In an extract of his new book, Mirror columnist Brian Reade explores the history of football's most famous stand
Liverpool supporters waving flags and scarfs on 'The Kop' at Anfield in Liverpool, England, circa 1979
Liverpool supporters waving flags and scarfs on 'The Kop' at Anfield in Liverpool, England, circa 1979(Image: Harry Ormesher/Popperfoto via Getty Images)
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AS Liverpool FC celebrates the 120th anniversary of Anfield’s iconic stand, the Kop, one of the city’s favourite sons, Mirror columnist Brian Reade, tells its remarkable story. Here, in an exclusive extract from his book, The Kop, he explores its history…
Near the top of the barren South African hill stood a hut where a guard charged a few rand for cars to pass through. On the back wall hung a Liverpool FC scarf and when my guide, Don, told the guard that I stood on the Kop at every Liverpool game, he said: “so welcome home, my friend,” which caused me to burst out laughing.
I was in the wilderness of KwaZulu-Natal, 6,000 miles from Britain and a stranger was telling me this was my home. But then, as the hill was called Spion Kop, and I’d been a regular on the Anfield version of it for 56 years, in a spiritual sense, it was.
At the scrubland peak stood long rows of mass graves with weather-beaten metal crosses but no information about those who lay below. It was eerie, bleak and sad.
Don saw my pained expression and said: “Well, you’ve always wanted to see where your famous Kop came from, so here it is.
“The site of the most incompetent display of generalship in the entire history of the British Army. And all those lowly Tommies from places like Liverpool paid a terrible price.”
Brian Reade on South Africa's Spion Kop - THE KOP
Brian Reade on South Africa's Spion Kop - THE KOP(Image: Supplied by Brian Reade - Mirror)
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In January 1900, during the Second Boer War, Spion Kop went down in legend as “The Acre of Massacre” due to hundreds of British soldiers being slaughtered in one bloody day.
Such a terrible and pointless massacre had never before been witnessed by Queen Victoria’s army and when news reached home the shocked public questioned the quality of military leadership, and some, the point of Empire.
Spion Kop then entered the English language as a description of a steep hill and as football boomed and clubs built large spectator embankments, some named their terrace in honour of local soldiers who had died there.
Woolwich Arsenal (later Arsenal) built the first Kop in 1904 but it was the 28,000-capacity one at Liverpool’s Anfield in 1906 that would send the phrase global.
Liverpool manager Bill Shankly thanks the crowd in front of the Kop as he celebrates the League Championship win after the Football League Division One match between Liverpool and Leicester City at Anfield on April 28, 1973
Liverpool manager Bill Shankly thanks the crowd in front of the Kop as he celebrates the League Championship win after the Football League Division One match between Liverpool and Leicester City at Anfield on April 28, 1973(Image: Neville Chadwick/Popperfoto via Getty Images)
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The Anfield Kop barged its way into the national consciousness in the mid-1960s due to a combination of Merseybeat, TV cameras and Bill Shankly’s fresh, young side winning promotion to the First Division. As thousands more fans were drawn to watch an exciting Liverpool team that was beating all-comers under the charismatic Shankly, the Kop would be full an hour before kick-off.
So, to keep them entertained, a tannoy system was installed which played the top ten singles of the day. With Merseybeat dominating the charts, it turned into a mass Scouse singalong. Liverpool found its collective voice. And it echoed far and wide.
Word of this terrace singing phenomenon spread rapidly, enticing news and culture outlets to send their cameras to Anfield to document it.
Pink Floyd incorporated the Kop singing You’ll Never Walk Alone into their song Fearless, a record company recorded an album of the fans belting out their repertoire, called The Kop Choir. Even the BBC’s serious current affairs programme Panorama documented the famous terrace.
The Kop, circa 1960s. Anfield, home of Liverpool Football Club
The Kop, circa 1960s. Anfield, home of Liverpool Football Club(Image: Staff/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
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I first fell in love with the Kop from a distance. Well, 100 yards to be precise. As a seven-year-old, who was perched on my dad’s shoulders in the Anfield Road End in 1965, before graduating to the front of that terrace with my older brother Vic, for the rest of the 1960s. My rite of passage to the hallowed ground came the day after I turned into a teenager in 1970 in a full-blooded derby, and when I reached the top of the steps at the back of the Kop for my debut appearance, and heard the songs starting to rise, I felt a tingle down my arms.
The first half was all tackles and skirmishes but after the break Everton played like the league champions they were and took a two-goal lead. With 20 minutes remaining Steve Heighway scored with a low shot from an acute angle and a human wave lifted me up and almost unhinged my neck from my spine. When John Toshack’s head powered home the equaliser I flew 30 feet forward and was hurled back up like whiplash.
(L to R) Phil Reade (my son), Brian Reade , and Roy Boulter - Brian Reade - Liverpool FC - Supplied
(L to R) Phil Reade (my son), Brian Reade , and Roy Boulter(Image: Brian Reade/Liverpool FC/Supplied)
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With six minutes left, and my ears ringing from 28,000 voices bellowing You’ll Never Walk Alone, Chris Lawler volleyed home the winner and the closest state to pandemonium I had ever experienced broke out. My thin body felt like it had been dumped in a spin-drier. I sank under to a darkness of trousers, was sucked up to the light, heaved back, tossed in the air and fell into a gap in the crowd.
I just hovered, held up by sweating bodies, until I touched the wet concrete, feeling a stream of warm urine through my sock, and realised I had lost one of the Chelsea boots that my mum had given me as a birthday present the previous day. As the game played out, what was left of my voice joined in the songs of celebration.
Outside Anfield I checked my pockets and realised my bus fare had gone the same way as my Chelsea boot. But its loss, like that of my shoe, was utterly irrelevant as I didn’t so much walk the six miles back home to Huyton, as float.
The Kop had made me petrified but left me smitten.
The Kop by Brian Reade
The Kop by Brian Reade(Image: The Kop: A Fan’s History of Football’s Most Famous Stand by Brian Reade (Quercus, £25), published October 8. Copyright (C) 2026 Brian Reade)
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The Kop: A Fan’s History of Football’s Most Famous Stand by Brian Reade (Quercus, £25), published October 8. Copyright (C) 2026 Brian Reade