Hill of Beans

On Monday 1st December, the Premier League sponsored Shachtmanite dynastic poodle organisation the Football Supporters' Federation has their annual glam and glitzy awards night at the Emirates Stadium. In 2013, each nominee had a pair of tickets for free. In 2014, somewhat contradicting the FSF's "twenty's plenty" campaign on Premier League prices, each nominee had 1 free ticket, but was also given the opportunity to buy a second for £50. Appallingly, one of the categories is Fanzine of the Year. In 2013, Stand won it and I hope Duck triumphs this time, but only because  I like the people involved with those two fanzines very much. Here is a longer take on the above statement, published in issue 4 of The Popular Side, available for £2 inc P&P or £1 for a PDF via PayPal to iancusack@blueyonder.co.uk

To paraphrase Bobby Robson’s famous quotation; what is a fanzine anyway? Well, at The Popular Side we agreed on our own definition of what the publication would look like at our founders’ meeting in The Northumberland Hussar back on June 20^th, which is why we’re an A5, old school, not for profit venture, without advertising, website or merchandising. We intend to stay that way; indeed, if we compromise on any of those principles, I’m out of here. Some of the decisions we made were philosophical, such as a disinclination to carry adverts or charge you more than £1 for each issue (unless you’ve bought a postal copy), as we didn’t want you to fund our leisure activities, while some were decisions made from expediency; we don’t have a website because we know, after the fraught experiences trying to keep Number 9 going a free, downloadable fanzine last season, that we’re writers and not designers. This is why we have concentrated from the get go on finding the very best writers out there and persuading them to produce articles for us; the fact we keep selling out suggests that aim has been reached. If you want a musical analogy, The Popular Side are the mandolin-playing folk singers and clog dancing troupe supping Real ale in The Cumberland Arms, while other bells and whistles, on-line merchandising operations are DJing with their iPads at the new Bier Rex. Good luck to them, but I reckon our version of A Sailor’s Life sounds more like Sandy Denny’s than theirs does.

Each month when I do the mail-outs to far flung contributors and subscribers, I also send fanzine PDFs (because this is a far cheaper method than posting out copies, as the costs incurred would mean we’d struggle to achieve our goal of breaking even on our small modest print run) to friends and allies; current contributors overseas, former contributors who deserve to be kept in the loop and a small band of other, inspirational publications to whom we feel a special bond as they’ve shown us that in this digital age, there is still a market for published fanzines. You really should investigate some of these magazines; West Stand Bogs (Barnsley), Mudhutter (Wigan Athletic), All At Sea (Southend United), The Football Pink (general), Popular Stand (Doncaster Rovers), A Fine Lung (FC United of Manchester), Duck (Stoke City) and Stand (general).

These latter three publications, along with well-established titles such as United We Stand (Man United), The Square Ball (Leeds), A Love Supreme (sunderland) have been shortlisted for the 2014 Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF) Fanzine of the Year Award, which will be decided by an on-line poll. Last year Stand, which I’ve written for since issue 2, won the award, but I was distinctly underwhelmed by this. Obviously as we’ve not been nominated, I could be accused of spite, but that really isn’t the case, for two main reasons. Firstly, I’m uneasy with the concept of direct competition among fanzines; we have enough to deal watching our teams compete with each other, without trying to create an unnecessary, pretend meritocracy involving supporter-led ventures. In my eyes, every supporter of every club, from Manchester City to the very base of the non-league pyramid, is of equal worth, as we are all in this together. Therefore, to attempt to try and impose a competitive edge to any independent, printed expressions of opinion seems to be contradictory to the founding principles of our own and every other fanzine.

Secondly, without even going into the question of the value and worth of the FSF, and this really sticks in my craw, the fanzine awards are sponsored by William Hill. Again, I realise I’m in a tiny minority here, but I don’t gamble; I never have and I never will as I find it incomprehensible how people can risk money on the outcome of sporting events. That is of course by the by in relation to these awards, but I have to say that I simply fail to understand how anyone can be up in arms about Wonga, without going into the question of gradated morality in relation to capitalism, when at the same time expressing a desire to win an award that has the name of a large chain of bookmakers plastered all over it. 

Gambling addiction, whether it be on-line poker, roulette machines or the local dog track, is as much of a destructive influence on individuals and families, often in the poorest sections of our city and Britain as a whole, as alcohol or drugs. I’ve no statistics to back this up, but I’d imagine that payday lenders (aka legalised loan sharks) are often the only source of credit for those who find themselves up to their eyes in debt because of failed punts on dogs, horses or cards. Surely, as independent publications providing a voice for disenfranchised and marginalised supporters, we should not be having any truck with multinational corporations that prey on human weakness and desperation? This is precisely why The Clash didn’t do Top of the Pops; once you become part of the mainstream, you can’t help but be tamed and controlled by the supporters and functionaries of The Man. I’d like to think that if The Popular Side had been offered a place on the list of nominees, we would have turned it down flat.

In all honesty, if you want to show support and give recognition to fanzines, go out and buy one. Most magazines have got a Twitter profile and accept PayPal; far better to pay a couple of quid and have an hour’s enjoyment out of it than pour more money into the pockets of super-rich corporations who’ve reached that spot our of exploiting all of us.