a bit of a nerve classing Noel Gallagher as 'new'.

After that, the next most recent was Kasabian - again, we're hardly talking about the cutting edge of niche music discovery here.

I have to say that I was a little embarrassed by that. Maybe more than a little. My family is pretty musical, my parents are both musical (check out www.tomfoolerymusic.com or www.tomfairnie.com), my cousins Paul and Alan were both in a band in days gone by - Alan posts his own blog, the excellent http://listeningisnotenough.blogspot.co.uk/ , and so to have that in the background and publish a list that was just so, well, dated, was a bit of a kick in the baws to any shred of credibility my musical tastes may have been hanging on to.

I'm not quite sure how this has happened, I suppose the obvious connection was that getting married and having kids probably sapped a lot of the time available to listen to music to a hefty degree. It certainly sapped the money for doing it. I couldn't ever have seen a time when music wasn't important to me when I was in my late teens and early twenties, but looking through my iTunes library (the CD's are long since gone) you could almost date stamp the time music stopped being essential to me.

Britpop (and to a lesser extent the baggy indie scene that preceded it) was my musical prime time. I still love that era to this day and probably can't lay enough significance to its influence in shaping the person that I am today. I found new friends, girlfriends, nightclubs - not necessarily in that order, either. Britpop resonated with where I was. Oasis, Blur, Pulp, James, Supergrass, and so on... they were important -no, essential, when I was finding my identity. They got me through great times and terrible times, break-ups and make-ups, ecstatic highs and crashing come-downs..

So where did it all go wrong, or has it gone wrong at all? Is music still as important as a middle-aged father of three, with a 3 bedroomed end terrace in suburban Fife as it was when I was a young upstart with no ties and the world at my feet? Do bands even write songs that have any relevance to me these days? I can't imagine Noel Gallagher writing Rock 'N' Roll Star for people like me now. Middle Management Guy doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

Should I be being hard on myself for not knowing the latest bands? Am I missing out on something spectacular? Is there a scene waiting for me and Mrs F that we just need to track down?

I don't know. I do know there is some music that is kicking about that I like. My old workmate Craig Anderson has tipped me off on a couple of bands that I really enjoy - Chvrches and The XX, but as far as I can tell, they've been about a bit as well.

I hit 37 this Sunday, and was gifted tickets to Belle and Sebastian's show in Glasgow next May. I love that band, and because they're still kicking about writing and playing their twee music I maybe don't have that urgency to go and find something different or new (or even vaguely similar and new, which is, I suppose, how lots of people find lots of bands). Maybe if they were to pack it all in, and if Blur did it, and James did it, and Radiohead, then I'd have to come out of my musical cocoon and listen to something new.

I suppose the other thing that causes some reluctance on my part to find new music is when I do chance upon new tunes on the radio, a lot of it is, well, shite. Is that just my age? Probably.

I don't think I'd cope if I never had the bands that I grew up with and love. I'd definitely miss my favourite albums, so maybe I've got the balance that I need, and when my kids are playing the music that is important to them when they're the age that I was when I found the music that was/is important to me, then I'll hear something in it that will make me want to explore it further.

And if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

Here's my top 10:

