Everyone will be familiar with the Only An Excuse series which is now pretty much a new year institution in Scotland in the same way that Scotch & Wry was when I was a lad. The new stuff is still occasionally very good, but it isn't a patch on the original stuff which was broadcast on radio and sold on audio cassettes

These series date back to the glorious decade of the eighties and I am pleased to advise that one of our members (who shall remain nameless) has taken the time to convert these golden cassettes into digital MP3's which we are now podcasting from our homepage.

If you were an eighties football fan these are a terrific way to while away four hours (yes, there is 4 hours worth of content !) and if you're not then they might still raise the old chuckle.

I love them, they bring back fantastic memories.

Click on to the homepage, and then click Podcasts at the top of the menu, there are eight individual casts to listen to, each around 30 minutes long. Enjoy !

Is the one with Ernie Walker, Alex Ferguson, Mo Johnston, and the nude books caper in Mexico '86 in there? That was comedy gold!

I believe so

Towards the end of the first one, absolutely brilliant. These are great, made a quiet Friday at work pass very quickly!

I take it we can't download them? I was hoping to get them on the iPod for the van

Been having a sneaky listen to these at work, they really show up how much better the earlier stuff was.

"Gentlemen, I give you Rangers newest signing..............Maurice Johnstone"

*sound of glass smashing*

"Any questions anyone?.............Anyone?"



The other one that made me literally LOL and get funny looks was one that's quite fitting for this site

"A drink synonymous with beef tea and brown confusion....."

Aye pity we can't download them......Div.....

I had an original cassette, used to listen to it all the time.

Do you mean we're not allowed to download them or it's not technologically possible.

If it's the latter then remember that nothing is impossible.

It's the latter and in the current situation it is impossible. Hopefully Div can remedy this before the BBC notice and shut him down!

There is no technical reason, it's purely a copyright thing. I figure that if I'm streaming the content I might get away with it given it's age, but distributing it openly online is really unlikely to be met with a favourable reaction.

Of course if one was to look at the source of the podcasting page, and did a search for "mp3" and then happened to work out the direct URL to the files and downloaded them then I would be powerless to stop them.

Haven't heard these for ages. At work just now on a computer without sound but please tell me it's the one that mentions Roy Aitken making 23 chest high tackles before running half the length of the park to retrieve the ball and gesticulate to the referee that he got the ball first.

Acht ah well it was worth asking, wouldn't want you to get into any trouble.

Brilliant Div gives me something to listen to on the 14hour flight from San Francisco to Sydney

I'd forgotten about Gerry McNee's pathalogical hatred of Roy Aitken

I actually have the 88/89 cassette and it is class. I was born in 88 but I still get it.

The offensive Bill McAlister report is the best:

"The Clach defence locked tighter than Sheena McDonald's jaws"

"The Clach tank Smith rolled over the protesting Thistle defence and before you could say Tiananmen Square had come into the equation of stealing both points"

Excellent stuff - this brings back many happy memories of college life.



I've still got the 86 cassette somewhere...there isn't a footballer in the world who can replace Kenny Dalglish...

Cheers Div.

Whatever happened to the Rev IM Jolly?