Hereford FC are lucky to have volunteers such as Matt Healey, pictured interviewing Gareth Davies. Matt has been the voice behind the club's public address system for over 20 years.
BN spoke to Matt yesterday about his career, starting with how he initially became involved.
I was doing Hospital Radio in February 2001 and Keith Hall who was the PA announcer at the time was on holiday. Peter Povall was doing the PA for a home game against Nuneaton (The one where Steve Bull scored) and Peter wanted somebody to help him with the scoreboard which I did, but that era I wasn't too bothered as I was doing an insurance job then and wanted to progress with that.
Then about 18 months later there was a charity game between Emmerdale and Coronation Street and they needed somebody to do the PA for it. The landscape had changed with my insurance job and I was taking radio a but more seriously by then and was trying to break into Djing in the bars and clubs so I did it, then the following week Hereford United played Scarborough, (September 28th 2002, we lost 1-0) and Keith was away on holiday and Pete Povall decided he didn't want to do it, so I took the opportunity, it was sink or swim and I didn't really have anytime to get nervous but was great fun, then Keith and I shared it for the next 2 years. It became officially mine in August 2004.
I assume Keith was your mentor?
Yes, Keith was very encouraging and helped me out a lot, Keith had learnt from the legendary Don Cooke, so it was kind of a bit of torch passing.
In August 2003 Keith went to university for a year to study broadcasting, but he would come back regularly to Edgar Street. The following year he got a job with conference tv so he was away commentating for that.
When did you start interviewing players, former players and other celebrities?
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| Matt Interviewing Ronnie Radford |
The first interview on the pitch I can remember was in May 2008 announcing the players getting their League Two promotion medals, I think the first player was Sam Hewson. In January 2009 I did a half time draw, then maybe Colin Addison, it kind of just evolved. I've done a lot more when Hereford FC formed, hopefully we will be getting a new radio microphone soon as my old one died last season.
Most interesting interview?
Chris Price was a good interview on the pitch when he came back in 2016 from Australia, he was an old family friend and knows my dad very well. Others include Tony Elliott, Steve White, Rob Purdie, Gareth Davies and Steve Guinan. All have been really helpful over the years and I've built friendships with them.
The most famous would have to be John Motson back in February 2022 when it was the 50 year anniversary of the giantkillers.
Any strange requests?
I remember having to give a birthday shout out to a one year old once, thinking she's not going to appreciate it!
Most played track?
I was chatting to the Marine PA announcer a chap called Stuart at the November home game, he is quite northern soul influenced with his music, but we have a staple of pretty standard football tunes. The Ellie Goulding Miracle song was chosen by Paul Caddis, it's a nice touch with Ellie being a Herefordshire girl too. Speaking of Herefordshire music I've been playing a bit more Mott the Hoople recently and I do like a dance anthem. Don Cooke was associated with Lobo, Me and You and a dog named boo, but my memory of him was regularly playing Nick Straker Band - A walk in the park.
Your favourite three tracks?
I play Ellie Goulding -Miracle at 2.55pm, then when the teams come out I play a remix of Led Zeppelins Kashmir. Before Goulding I try and play something different. For the Kidderminster game on Boxing Day it was War by Vince DiCola which is from the Rocky 4 film. Previous game against Scarborough it was Obsession by Animotion, I had been watching WWE wrestling and heard it on that.
What's changed in the 20 plus years you've be doing the job?
Lots more added time and extra subs is the big change, the 2nd half can be very busy with the substitutions. When I started games always started on time, and they were always finished by around 4.50p. Nowadays its usually a 5pm finish or even later, which can be a difficulty if I've got a gig in the evening, the game has definitely got a lot more tactical too and social media wasn't around when I started.
In essence are you in charge of what you do?
Yes, I've got pretty much a free reign, I try not to do anything controversial.
And the future - what improvements would you like to see?
Frank Williams did a brilliant job a couple of years ago upgrading the PA system. All the music is played off my phone via apple music, that gives me access to millions of songs, whereas before I was using CD's. All my DJ music is digital, so having to update CD's was very time consuming, but having the music now easily accessible makes life easier. Frank did a great job upgrading the system so all is good now, before we had supporter complaints it was too quiet.
Finally most embarrassing memory? Maybe a mistake with the name of a player who has scored?
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| Matt With Leroy May |
Pre season friendlies are a nightmare with players having no numbers and I've been bound to get a player or two wrong, I dont recall anything to embarrassing, apart from getting a score wrong on the scoreboard once in my early days. Pronouncing Kenny Lunt I always had to make sure I slowed down, as fluffing that one could have caused a bit of discomfort to the ears!