began to dance, completely naked apart from the boots. Although Churchill's, described by Lewington as "the worst club that has ever been in Reading", tolerated such behaviour, the town's fashionable Sindlesham Mill nightclub did not, regularly barring Friday for his bizarre activities, including a dance he invented called "the elephant" which consisted of turning the pockets of his jeans inside out and undoing his flies to expose himself. He and his friends would regularly drink all day, though he was able to exert some self-control; according to his friend Syd Simmonds, Friday would obey Hurley's instruction not to drink for 48 hours before each game. However, he would play his prized heavy metal records very loudly at any time of the day or night and take LSD with casual indifference. Hurley attempted to calm Friday down by moving him into an apartment above the football club's elderly ex-groundsman, but to no avail: "Even if it was three in the morning, the first thing would be to get the music playing", Simmonds later said. "We had an old boy living below us ... the ex-groundsman at Reading. He was coming up to 80 and he had a dog's life in the flat. Pounding music, people knocking on the door, girls throwing stones at the windows. Poor old sod." 1974–75 Reading finished the 1973–74 season in sixth position, one place higher than the previous year. Friday underwent an operation to have tattoos removed from his fingers during the summer break, and afterwards joined a hippie commune in Cornwall, neglecting to inform Reading of this latter decision. He was absent without explanation when training started for the 1974–75 season in July 1974, arriving only on the day of a closed-doors friendly against Watford. Despite his lack of training, he far out-performed the rest of the team. He continued to play well when the League programme began the following month. By September 1974 he was attracting the interest of First Division sides Sheffield United and Arsenal. The former had been following him since the game at Barnsley back in February, when he had still been an amateur. Arsenal manager Bertie Mee personally attended Reading's 4–2 home win over Rotherham United on 12 September, but neither his team nor Sheffield United attempted to sign Friday. After Reading despatched Newport County 3–0 on 14 September 1974, Friday and his forward partner Dick Habbin had scored six