Our home and away West Brom days with Lenny Henry

Nearly 50 fans met at The Fountain Inn, in Tipton, before the game and then the majority of them sat together at The Hawthorns for the 2-2 draw.

It was roughly 40 years since they had all seen each other, so there was lots of catching up to do.

Keith White, who helped organise the reunion, lives in Turkey, while others jetted in from Australia, Sri Lanka, and Scotland.

Although Henry was unable to attend the reunion, it was an emotional day for those who did go.

“I was born and bred in Tipton,” explained Keith. “We started to meet at the pub and go down the Albion, but then someone would ring someone from Dudley, and it ended up being a huge crowd of people.

“The suedehead culture was the fashion at the time, the skinhead culture had died out. We used to go all over the country following the Albion and going to nightclubs, leading the life of young men.”

Now they are in their 60s, the pace of life has changed somewhat, but the group’s claim to fame is that it helped kick-start the career of Lenny Henry.

“Lenny came down to The Hawthorns with us for two or three years,” explained Keith. “He was just one of the lads, a bit of good fun.

“When the power cuts were on in 1973, he did his first stand up.

“We were at the Summerhill Hotel in Kingswinford. Len was always taking somebody off in the pub, so we got him on stage and it basically took off from there.”

As the group grew older, they all started to drift away.

“As the 70s ended, we started to split up and go our own ways,” said Keith. “People started to get married, have families, all the things that mean you can’t spend any money because you ain’t got none!

“I used to have to travel for work. The same thing applies to other lads. Others emigrated to Australia, Sri Lanka, North East Scotland. And then about two months ago, someone contacted me on Facebook. I live in Kalkan, in Turkey.

“Then some photos started to be put on the group. I said wouldn’t it be lovely if we had a reunion and it’s escalated from that.

“This one lad from Tipton called Graham Baker co-ordinated it and collected money for tickets.

“We’ve all changed, we seem to have got a little bit thick around the middle. The youngest gentleman is 59 and the oldest is 66. People were excited. One gentleman’s wife had arranged a surprise party but he cancelled that and told her ‘I knew these lads before I knew you!’

“It’s also brought a bit of sadness, because some have passed away. Two lads came to represent their dads.”