Okay… I confess… I’m born and bred Barnsley and I couldn’t give a toss about football. Therefore I’ve never been a follower of BFC – at least that means I don’t follow anyone else either, hey?
I’ve always put my everything into music and art – hense this site. However, I’m also a lover of my town and of fanzines. Back in the 90s I contributed to a number of fanzines about specific bands and still love to collect and read them, so despite my disinterest in the game, I jumped at the chance to get a copy of West Stand Bogs Fanzine.
I picked it up last night from the launch at Old No.7 for the bargain price of £2.
So, my verdict?
Well I wished I’d bloody subscribed last week. I love it.
I don’t want to give too much away but on top of the free Futch and Shez stickers, I got a couple of in-depth articles about local North Counties East League teams, some great articles looking back at childhood memories about BFC and collecting Panini sticker in the school playground, a brilliant article looking at anti-facism and German football and also bits on Thatcher, toast and bad hair.
I tell you what – every writer here is intelligent, funny and always on your level.
Honestly, I still don’t give a toss about football, but more so now, I feel pride in the reds.
On another note, I work at Experience Barnsley, the town’s new museum. We have an area dedicated to the club which includes timelines, videos made by fans and lots of old cine footage and also lots of rare objects donated by locals and a few special items on loan from MUFC. We also have access to the Barnsley archives. I’m looking to get West Stand Bogs into the archives, so it will sit alongside many other fanzines and programmes from the BFC past. We are also planning to have an indepth exhibition about the history of BFC next summer.
In the meantime, I can’t wait for Issue #2 in Nov. Keep up the good work.
YOU REDS!!!
Get Issue #1 while you still can. Just a couple of copies left from Old No7 and Cam Music at the top of Regents Street.
Keep up to date with West Stand Bogs here > https://www.facebook.com/WestStandBogs
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