THE ORA Band banged the drum for Barnsley FC in their glory days of the Premiership season.
They were initially brought in for the critical match against Bradford City when Danny Wilson’s team needed to win to secure promotion in 1997.
The band’s trumpet player, Graham Pell, 60, takes up the story: “The company ORA Electronics had a box at Barnsley FC.
“Michael Spinks at the club asked us to put some musicians together for the match against Bradford.
“We did that and although it went down okay the atmosphere was pretty euphoric that day. It didn’t make any real difference.
“We were asked to come back for the Premiership season.
“There were a few caveats in that we still had to pay for tickets and transport but we took the company’s name on a sponsorship deal and it went from there really.
“Sheffield Wednesday had a band and we did a ‘battle of the bands’ with them.
“We did a thing with Biff Byford from Saxon where he was singing along. That was bizarre.”
The band also featured Paul Simmons (bass guitar/bass drum), Keith Ramskill (snare drum), Dave Turner (drum and trumpet), John ‘Rambo’ Ramsden (drum) and Alan Darlow (tenor drum).
They played the ‘just like watching Brazil’ song as well as others to get the fans going including ‘walking in a Wilson wonderland’.
Though Graham felt fortunate to be able to be front and centre at a special moment in time – Barnsley FC’s one and only season in the top flight – he looks back on the period with mixed emotions and in the end the relationship with fellow fans turned really sour.
They performed only a few more times following relegation.
“I think we became a burden to the true fans. There were death threats and people saying: ‘we know where you live’,” he said.
“I think some Barnsley fans felt we had jumped on the bandwagon. We were all Barnsley fans who had been going for years.
“It became a bit of a toil and a chore. We had to set off at ridiculous times to matches to get the drums into the ground.
“There were still some vivid memories.
“Away teams took us in and we always played in the pub nearest the ground.
“We were made very welcome at Liverpool and played some of their songs but we weren’t welcome in there after we had won 1-0. We were the last people they wanted in their pub.
“I think people either loved us or hated us.
“Where we were positioned did not help. I think it became annoying and I could understand that.
“It would have been very loud as it was a band of drums and me on the trumpet.
“We would have been better off in the corner but we were put there to get the crowd going.
“We did lots of events in the town and I think we were more well-liked in the town than at Oakwell.”