1. Definitely Maybe - Oasis. This album just encapsulated how I felt about life when it came out. I adored Liam Gallagher back then, which is absurd considering how much of a bell-end he is now. It had everything, swagger, attitude, optimism. Mostly optimism. I heard this and felt I could do anything, and that's an unbelievable feeling.
2. The Boy With the Arab Strap - Belle and Sebastian. This is the first Belle and Sebastian album I owned, and I still love it to this day. It's a perfectly whimsical album and probably the polar opposite of Definitely Maybe in terms of style, swagger and optimism. It's inward and reflective, observational, charming, cruel and witty, and just a beautiful, beautiful album. Belle and Sebastian aren't everyone's cup of tea (she would admit to me), but I would urge you to sit down and listen to this on a Sunday morning with an open mind. You'll thank me for it.
3. Kasabian - Kasabian My best friend Craig Robertson bought this album for me and from the first play it was a favourite. For a debut album it's incredible. A confident swirling sound with anthemic songs that just demanded to be played over and over and over. On the very rare occasions that I find myself in the house alone, this gets played, loudly. 
4. OK Computer - Radiohead I could have picked any number of Radiohead albums, but for me OK Computer is Radiohead at their very best. At times sneering, at times beautiful, this album just does it for me. Paranoid Android is up there with my favourite songs and it's not even the best song on the album. And their Stephen Hawkings styled Fitter Happier remains one of the few songs I can keep in tune with. Love it.
5. Play - Moby Moby is one of the best live acts I've seen, and Play is his best album in my opinion. If I remember correctly, Play was the first album to have every song on it commissioned for adverts. That put a lot of people off it, but it didn't matter to me. I love the depth of the music,it's probably the most uplifting album I've heard, and I will take with me to my grave one moment I had standing in an ecstacy-fuelled euphoria in a Perthsire field, listening to Moby play My Weakness, certain that it was just me and him and the music and nothing else mattered. 
6. Surrender - Chemical Brothers  There are few albums that kick off with the energy of Surrender, the quickening build up of Music:Response crashes into life with beeps and beats, setting the tone for the rest of the alum. Their collaborations on the album (the best, in my opinion being Let Forever Be with Noel Gallagher) reflect their importance to music at that time. Hey Boy, Hey Girl is terrific, my personal favourite however is The Sunshine Underground which just builds slowly and whimsically into something special.
7. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds it's fair to say that I hadn't enjoyed an Oasis album since What's The Story, Morning Glory, and so Noel Gallagher's solo project was a real surprise. I thought that Beady Eye - formed by the rest of Oasis that weren't Noel - were pretty ordinary and very uninspiring, so when I heard that Noel was bringing out an album, I wasn't holding out much hope for anything special. Thankfully, Noel hit a real return to form, it's like he held back any decent tunes from the last fifteen years to keep for himself. AKA What a Life and If I Had a Gun are two very different but terrific songs from the album.
8. Tellin' Stories - The Charlatans I remember seeing The Charlatans at T in the Park when I reckon Tim Burgess was one of the few folk in a hundred mile radius who was significantly more drunk than me. Regardless, they were outstanding, and few bands will top How High or One to Another as examples of indie/baggy at its best.
9. Seven - James This was (I think) the first album I bought. I remember listening to it on my record player in the days before CD. The track Bring a Gun had a jump in it, so there was a point where I would have to get up and change the speed setting until the needle skipped past the problematic part (after the lyric you have pushed me through too many windows and too many doors - it's ingrained in my memory now!). James were my band, they still are my band. They were the first band that I really loved. I can remember staying up late in my bed trying to catch tv appearances when they were on. They were the first band that I was desperate to hear more from, or even just to hear what I'd already heard. Sound is probably my all time  favourite song, for reasons I probably can't explain without sounding like a bit of a tool, but there's just something about the way Tim Booth's high pitched "whoooooo" through the chorus takes you from the slightly sinister low - almost whispered- build up, to somewhere distant and peaceful. Throw in the lamenting trumpet that accompanies it, and it just does it for me. A fantastic album.
10. Parklife - Blur I'm not even sure if this is my favourite Blur album, but it holds an incredibly special place in my heart. Blur kicked off Britpop, and Parklife led the way. I know a lot of people loved it for the way that it was quintessentially British, but Blur's depiction of Essex-esque life didn't really mean that much to me. What did matter was the catchy pop-riffs, the style and again that sense of optimism that emanated from start to finish. 

* That was the list that as originally published, on reflection, I'd probably have The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses in there, though not sure which album it would replace so it'd go in as a something-and-a-half, because I feel the albums already there all should be in a top 10.

Hibs Championship Season - The Comeback Is On...

I can remember Hibs being relegated once before, when Jim Duffy's spectacular helicopter arrival at the club as our new manager was followed by an equally spectacular failure in the role. Alex McLeish arrived too late to save the club, and we ended up in what was then the First Division.

