I had the pleasure this week to attend the world premiere of "Songs from the Kop" written by Melbourne playwright Neil Cole. Through the eyes of Sharon, a devoted supporter and a "scouser", the play covers the rise of the Liverpool Football Club in the early 1960s under Bill Shankly to a sustained period of triumph over the ensuing decades under a succession of famous managers, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish, and to the tragedy of Hillsborough  when 96 spectators died and hundreds were injured in the crush of an overcrowded pen that was designated for Liverpool fans at the ground.

A subsequent coronial enquiry overlooked the incompetence of the police and suggested one of the main causes was the drunkenness of the Liverpool fans (even childrens' blood was tested for alcohol). The outcome angered a grieving population who fought for more than two decades for justice and to clear the reputations of the club's supporters - and in the end they were vindicated. In the main, the Liverpool Football Club has remained a power house in the sport.

The play is a tribute to the football supporter - the true lifeblood of the game. If you're not an avid supporter of a sporting club, then it might not be for you. Shankly is quoted in it as saying when he once picked up a lost scarf from the ground at Liverpool's Anfield Stadium that "this scarf represents someone's life."

The Kop was a terraced area at Anfield where the local fans would congregate. The 60s were an exciting time at Liverpool. They saw the enormous worldwide impact of the Merseybeat sound led by the Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Cilla Black and a great many others and also coincided with the ascent of the city's football team from Second Division to the FA Cup, the League Championship and the UEFA Cup before Shankly's retirement in 1974.

The Kop rang out with songs that often derided the opposition, praised their own players, greats like Steve Heighway, Dalglish and Ian Rush and lauded their home town. Life went on day after day, ferries crossed the Mersey River, "this land's the place I love and here I'll stay." and then came Hillsborough. By 1994, the Kop was closed in the name of ensuring safety standards at British football grounds.

I couldn't help thinking during the play about how the paths of the Liverpool Football Club and the Melbourne Football Club crossed and converged half a century ago. While the former languished in the 50s and the early part of the 60s, the Demons were supreme. In 1964 the Beatles came to Australia and hundreds of thousands of screaming fans congregated outside the Southern Cross Hotel where the Liverpudlians and their entourage were staying. That year Melbourne were premiers and Liverpool won their first League championship since 1946–47, thereby qualifying for participation in European competition for the first time. The following season, they won their first FA Cup.

But from that time, things remained rosy  for the Liverpool fan and downhill for the Melbourne supporter. We never had a tragedy of loss of life, family and friends like Hillsborough but as supporters we have lived in constant sorrow and in the expectation of a return to past glory for so long.

Cole's play got it right. It's all about the supporters and the solidarity with their team. Shankly once famously said -

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

It certainly is for the true football supporter wherever you are and whatever your football team.

That reality came upon me as I drove out of the car park after "Songs from the Kop" and found myself at the lights on Bourke Street exactly opposite to where the Southern Cross Hotel once stood. This was the week before the start of another football season. The street was strangely deserted and eerily quiet but along with the ghosts of the crowd that once stood there in 1964, I couldn't help but start humming the tune of the Liverpool anthem, the song for all true believers in sport - for the football supporter who never walks alone,

The play is on at the Butterfly Club 5 Carson Place, Melbourne. Tonight is the last night but later in the year, it will be performed at the Edinburgh Festival.

 https://thebutterflyclub.com. 

I was working in the ABC Newsroom in 1989 when the Hillborough Tragedy happened. 

I saw people die as they were crushed against those wire barriers.  Most of it didn't make the TV

Shall never forget it...

I was doing a fun run across the West Gate bridge when the news came filtering through. I don't know whether it's a coincidence or what but the race ended at Goschs Paddock.

Great writing WJ. Well done. Thank you.

