Zoom, just one look and then my heart went...
May 2012. On Cup Final day, prior to Arsenal's last home game of the season (how wrong is that! League games and the Cup Final on the same day!), the Safe Standing Roadshow pitched up within a stone's throw of the Emirates.
A German film crew from Rachals Film in Munich were in town to film a piece for a documentary to run on German TV.
Having seen the recent article in '11 Freunde' about the roadshow and with a commission from national broadcaster ZDF to produce a 30-minute documentary for the channel's 'Zoom' programme on the issue of standing at football, Max Rachals had been in touch to arrange a shoot in the UK with the mad Brit running around the country promoting Germany's 'Variositze'.
With the TV crew not granted permission to film inside the Emirates, we set up the roadshow at The Rocket. During the week it's the students' bar at London Met University, on match days it's the home of Arsenal fans' RedAction group, who kindly arranged for us to set up in The Rocket's courtyard.
In addition to interviewing Arsenal fans as they looked at the rail seats on the roadshow unit, we also filmed some footage walking to and outside the Emirates as the crowds gathered for the game. The programme is due to air on ZDF after a live broadcast of a Champions League qualifier on August 29th.
All Arsenal fans who were interviewed were pro standing: "If you want to sit down, go to the opera. This is football!" said one. Another, currently a teenager being paid for by his dad, said that when he had to pay for himself he'd manage it somehow: "To stand, I'd even pay more!" he declared.