Exploring the nooks and crannies of the details that still make the People's Game.
14. Chester City - The Football Heritage Podcast | Podcast on Spotify
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Being of a certain vintage I can stretch memory back to a time when there was barely any football coverage outside of that controlled by the mainstream media. As recently as the late 1980s what we consumed (outside of rarely televised football matches) coverage of our national game was confined to local and national newspapers prior to the epoch-busting explosion of fanzines. Fast forward to the first quarter of the new millennium and there are no end of offerings for the football fan who wants to fill his/her every waking hour with news and opinion about football.
Obviously much of today’s football media, mainstream and fan-led is sh*ite. Often derivative and frequently cut and paste, regurgitated rubbish to serve the almighty click. And the description of sh*te stretches from the polished delivery from SKY SPORTS with panting sensationalism from their studios to the ranting, attention seeking blah blah blah of the likes ofArsenal Fan TV, the performative rage ofMark Goldbridge and replica-shirt clad fans who would stab their granny to get a 30-second gig onSKY SPORTS and an audience with Jamie Carragher. To be fair 30 seconds is more than sufficient for some of them to show what massive vacuous, mouth-breathing tw*ts they are.Simpletons as brutally dismissed by one Mag of my acquaintance.
As someone who loves the written word, I probably viewed much of the inarticulacy of amateur presenters as grating, binary mono-syllabic with lack of nuance, braying and the well, desperate craving for attention as a likely a form of undiagnosed mental illness. Nothing of real interest to say but desperate for you to listen.
But I’ll be honest, I’m a sucker for a good podcast and I think done well … as I think (I am biased) TF does via Alex, Charlotte, Si et al do … they are a fantastic addition to fan media. Frankly I wouldn’t have been able to huff and puff around the cycle-paths of Gateshead and surrounding environs without the dulcet tones of of the TF pod squad in my lugs, making me laugh, nod in agreement and at times exhaleNah, Nah, Nah to bemuse surprised, sleepy dog-walkers of the parish.
But sometimes there’s only so much TF and Newcastle United you can take and one of my happiest accidents in recent years has been falling upon theFootball Heritage Podcast which is available via all the usual platforms.
Its free which is my kind of price but it has become something of a regular companion when I retreat to the welcome solitude of long car journeys, various cardio-driven exercises and occasionally making a pretence at gardening.
TheFootball Heritage Podcast is hosted by Scot,Rory Brice who has confessed to being a Celtic fan and occasionally that shows as he overlays some of his many and varied guests contributions with his experiences following the Bhoys. But that’s never a suffocating influence and to Rory’s credit, he has the valuable knack of letting his guests speak while keeping them away from the many rabbit holes it would be tempting to dive down.
The pods are so varied as to defy a brief summary but I’ll attempt one anyway. I’ve loved the history reviews of the Edinburgh Derby, Dundee United’s history, the crisis at Morecambe, Everton’s departure from Goodison Park, fan owned clubs in Spain, discussions with authors about their books (a great one withJames Montague - Among The Ultras) and well, you name it … the stories of clubs I’d never heard of and a great one … theSuper Clubs of Communist Albania.
These pods are informed by a host who appreciates the varied means of fan expression … particularly written and there’s an academic flavour to them though without the kind of language that acts as a barrier to the potential audience. I imagine Rory’s pods could be recorded in the corner of a decent pub over a couple of good pints of IPA. Come to think of it, its not a bad way to listen to them either.
I like the motivation for the wholeFootball Heritage thing … a recognition that the game, the shifting historical and societal tectonic plates underneath it and how we … the people who have sustained it since the 1870s interrelate to it, is culturally important and even precious in a non-commodified sense.
They’re great pods and I think TF’s audience will like them.
Michael Martin, @TFMick1892.bsky.social
Football Heritage -on Apple
Football Heritage -on Spotify
Football Heritage - on ACAST.
Apologies to any I’ve missed - feel free to post in the comments boxes if you recommend them.