“It’s All About the Buzz: Understanding Terrace Culture” by Jason Morgan
Terrace culture is a British working class sub-culture, built around football. It rose to prominence around the 1970s where different sorts of lads from different economic background, skin color, or even music taste gather together to form a group (or “firm”) based on 1 thing: the love for their chosen football club.
There are a lot of groups like this from all over the country, and those who do not choose the same football club will be the opposition, with them often ended up in a brawl between one another.
This book is a reminiscence down the history lane, where firm members from various different club supporters are telling their battle stories from the chaotic old days. From supporters of Liverpool, to Middlesborough, Everton, Portsmouth, Leeds United, Man City, Preston, Man United, Newcastle, Tottenham, Bournemouth, QPR, Stockport, Fulham, Cardiff City, Hearts, Chelsea, Millwall, Arsenal, Wolves, Brighton, Celtic, to West Ham, losts of West Ham, and many more.
This is the era when there’s no CCTV to record your crimes and no real consequences from the police either. Indeed, this is hooliganism at its worst, but terrace culture is so much more than just football violence. It got its name from the terrace stand in a football stadium, where another thing appeared that became the other half that defines the culture: the fashion.
This wasn’t explained in the book, but the fashion part of the culture was started by Liverpool fans in their away match against Man United in 1977. By then Liverpool fans have been going to away matches in European Cup, and brought back nice European brands like Fila, Sergio Tacchini, and Adidas. This so-called “Scally look” was later matched by Man United and Man City fans who started to wear Fred Perry polos and Adidas Samba.
Meanwhile, by the end of 1970s hooliganism was getting more violent and thus the police surveillance and arrests were also increasing exponentially, including punishments of minimum of 3-year ban, passport confiscation, even prison time. And thus wearing your team’s football jersey or scarf suddenly will expose you. And so the firms began to replace the obvious football jerseys with their team’s color that was hinted in the likes of Fred Perry polos. Thus, the smart casual pristine look was shaped and spread.
As one Cardiff supporter puts it “This was a culture that made labels massive. A culture with a forever changing uniform. A uniform that was great to wear first and even better when every c**t copied you.”
The book gets repetitive after a while, however, where despite having different sorts of supporters giving the testimony, the templates are tiringly identical: 1. Growing up as a local lad supporting the local football club 2. Joining the firm, loving the camaraderie 3. Nostalgia over the fighting days 4. A side note about fashion and/or music 5. Now I’ve grown up and moved on, but still brothers for life with the lads from the firm and even with some from the firms of other football clubs.
On a more personal note, I’ve had the privilege of living in England for 6 years during uni days, and experienced this culture myself. I watched plenty of England matches at my local pub, hugged and chanted with total strangers during Istanbul 2005, that David Beckham’s free kick against Greece, met plenty of new mates while joining kickabouts in Parker’s Piece (where football was invented), or that one time I ended up playing for Japan in a friendly student match against South Korea (I’m not Japanese).
I also went to Birmingham to see God (Robbie Fowler, when Liverpool played Birmingham at the Carabao Cup), lived 5 minutes walk away from the Walkers Stadium during postgraduate and went to Leicester City matches at the Championship (before the spectacular 5000-1 Premier League season), and went to watch several international matches and pre-season friendlies at the Emirates Stadium (where I saw Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the flesh).
Or that famous Champions League match between Man United 7-1 AS Roma in 2007 where the match was electrifying but the atmosphere outside the stadium was horrifying (the Man United hooligans were seeking revenge for the beating that their fans received in Rome a week earlier). But my absolute favourite match was League 2 match at home in Cambridge United, where the stand is still, well, standing, in a bloody cold December night. The raw tackling, the booze, the hooligan vibe were all spectacular.
Oh those were the days alright. No fighting, though. Only booze, music concerts, a couple of heartbreaks, and lots and lots of football.
THE CHAOS THEORY 