Moss: The Vinyl Whistle

When I tell people that Premier League referee Jon Moss has a record shop in Headingley called ‘Vinyl Whistle’, the first reaction is “really!” followed by “great name”. The Leeds postcode, LS6, is ‘Studentsville’. Not the most obvious place for one of the country’s leading football officials to pop up with a stack of LPs and singles. But back in the late 80s and early 90s, this was Jon’s hunting ground. Like so many of us back then who wrote cheques to buy fish and chips and queued outside phone boxes to contact our girlfriends and boyfriends, Jon was a record-buying, gig-going musical nut. And his passion for music has never left him since those taste-shaping days. So Planet Football was intrigued. The part of the Venn Diagram where football referees and Velvet Underground (that’s what he would be playing when I first entered his shop) fans intersect is a small one. It was time to find out how this all came about.
“We were all sitting around as a group of referees and I said I’d been thinking about doing the record shop as music is a big part of my life so I wanted to marry the two together. I thought the name might be cheesy but, had I not been refereeing, I wouldn’t have visited so many record shops by virtue of going around the country. So it married two huge things in my life.” A look around your shop and it’s pretty clear you’re a bit of an indie fiend? “Yes, obviously I like a certain type of music and sometimes it can be hard to find that kind of music when you go into a record shop. Once that kind of music is ingrained in you, it’s hard to get out of it.” You’ve been open a couple of months now. How are things going? Is it everything you hoped it would be? “It’s our sixth week now. It’s gone really well. There are days when it’s quiet, but obviously the students coming back will make a difference. Twenty thousand students coming back to a small space, you’d hope you’d reap some of the benefits. Part of the process of being a good record shop is listening to your customers and trying to get stuff in that’s going to appeal to them. And then, after a while, you can join in the conversations. It’s like when I started refereeing, I didn’t know the first thing, but four weeks in and you can join in with the chat.” When people come in, do you get much of ‘you’re that ref of the telly? “I do get a little bit of that. Some know and others think they know you as they’ve seen you on TV and they think ‘where do I know him from?’. Leeds fans who recognise me want to talk about decisions over the weekend and because I don’t referee in Leeds it’s safe ground. It’s just nice to talk about music and football because everyone’s interested in those two things, aren’t they?” There’ve been a few football songs down the years, a fair amount of them fairly terrible, but the odd nugget. Any favourites? “I’m a Sunderland fan so the best one for me was ‘Niall Quinn’s Disco Pants’. I used to sing that on a regular basis when I was following Sunderland home and away. A rendition of that would certainly get you going. I like it when football fans take a melody from an indie classic and make it their own. There’s obviously a famous one about Leeds set to Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ which wouldn’t go down too well with our local population. But I like that kind of stuff that fans do.” 
How about your fellow referees – anyone share your taste? And do you ever try and give them a bit of a musical education? “When you’re in the changing room, if I’m fourth official, the referee who’s reffing the game is in charge of the music and we have a real range of musical tastes. Some referees don’t have any music in their dressing room. We’ve got a referee from Leicester, Kev Friend, who likes a lot of dance music. Martin Atkinson is quite old school; he likes The Jam and that kind of stuff on his playlist. Andre Marriner’s dad used to own a record store in Birmingham so Andre’s worked in a record store and he’s got a good knowledge of music. Tayls, Anthony Taylor, his taste isn’t the best I’ve got to be honest.” How about the players? Do you ever chat to them about music? “Sometimes in a break of play, like you would have a conversation at work around the photocopier, we might have a chat and music might be part of that. I know Ben Mee (Burnley defender) is a big indie fan. He’s from Manchester so he’s probably grown up with the Manchester scene. We do, in the changing rooms, hear a lot of what the players like. You hear a lot of grime so whether there are any indie fans being drowned out in the corner I don’t know. We never go in there!” Any Leeds players know of your shop? What about James Milner, who has local connections? You were his PE teacher of course. “Not sure about the Leeds players. Yes, I was a Primary School teacher and James was a Year 6 pupil of mine. I don’t know what music he likes, though, to be honest.” I also ask Jon about his ‘good day’ and ‘bad day’ records. He goes for “something with guitars in” when he’s happy. And when his day isn’t so great? “Something with guitars in again!” I always dreamt of there being a record shop in the middle of Headingley when I was a student there. But who would have thought that a Premier League ref would be the man to turn it into such an enjoyable reality?

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