“Red All Over The Land” is Liverpool FC’s last independent fanzine standing and after 28 years will be celebrating their 300th issue next month. After a lifetime of being a reader I am now an occasional and incredibly proud contributor and should you be passing this way via the digital currents of The Matrix (a) I’m hoping there’s space for the inclusion of the following brief article and words of praise (b) please see the link to their website below and consider supporting this valued independent voice written by the fans, for the fans and (c) whilst you’re here, please consider my independently produced and self-published book on the Mighty Reds of Liverpool. My goodness it’s good! It’s my pride and joy but as all independent writers will attest, we could do with all the support possible.
"Red All Over The Land" website
"Chasing The Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - Available via amazon.com
Hello John and I hope you’re well.
If there’s space and this is worthy of inclusion, please delete all the above (though you’re welcome to plug a small picture of the book!) and delete this small paragraph and start from the dotted line below. Perhaps use the headline “300 not out”? I’ll leave it for you to decide.
Best wishes,
Stephen
Well JJP you’ve made it and first and foremost, may I extend a sincere congratulations to you, your small army of sellers (I bet those cold, wet and windy nights feel worthwhile now!) and of course your readers, of which I count myself one. I hope the following brief words of written praise are worthy of inclusion in this, your landmark issue.
I’ve been many things to many people in this strange game we call life, but you could never call me an “early adopter”. I’m the biggest fan this side of a moon shaped pool of the band Radiohead and I could bore you into a torrent of tears on the beautiful merits of those melancholic musical masters from Oxford, yet their first album passed me by. The exception to the rule was, and will always remain, fanzines, and the reason was the “Strathclyde Programme Shop”. As a childhood collector of match programmes and too young to travel to Anfield from the south coast wastelands of Portsmouth, I collected my Reds programmes via a 32 page hand typed and stapled A5 sized booklet that via the magic of a stamped addressed envelope arrived via the letterbox every month and at the very real advent of football fanzines they featured a section on the clubs who, at this embryonic stage, had independently produced fanzines.
So I became an early adopter at last.
If my failing memory serves me, the underground music scene had a burgeoning market for band fanzines but before even RAOTL came into being I was already collecting fanzines from every British club stocked in that almost mythical programme shop in Glasgow and soon, and for a short period, the collecting of these overtook my fascination for collecting official match programmes. They were treated with far too much reverence considering the dubious quality of some of these early fanzines, and stored away in various shoe boxes in a Harry Potter cupboard under the stairs.
My late school years became college years and easy train journeys to all London “Aways” before gainful employment ensured regular trips to Anfield which coincided, within a season or two, of the inaugural issues of RAOTL and another particular favourite “Through The Wind and Rain” (TTW&R). Suffice to say I eagerly bought each issue from the very beginning and began collecting and storing these away in yet more boxes under the stairs and was childishly pleased whenever a new issue was available during another visit to our footballing coliseum. Soon tiring of the “folded crease in the back pocket look” and this treasured publication often looking battered to pieces by the time I arrived home, I became a subscriber to both RAOTL and TTW&R and was sad to see its demise as the dry sarcastic humour of its editor Steven Kelly chimed in rhythm with mine. I like to think this has continued with you JJP!
The long winded point I’m reaching via these brief personal memories is that whilst others have come and gone and I collected them too (“Another Wasted Corner” didn’t last long if memory serves and “The Liverpool Way” never grabbed my affections), RAOTL always did, always has, and always will. From my earliest days of collecting Reds fanzines and being a subscriber and until this very day I continue with a secretive pact that I may as well disclose here as we’re all friends: I roll an illegal cigarette, run a hot bath, lock the door, and relax into the rambling musings of fellow fans of our great club and people I regard as long distance friends.
For that’s the beauty of fanzines. It’s a somewhat tired old cliche but it’s true nonetheless. RAOTL is written by us, the fans and for our fellow fans. No filter, filler or bullshit. Just honest to goodness opinion written from the heart for an independently run, come one, come all dare I say socialist and inclusive publication on a topic, an institution, and a bastion of independent invincibility they’d have to send a team from the planet Mars to shut down.
For the past 7 or 8 issues JJP has kindly allowed me to ink my writing quill and contribute articles for a little corner of our RAOTL world here entitled “Yesterday’s Paper” and I hope he will continue to let me do so from issue 301 onward. I may not feature in every issue but I hope my brief ramble here has assured you that from being an avid reader and collector to now contributor ensures that every time I am featured, I’m honoured beyond words or measure.
All power to you John and your selling team. I’d say here’s to another 300 issues but you’d probably spit out your tea!
I’m off to run a hot bath and read the ramblings of my friends.
Best wishes,
Stephen.
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to take the tour of the cave of wonders that is my archives here and should you deem this worthy of a follow or subscription, I always reciprocate such kindness.
Peace to you all.