Excellent piece again WJ. I think the loyal Club supporter phenomenon is a mighty rich and probably untapped source of stories, so it's good to see a play such as this drawing interest. In fact, from an Australian perspective, we haven't even come close to drawing on our obsession with sport as a source for art and drama. Thankfully we don't have anything so tragic as Hillsborough or the Manchester United plane crash as inspiration, but there are so many extraordinary stories out there that speak our identity, it's a shame we haven't yet exploited them. 

24 minutes ago, Redlegs said:

Great writing WJ. Well done. Thank you.

Good to see you have joined Demonland. Could I suggest, it may be worthwhile to change your avatar name on here, so as to not get blamed for my posts, or simply to avoid confusion. As you can see you have used my name of the last 11 years, in plural.

Regards Redleg.

From somebody born in Liverpool, who has a brother who has stood and sat at the Kop end for 50 years and lost a school friend at Hillsboro, an excellent piece ... and that's from an Evertonian!!!

This is perhaps your best work to date WJ.

Accompanied by a cracking video.

Fascinating post WJ. As a massive Melbourne and Liverpool fan I've often reflected on how different they are. But you have identified some similarities which I never thought of! 

I spose the legacy of Bill Shankly and Norm Smith looming large over both clubs would be another similarity. It's fair to say Liverpool did a little bit better with their next appointment though. I wonder how different Melbourne would be if we had managed to get RDB to coach the club in 1965... 

On Hillsborough, well, kilometres of column space has been devoted to that, but the new inquests are meant to deliver their findings in the next few weeks and the final public memorial service will be held this year. So perhaps that fight is finally coming to an end. 

1 hour ago, Redleg said:

Good to see you have joined Demonland. Could I suggest, it may be worthwhile to change your avatar name on here, so as to not get blamed for my posts, or simply to avoid confusion. As you can see you have used my name of the last 11 years, in plural.

Regards Redleg.

Thank you for the welcome Redleg. When I joined Demonland recently, I was blissfully unaware of your existence and I apologise for the near duplication, maybe actual duplication.

I chose Redlegs because of a close family relationship with the Dandenong Football Club when I was a l was a pre-schooler in the mid fifties. They of course were the Redlegs. I didn't know about Melbourne and the VFL until I started school. I found that I had to choose a VFL side or be completely on the outer.  I found out that Melbourne were the same colour as Dandenong so chose them. Of course, it was a fabulous time to barrack for Melbourne. I now live interstate and became a Melbourne member a few years back when the club was in dire need and Jimmy Stynes was President. So I would like to keep the Redlegs name. Would it be OK with you if I changed it to Redlegs Too? And, can you tell me how I do that please

On the Hillborough Tragedy - I saw a doco on it on the ABC about it, and there is a newspaper that they refused to sell in Liverpool because of its support for the 'official' side of the story. IIRC it was a big Murdoch  paper.

Nice work, as usual, WJ. Your description of the terraces reminded me of the one and only time i have seen a rugby union match live. This was in 1987 when Scotland played Ireland at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. I went with our flatmate of the time, who was from Northern Ireland, and we stood in a terraced section of the ground, like in the old suburban VFL grounds. However, unlike those, this was packed to the boards, so much so that we stood crammed shoulder-to-shoulder with the man either side (there may have been women and children there, but I didn't come across any). Too bad if you found it claustrophobic, or needed a pee -- there was simply no way you could move. I don't recall much about the match, but I do remember being swayed from side to side unpredictably, as some wave of movement moved through thousands of people. I remember thinking that it was a good thing rugby matches are shorter than Aussie Rules ones ... 

When I heard about the horrific event at HIllsborough a couple of years later, I recalled that day, and thought to myself that if crowds like the one I had experienced were common, then this sort of disaster was bound to happen eventually. 

So when I head along to the MCG next week to see the oldest football club in the world take on what could be the newest, I will be very thankful that I will be able to take my pick from a large number of seats, and move to a different vantage point if it suits me. For that matter, even for our largest crowd of the year (presumably QB), I can still take my pick of an admittedly fewer number of seats, but still be a universe way from that day at Murrayfield. 

