A fanzine writer speaks…….again
and an ode to the genius of Ray Kennedy.
“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 very proud eighth inclusion for the “Yesterday’s Paper” column and a retrospective article I penned a year or so ago on the day the Reds entertained an Arsenal team who could and should have won but instead fell to a 2–0 defeat inflicted upon them by one of their own, and the mercurial left footed genius that was Ray Kennedy.
His former employers from London would eventually finish the season in 5th place in the old English 1st Division, trailing eventual champions Liverpool by a whopping 16 points come season’s end. This was for the future, and now of course a long ago past, and September 1981.
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"
Link to my self-published book on Liverpool FC - Available via Amazon
Link to my original article on medium.com
Thanks for reading. Please consider subscribing to the fanzine and perhaps taking a peek at that rather delightful self-published book on Liverpool FC linked above. It sure would look a picture all wrapped up beneath a loved one’s tree this Christmas!