Dave Kirby's Terrace Verse

[mottman]

DAVE KIRBY'S TERRACE VERSE

Dear all

As you may be aware Dave Kirby has released a new book called Football Culture, Dave has provided the HJC with a number of books, with donations being made to Zoe's Place and a charity that should be close to any true redman's hearts the Hillsborough Justice Campaign.

I would be grateful if you could highlight details on your web site and or print details in your fanzine to help create awareness for Dave's book and of course the HJC. If you have a message board on your website, please post details on there.

Here is the link:

http://www.footballculture.co.uk/


Liverpool's resident after-dinner poet Dave Kirby has bowed to popular demand and put down in print 15 of his finest terrace verses.

The Kirkby-born Anfield season-ticket holder has proved a big hit with fans and his work can now be enjoyed in a new 'House Of Scouse' publication.

Released to coincide with the 18th anniversary of Hillsborough and uncannily consisting of 96-pages, 'Football Culture' is priced at just £5, with donations from the book going to local charities.

All of Dave's best work is featured, including favourites such as 'The Old Boys Pen', 'One Night In May', 'The Justice Bell' and 'Jester's Hats' (which we have reproduced below).

"For me, one of the best parts of doing an LFC night is seeing the horrified expressions on the faces of a footy audience when the M.C. announces that there's a poet coming on," says the author.

"And I totally sympathise with them because in the environment that most of us grew up in, the word poetry is sacrilegious... provoking a reaction similar to a vampire after it's just been shown a crucifix.

"That's mainly because over the years academics have hijacked poetry and taken it over the hills and far away until eventually it disappeared up its own orifice. It's a shame really...because like any other form of writing, poetry can work for anyone if it tells them about their own lives or gives them something that they can identify with or relate to.

"I use it solely as a means of communication...capturing an emotion, a moment in time or an observation and then sharing it in a voice that people can understand. I like to think that I'm doing my bit for Liverpool’s capital of culture status, introducing normal match-going lads to poetry, and at most LFC nights - people always ask me the same question... Where can we get your stuff?.. That's why I had to get this book sorted."

To purchase a copy, or for more details, click here

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/archi...70115-1425.htm

Football Culture, Terrace Verse by Dave Kirby

Jester's Hats

I'm sitting underneath the kop
With me little six year old lad
I look in his eyes, and see that gleam
The one that I once had.

And then he pulls me by the sleeve
And points at some fella in red
And he sits and stares at the Jester's hat
That he's wearing on his head.

So I just shake me head and frown
At the way that football's gone
I mean...I know the reasons why it's changed
And I know that times move on.

It's just that every now and then
When I'm with me lad at the match
I wish for one day I could take him back
To the days before Jester's hats.

To the ones when everyone got the bus
and paid in at the gate
When kids sat on their da's shoulders
Or stood on a wooden crate.

There weren't any fast food burger bars
Or close circuit TV
No fan cards - no corporate ways
or £2 cups of tea.

And the banter from the Kop back then
sort of captivates a time
When the city was filled with characters
And the humour and the wit were sublime.

You never heard songs like 'easy...easy'
I'm talking about songs with soul
Sang by Dockers, labourers, and sparks
And brickies...or lads off the dole.

There was something about that atmosphere
That you don't get anymore
It was working class and passionate
And genuine and raw.

And it was mainly always scousers
that used to fill the ground
There wasn't any middle class
Or people from out of town.

But now they come from everywhere
And I haven't got a problem with that
It's just that it hurts when I think of the days
The days before Jester's hats.

So me lad finishes off his burger meal
and he grabs his little flag
then we head upstairs and take our seats
Inside the 'Dad and lad.'

And I look round at the other kids
All sitting with their Da's
And see fella's my age whose childhood seat
Was an old kop terrace bar.

Our nineteen seventies hairstyles
Are now receded or laced with grey
it seems like us old Kop terrace boys
have long since had our day.

Sometimes it's hard to accept the fact
that you're slowly getting old
especially when you measure your life
Round the fields of Anfield road.

You think of Wembley, Paris, and Rome
And they seem like yesterday
But then you realise that twenty odd years
have somehow slipped away.

So then the final whistle blows
And I grab me little lads' hand
I wanna tell him the way the Kop once was
But he wouldn't understand.

And I know that the seats are safe and sound
And I wouldn't want it any other way
It'd just be nice to take him back
If only for just one day.

So then we filter out the ground
with all the other reds
And I know he'll dream about the match
Tonight when he's in bed.

And as he sleeps I'll hold his hand
And have a quiet chat
I'll give him a hug...and little kiss
As he dreams about jester's hats.

[donkeykongdazza]

That's great stuff.

I read his "Justice Bell" one in the Echo and thought that was superb.

That should be a great book.

[mottman]

HJC Donation - by Dave Kirby
« on: Yesterday at 05:55:49 PM »

Just thought I’d let everyone know that The HJC have just passed me a cheque for £500 to be donated to Zoe’s Place baby hospice. The gesture wasn’t related to the sale of my terrace verse book ‘Football Culture’ – it was a good will gesture taken by the HJC themselves which says a lot about the good people that run the group.

Anyone who attended the Sandon after the HJC Cup will have heard my pre terrace verse speech about the importance of the HJC which I now call the ‘Hillsborough Justice Campaign and Centre’. Since the move to its present location opposite the Albert there’s been a huge rise in profile and popularity. More and more people are going into the shop. Some use it as a drop-in centre; speaking to other survivors upstairs – some buy merchandise or literature – others just need to go there in a cathartic sense.

Over the years, survivors and families have come and gone, most recently Anne Williams and my great mate Pete Carney have parted the group, which I was gutted about but the HJC will keep on going ... because if they fold what’s left?

Who would redress the likes of McKenzie by making thousands of stickers next day? Who would give out education packs and literature which recently inspired a Hillsborough drama by youngsters in a school in Doncaster? Who would pay out psychiatric consultant fees for a lad that recently went into the HJC for help? Who/where would that same lad have gone to? Who would make a very sizable donation recently to the widow of a suicide victim whose psychiatric problems stemmed back to Hillsborough? Who would also recently help out a financially poor Nottingham family by paying for a headstone for their son whose suicide was also linked to Hillsborough? Who has morally and financially backed Michael Shields family from day one?

All the above are things that nobody sees or hears about because they’re very delicate, confidential and personal matters. I’m sure you can appreciate that the privacy of those mentioned above has to be respected at all times. The HJC can’t start hawking financial figures about just to pacify some faceless sceptic or cynic who posts on a website. The good people of the group are an easy target. They can’t and don’t post explanations when certain derogatory remarks are made about them ... but believe me it hurts them. That’s why I’m posting this message about their latest donation to Zoe’s Place. They are totally unaware that I’m posting this - in fact I know they’d be humbled by it as they never ever seek publicity for anything they do. They are special people who deserve the utmost respect.

Walk on

Dave Kirby