5 hours ago, Uncle Fester said:

On the Hillborough Tragedy - I saw a doco on it on the ABC about it, and there is a newspaper that they refused to sell in Liverpool because of its support for the 'official' side of the story. IIRC it was a big Murdoch  paper.

It was The Sun newspaper which, under the front-page headline "The Truth", made the explosive - but entirely false - claims that Liverpool supporters had urinated on Police and pick-pocketed the dead as the tragedy unfolded.

More than 25 years on, Merseysiders still refuse to buy that paper.

The boycott was immortalised in this song by Billy Bragg, Scousers Never Buy The Sun. 

Thanks WJ your writings contribute vividly to memories of times and events that should never be forgotten.

Great piece, WJ. Beautifully written. It made me think of what's really important. I know it doesn't have to be an either/or situation, but would you rather have 50 years of sustained onfield success but with 96 of your supporters crushed to death or 50 years of mediocre performances (sometimes a bit better, often a lot worse) but without any significant tragedy? I know which I'd prefer.

5 hours ago, Redlegs said:

Thank you for the welcome Redleg. When I joined Demonland recently, I was blissfully unaware of your existence and I apologise for the near duplication, maybe actual duplication.

I chose Redlegs because of a close family relationship with the Dandenong Football Club when I was a l was a pre-schooler in the mid fifties. They of course were the Redlegs. I didn't know about Melbourne and the VFL until I started school. I found that I had to choose a VFL side or be completely on the outer.  I found out that Melbourne were the same colour as Dandenong so chose them. Of course, it was a fabulous time to barrack for Melbourne. I now live interstate and became a Melbourne member a few years back when the club was in dire need and Jimmy Stynes was President. So I would like to keep the Redlegs name. Would it be OK with you if I changed it to Redlegs Too? And, can you tell me how I do that please

Not sure how to do that, but one of the computer experts on here should be able to help.

For those of you who are interested WJ has written about Liverpool previously - Here

21 hours ago, Satyriconhome said:

From somebody born in Liverpool, who has a brother who has stood and sat at the Kop end for 50 years and lost a school friend at Hillsboro, an excellent piece ... and that's from an Evertonian!!!

Why on earth would you want to leave Liverpool? It's such a beautiful city.

2 hours ago, The Great Pretender said:

Why on earth would you want to leave Liverpool? It's such a beautiful city.

Did u have the wrong glasses on   if you are one of the haves   maybe    saw no future when I left in 70's

39 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

Did u have the wrong glasses on   if you are one of the haves   maybe    saw no future when I left in 70's

Neither a have or a have not. Just a visitor eight months ago. Lots of parks and gardens. Restored riverside area and city shopping areas. I liked it a lot more than most of the other northern towns I visited.

On ‎18‎/‎03‎/‎2016 at 10:50 AM, Redleg said:

Good to see you have joined Demonland. Could I suggest, it may be worthwhile to change your avatar name on here, so as to not get blamed for my posts, or simply to avoid confusion. As you can see you have used my name of the last 11 years, in plural.

Regards Redleg.

Happy with this?

 

31 minutes ago, Redlegs Too said:

Happy with this?

 

Yes.

WJ

loved the Pacemakers video. Now need Ferry cross the Mersey. 

 

Seen black and white footage of 50 000 Liverpool fans singing "She Loves you"

 

when her her mills were spinning and biggest port in the world. Before globalisation, FTAs and mass migration I guess. 

3 hours ago, The Great Pretender said:

Neither a have or a have not. Just a visitor eight months ago. Lots of parks and gardens. Restored riverside area and city shopping areas. I liked it a lot more than most of the other northern towns I visited.

I love Liverpool but I wouldn't call it beautiful. 

Off topic slightly, but as a Demons' supporter who grew up in Adelaide and has spent the majority of his Australian time in the northernmost reaches of both northern states before living across the globe in places with plentiful Aussie expats I've always had the feeling of walking alone. Entire countries where as far as anyone could discern I was the only MFC supporter. We deserve trench mentality way way before Liverpool.