Villa fan and author Colin Abbott on the Claret & Blue podcast
Nothing has ever been as important in my life as Aston Villa Football Club.
As a teenager, following this club actually kept me alive because I had such a torrid time I didn't want to be here. For three years, every single month I wanted out and it was only following this club that saved me.
I've told some of the players this. Sammy Morgan, one of my seventies football heroes - older fans will recall him and his classic chant ‘Six foot two, eyes of blue, Sammy Morgan's after you…' I remember telling Sammy about one particular time when it was really rough, but I thought ‘If I do something I won't know how Villa get on against Coventry next week’.
It sounds ridiculous but this club has got me through some really tough times and I feel this is why I was put here, to document history, because if I don’t do it, nobody else will and this club deserves it. It's got such a rich heritage, such a beautiful history, it needs to be told.
Which is why I have devoted so much of the last seven years to my proudest passion project yet - Aston Villa: The First 150 Years Volume One 1874 to 1949 and Volume Two 1950-2024 . The second part is out now, perfect timing to celebrate my club reaching its one and a half century milestone last month.
READ | Louie Barry's Aston Villa return addressed as Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday circle
READ | Eddie Howe makes Unai Emery admission after Aston Villa managed what Newcastle couldn't
There’s so many wonderful stories across the two volumes but among my favourites is a poem written by an unknown soldier and the trenches, two of which were named Aston Trench and Villa Trench, used during the Battle of Bazentin Ridge which was the second phase of the Battle of the Somme. I love details like that. This football club, any football club, is more than the players and managers who represent it. It is about the supporters who breathe it, every last drop of it. I’ve been writing books chronicling the history of Aston Villa for more than 15 years now - and it’s my greatest pleasure.
It started with In Safe Hands Nigel Sims' Football Memories , the story of the 1957 FA Cup winning goalkeeper, followed by Seventh Heaven: Aston Villa's Victorious '57 Cup Campaign. Next was Encounters of the Third Kind: Aston Villa's Division 3 Odyssey telling the stories of the remarkable adventures in the third tier. The Big Aston Villa Book of the Seventies and The Big Aston Villa Book of the Eighties do exactly what it says on the covers while Barton's Army: Conquering Europe with Aston Villa captures our finest hour as we lifted the European Cup in 1982 and Uncatchable: Aston Villa’s Charlie Aitken Biography is the life story of the record appearance-maker.
Every now and again I'll go to my book shelves and I'll take Aston Villa: The First 100 Years by Peter Morris. That is one of my most treasured possessions. It's only a little soft back book but I knew that word for word when I was little. I always think this gentleman wrote about 100 years of Aston Villa, wow. Now I’ve done one - 150 years of Aston Villa - and maybe in later years people will think the same about Colin Abbott as I do about Peter Morris. I won't be around for the 200 years!
I was born in Worcester, 1964, as a fourth generation Villa fan. My great grandad was there when Villa ruled the land, grandad saw the 1910 title win and the 1913 FA Cup triumph. My dad was one of the 76,588 Villa Park record attendance, in March 1946. I can remember my first game as an 8-year-old 52 years ago. I can remember the smells and the sights and the sounds of that night match. We moved to Nottingham in 1970 and I saw my first Villa game on 5 September 1972, a 1-0 win at the City Ground as Villa progressed in the League Cup thanks to an Alun Evans goal.
I'm not an academic. I write as a fan and because I am a fan, I can put it down how I see it. I write it down as I remember it and a lot of supporters can see that game through my eyes, they can liken their memories and their stories to mine because I'm a fan. Putting these books together I know what makes the fans tick. I know which games in the book fans are going to say ‘God I remember that, it was out of this world, the noise, the roof was lifting’. It's all in my head and because I know it all and I can put it down in writing, the fans relate.
In 1973 the family moved to the north east and with having a soft southern accent and wearing claret and blue, morning, noon and night, life quickly became unbearable at secondary school. If Villa took points off Newcastle, Leeds or Manchester United I could expect a good kicking... and they never let me down.
My love of Aston Villa gave me the strength to get by for another week. A PE teacher at school was an Oldham fan. When Villa beat them 5-0 in April 1975 I was made to run around the football pitch, he was waiting for me to stop, I never gave him the satisfaction. I ran home at the end of the school day through fear. I ran everywhere in the town through fear. In the end I started skipping school and working on a farm from 13 years of age.
Brian Little, Jim Cumbes, Sammy Morgan, all of them, they kept me alive. When Ray Graydon scored the League Cup final winner against Norwich City, the day after I turned 11, I vowed there and then if I had a son one day he would be called Graydon. It happened and he was, though his mother wasn’t impressed. That marriage shortly went the way of a previous engagement... south. My second and last marriage ended when she declared; ‘I can’t compete with Aston Villa.’
Author and Aston Villa fanatic Colin Abbott with Dennis Mortimer, the club's 1982 European Cup winning captain.
When I grew up my mum told me that I was useless and I would never amount to anything. But I thought that I would be something because I chucked myself into running for years and I got really good. I ran 140 miles a week and, in 1986, at the age of 22, I beat Steve Cram in a 10,000 metre race, achieving a time of 29:17, the fastest in the country that year. But then through injuries and accidents at work and what have you, I couldn't run. But I never ever dreamt I'd become a tiny bit famous for what I've achieved with my books.
Aston Villa are my first love, always have been, always will be. I could recite the 1957 FA Cup final team as a four-year-old and would go on to collect every known book on the club and its players. When I turned 48 I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. This was possibly another reason why I was bullied relentlessly, though it gave me the ability to have an almost photographic memory on all things claret and blue. It’s just the way I am. I think I mentioned in one of the books that I'm on the autistic spectrum. That's the reason why I've been able to retain all this information on this club.
This gift has enabled me to put my own words down, over a million of them, in my nine books. This club is unique with a history the envy of most clubs, their story needed to be told, I think I’ve done a half decent job of it. Aston Villa saved my life, and this is me giving a little bit back.
Aston Villa – The First 150 Years Volume One 1874 to 1949 and Volume Two 1950-2024, published by Legends Publishing, are two large-format 420-page coffee table books. You can buy the books individually or as a two-book boxset here.
Colin is also living the dream with Match Day Meets, where he interviews his former Villa favourites at Silhill Brewery, just down the road from Villa Park. Colin will be chatting to Alan Wright after Saturday's match against Southampton. You can find more detals about the venue here.
This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
Premier League
Watch the Premier League on Prime Video
Amazon's Prime Video is broadcasting 10 midweek Premier League matches on December 3-5, plus 10 fixtures on December 26-27.
Each match can be streamed free with an Amazon Prime subscription or by signing up for an Amazon Prime 30-day free trial.