A fanzine writer speaks

as Liverpool demolish Manchester City from yesteryear.

Dec 18, 2023

Issue 297 of “Red Over The Land”, a Liverpool fanzine **(Author’s Collection)**

“Red All Over The Land” is both the last Liverpool fanzine standing and after 28 years still a strong independent voice and self-proclaimed, and rightly so, written by fans for the fans.

And so say all of us.

I’ve waxed lyrically on previous occasions as to my loose association with this now almost quaint old publishing tradition sadly being gazumped and consumed by our digital media age, but a quick potted history would be that I used to collect this very fanzine, together with two or three other independently produced Liverpool fanzines, and when I say “collect”, what I mean to say is religiously buy every issue, pore over every word, repeatedly, before storing in a box to keep each and every issue pristine before eagerly awaiting the release of the next issue.

“Going the match” as they say in Liverpool, I’d buy every fanzine available, whether it be this one (more commonly known as RAOTL) or the utterly brilliant “Through The Wind and Rain”, “Another Wasted Corner” or “The Liverpool Way” and when life or finance prevented me from attending for a longer stretch, I’d subscribe and receive my eagerly awaited booty via the mail. So to have an article of mine included within an independently produced fanzine I used to avidly collect is many things, from a thrill to an honour, a surreal delight through to long ago memories of simply going to watch my boyhood team play and being excited that a new edition of the fanzine was available!

This is my lucky seventh inclusion for the “Yesterday’s Paper” column and a retrospective article I penned a year or so ago on the day the Reds travelled the short distance along the East Lancs Road to Maine Road, then home to Manchester City, and a 5–0 defeat inflicted upon a struggling home team by the Mighty Reds described by BBC commentator of the day Alan Parry as a “humiliation” as Liverpool were on the march to their 13th League Championship title, and fifth in seven seasons.

Here’s a link to the RAOTL website (go on, subscribe!), a link to my rather delightful 2023 self-published book on the Reds (go on, treat yourself!), plus a link to my original article and images from my article now gloriously in print:

Link to "Red All Over The Land"

My May 2023 self-published book - Available via Amazon

Link to my original article on medium.com