LFC book destined for best-sellers list

Sep 5 2007

A BOOK written by a group of Liverpool fans recording their travels around Europe is destined for the bestsellers’ list.

Here We Go Gathering Cups in May is a supporters’ record of how Liverpool FC reached seven European Cup Finals, a feat that no other British club has ever come close to achieving.

“The only other fans who could have written a book like this about their club’s achievements are those of AC Milan or Real Madrid, who have also shared that experience,” said Kirkby- born Nicky Allt, who came up with the concept for the book.

“But I think the book will have a general appeal and not just for Liverpool fans because the stories stand up on their own without bringing football into it. It’s all about how fans had to connive to get there, the personal circumstances, the conflict sometimes – and all the adventures that were had along the way.”

It covers the trail from the first European Cup victory in Rome 1977 when Liverpool beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-1 to last year’s 2-1 defeat in Athens by AC Milan.

“I thought it was important that it should be something more than just doing the glory trail, which is why we had to wait until after the Athens result before we could get things finalised,” said the former St Kevin’s pupil who initially wanted to write the book by himself.

“But I realised in all fairness that I couldn’t, because even though I’d been to all the others I’d missed the one in ‘77 as I was still at school.

“Anyway, I think it works better with seven different writers, with seven different opinions and seven different styles.

“The only thing is the money gets split seven different ways.”

The former builder – whose first book was The Boys From The Mersey – is the writer of the 1978 chapter chronicling the Wembley Stadium victory over Bruges. The rest of the spoils are split between Peter Hooton, the former frontman with The Farm, who writes about the trip to Paris to beat Real Madrid 1-0 in ’81; musician and taxi driver Jegsy Dodd who covers the second journey to Rome and the win over host club AS Roma in ‘84; acclaimed author Kevin Sampson reports on the disaster that was Heysel the following year; social worker John Maguire from Bootle writes about Istanbul and the famous comeback against AC Milan two years ago, while Tony Barrett, feature writer on the Daily Post’s sister paper, the Echo, covers this year’s sojourn to Athens. The very first story, the journey to Rome in 1977, has been written by Nicky’s friend and writing collaborator Dave Kirby. Both gave up jobs in the building trade to pursue their ambitions and have already had a huge local success with their play Brick Up The Mersey Tunnels, which has had two record- breaking runs at the Royal Court Theatre.

“The 1977 final in Rome was my first and your firsts are always very special,” said Dave, whose latest play, Lost Soul, began a month-long residency at the Royal Court last Friday. “And if they ever invented a time machine I would go back and relive that week all over again.”

A special signing session for the launch of the new book will take place tomorrow at Waterstones, Bold Street, at 6pm, when all seven writers and past LFC players will be signing copies.

* HERE We Go Gathering Cups in May will be on general sale from tomorrow, priced £16.99.