At the time I worked for McDonald's, and regular Saturday working meant that I didn't attend Easter Road with anything like the frequency that I do now as a season ticket holder. On the day that our relegation was sealed in a match against Dundee United, I can remember walking from my Leith flat to work, and as I was passing the Loch Inn,  hearing the home crowd roar as Hibs scored. By the time my shift had started we had conceded twice and dropped out of the top flight.

It didn't hit me as hard as I thought it would, the fact that I missed a lot of games probably helped me distance myself from the shame and embarrassment of relegation.

Fast forward to the end of last season, and it's a very different story. In hindsight, relegation had been coming for a while, but I never thought it would actually happen until Hamilton equalised late in the second leg of the play-off, taking the game to extra time. The clock on the stadium scoreboard at Easter Road had stopped at some point, and was running well behind the actual game time, so I don't know exactly how long was left when we conceded.

Extra time saw both sides concentrate more on not losing than on pushing for a winner, and when the game went to penalties I knew that the Hibs team at that point didn't have the bottle for the shoot-out. That Hibs had never lost a domestic penalty shoot-out until then didn't come into things, in fact, having seen us break the record for our heaviest home defeat at the start of that season, it was hardly a surprise that our relegation would see another record broken in dismal fashion.

It's been a horrendous time supporting the club since then, Hearts got off to a flier and sit 14 points clear of us at the top of the table at the time of writing. Hibs have stuttered, threatening to do well and then faltering. A hugely impressive 1-3 win at Ibrox was followed by draws against Dumbarton and Cowdenbeath.

We have battered teams and not got the results we probably deserved on occasion as well, and what has been frustrating there is that in the context of last season's failure, the support have been in no mind to give concession to the team for a good performance when it's not accompanied by three points.

This frustration has manifested itself in regular outpourings of rage, with Leeann Dempster taking to www.hibs.net to make the point that the constant negativity was not helping anyone. Alan Stubbs also made reference to feeling frustrated that he's still hearing criticism aimed at him and his side for the failings that preceded his arrival.

Our last two games have been roundly appreciated by the support, and there definitely appears to be a sense that the tide is turning in our favour at long last. We dominated a very confident Hearts side in front of an away support that turned up in expectation rather than hope. Hearts had come for a party and were anticipating a handsome win (if you can ever use the word 'handsome' in the same sentence as Hearts...). In reality the visiting fans watched their side get outfought and outplayed for large spells of the match, Hibs' one goal lead scant reward for their dominance, and it proved costly as Hearts equalised at the death with what I'd love to describe as a hopeful toe-punt, but was actually a wonder-goal from their centre-half.

Hibs followed that impressive performance by upping their game again in the game against current SPFL leaders Dundee United in the League Cup. Hibs more than matched their opponents for more than the regulation 90 minutes, and for extra-time. Having lost their first domestic penalty shoot out a few months earlier, Hibs quickly got the second defeat out of the way - cruelly losing in sudden death thanks to two cracking saves from the United goalkeeper.

It is looking increasingly like Hibs have sorted themselves out, our last two games have been against the best sides we have faced this season, and we've given a very good account of ourselves, even if the results will show that they produced a single point and an exit from the cup respectively.

Stubbs' side is entertaining and hard working, with the craft and guile of Scott Allan and Dylan McGeough in midfield backed up by the endeavour of Scott Robertson alongside them. Young Jason Cummings is finding his feet along with the prolific (if somewhat lackadaisical ) Malonga, and the goals are starting to come.

I can see the potential is there for Hibs to go on an impressive run. They can't fail to have taken confidence from the last few games - in fact, one defeat in nine games is a very respectable run - and this should give them the belief that they can compete at the top. Hearts' lead looks insurmountable for Hibs at the moment, and with The Rangers also holding a comfortable lead on Hibs it seems unlikely that both of those sides will slip up sufficiently for Hibs to claim top spot.

What Hibs can do, though, is keep winning, put pressure on the teams above them, and see how they handle it. Stubbs made the point after the derby that nothing is won in October, and by that same token nothing is lost either. Hibs need to hang on to that small glimmer of hope and make sure that they look after their own results through to the end of the season.