A very amusing day was had by antifascists in Bristol yesterday as the Casuals United gave us an exemplary demonstration of total irrelevance. Their "loads... heading for Bristol" (er... last count was 8 of them!) were clearly a figment of an overactive facebook fantasy. We did have a seriously good look around for them but "all the Bristol lads" and the "loads swerving Bradford" to come to Bristol were conspicuous by their absence at both the English Disco Lovers flash mob in the day and their dance night that evening. What we did see was a group of 8 looking a bit lost in the Galleries shopping mall, taking photos of an anti racist shopfront and promptly retreating to the nearby Bayhorse pub when things started getting a bit edgy (i.e. when 2 mall security guards showed a bit of interest and got on their radios). The Bayhorse pub, it should be noted, is the closest pub to New Bridewell cop shop, so a good choice for anyone seeking to avoid any trouble or feel safe drinking next door to the police. They tried to put a brave face on, but the look of the day was very much, "Is this it?". Very disappointing. Still, in cloud casual cuckooland it can all still be tweeted and claimed as a victory and the mismatch between what they say and what actually went on is hilarious as in their minds they heroically closed down the "disco shop". However, despite a walk by and a few photos taken by what we can only assume is the Casuals' finest (all 8 of them!), the shop, staffed, seemingly, by a few young students, remained open. You can polish yer trainers, but you can't polish a turd, lads!
Then it was on to the main event, the target for the brave patriots of Casuals United.....
a disco in Old Market put on by the hipsters of the English Disco Lovers. We waited, checked a lot of surrounding pubs, waited a bit more... and then had a good laugh and a drink to what has become of the Casuals United. A big no show! We had more trouble at our school discos! Timewasters! We'd be interested to see how they can delude up a win from this one. We thought we could hear Tiffany's "I think we're alone now" as we left and were tempted to go in and ask the DJ to dedicate "So Macho" by Sinitta to the Casuals Unliked.
We can understand if they didn't feel like coming back to Old Market after their last visit and public shoeing last July and we could sympathise with any self respecting casual who has a sudden realisation of the futility of attacking a disco but Casuals, entertainment value aside, please try not to waste our time like this again. It's almost enough to make us not take the threat of fascism seriously any more. Well, not really. If ever they do try to organise in this city they'll see how serious we can take them, and we don't just mean on the dancefloor.
Sometimes disco, always antifascist!