Prefab Sprout

He was at it again.

He didn't say Mr Prefab Sprout. He said "some Sprouts of the Prefab variety". Honestly, what a dolt!

He played "The King of Rock'n'Roll" which sounded great. 

Last time I was back in Edinburgh I met an old mate who is a massive "Sprouts of the Prefab variety" fan. He's also a big football fan and there's nothing he enjoys more than combining his two loves. Thus, one day, in 1989, whilst excelling in a holding midfield role he also reviewed "The Sprouts" latest album "Protest Songs".

As he played a square ball having intercepted a forward pass he told me about the mordant wit that inter played throughout the album. As we went up for a corner, he on the six yard line me holding back to time my run, he eulogised over the extraordinary romanticism of certain songs which never spilled over into sentimentalism. 

He was a great player. A tanner ba' player as they used to be called. He just seemed to have so much time on the ball. I remember at one point, he beat 2 players with a brilliant turn, and whilst still in possession of the ball, he told me how much he admired the Gershwin-esque genius evident on the albums' penultimate track "Til The Cows Come Home". He then slipped the ball through the legs of a 3rd player before spraying a perfectly weighted ball beyond the opposing left back and into the path of the right winger, Roger Chesterton. Podge took one touch before crossing the ball perfectly onto the head of our star striker Walter Winterbottom. Wally couldn't miss.

But he did. He missed the ball completely. The idiot.