The Cherry Wave
Avalancher

It's April 7, 1993, 8:30 PM at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, where Olympique Marseille is playing against Glasgow Rangers, a Group A match crucial for advancing to the final in the first edition of the Champions League. These two teams are tied at the top with 6 points, but Marseille is much more driven to win, as they are playing at home and will face the Club Brugge, a tough Belgian team, in the next and final matchday. Meanwhile, the Rangers will have to face CSKA Moscow at home, the bottom of the group.

The Rangers field: Andy Goram, Stuart McCall, David Robertson, Richard Gough, Dave McPherson, John Brown, Trevor Steven, Ian Ferguson, Ally McCoist, Ian Durrant, and Pieter Huistra.

Looking at Marseille today, they undoubtedly have the more talented lineup with: Barthez, Angloma, Di Meco, Boli, Sauzeé, Desailly, Eydelie, Boksic, Voller, Abedi Pele, and Deschamps.

The match is decided after only 18 minutes with a goal from Sauzeé, a volley from outside the box on an intelligent low cross from Voller; Goram touches it but doesn’t block it, and the ball hits the net. The match immediately becomes intense and nervous, with as many as four yellow cards in the last 15 minutes of the first half; they go into the locker rooms, 1 to 0 for Marseille, and the path is set for the French team.

The second half starts with the Rangers immediately pushing forward. In the 52nd minute, following a corner kick by Steven, Boli flicks the ball, and Durrant races forward to volley it from the outer corner of the penalty area, sending the ball to the opposite post. 1 to 1, and the match is still very long, but in reality, until the 90th minute, nothing else happens; Marseille even risks winning the game.

Subsequently, Marseille will win in Bruges, and the Rangers will draw with CSKA Moscow. In the case of the same score in the group, Marseille would have advanced anyway on goal difference; this was the best result for the Glasgow Rangers in the Champions Cup, despite the arrival of Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne in the following seasons.

Basile Boli, a month and a half later, will flick another ball from a corner kick but with a much different outcome.

At that time, the members of the group: The Cherry Wave, were probably taking their first steps into the world. Three boys from Glasgow who make noise an art. Inspired by their fellow Scots, The Jesus And Mary Chain, they absorb the sharp noise and transform it into oceanic expanses, becoming shoegaze filled with fuzz. Even though they live in an environment crowded with Stoner groups, they have managed to benefit from it by smoothing out the harder parts while maintaining the psychedelia.

Avalancher in its passage shatters massive walls, lasting just over 30 minutes compacted into 8 songs that release psychedelic fumes from their memories and blur, for a moment, today's problems, bringing us back to a world that wanted to explode at any moment. The album ends with Fuzzthrower, a very sweet and delicate song that after 5 minutes becomes an anxious and destructive cacophony, a finale that is often repeated lately and which I quite enjoy.

In 1993, Great Britain was already experiencing the dawn of the Brit Pop era after having prematurely abandoned Shoegaze. On March 28 of that 1993, Suede released an album from the band of the same name, and on April 7, 1993, Glasgow Rangers tied the most important match in their football history. Beginning and end, or both endings, depending on your point of view.