How it was/is

[albie]

Representing how things were - or indeed are - in Liverpool [or for that matter any other place] truly is an impossible task.

Reading through some of the accounts on the site it seems to me pretty apparent that outsiders' impressions of Liverpool tend to be coloured by reports of received extremes that can lend themselves to a pigeon holing that is simply too convenient and simplistic to be even remotely representative.

I'll give an example of this.

One of Peter M's two snapshot impressions of LFC football is of violence.

Now I can see where Peter has acquired such a perception given some of the media and scholastic writings that have proliferated over the years.

However, as a fanatical and active supporter of the club since I was a young boy, I would have to dismiss such tag of violence as grave misrepresentation.

It is not that violence has not figured. Events such as early sixties trainwrecking and seventies and eighties aggro culminating in the Heysel tragedy of 1985 are inescapable facts. Their gravity is unquestionable.

It is simply that on a week in week out basis given the vast numbers attending, the overall incidence of violence is so miniscule as to be in relative terms almost an irrelevance.

The fact that the media and academia choose to exaggerate the relative significance of such events cannot unseat the actual reality that 90% of Liverpool fans have likely never perpetrated an act of football violence in their entire lives.

As such it is this rather boring non-violent image that should really inform outsiders. Not its more glamorous and gratuitous cousin.

This is not to diminish the individual hoorrors of those acts of football violence that have occurred. It is merely to represent them more equitably in an overall lens of truer perspective.

Thus Peter's impression of violence, whilst understandable given his distance from events and the information he has received over the years, is in fact way off the mark.

Of course, Peter's other overriding impression of Liverpool Football Club - namely its penchant for outstanding and peerless football - is absolutely spot on. Or at least it will be once we manage to persuade our current manager to return to France!!

Al Edge

Defender of the Faith and over-sensitive Scouser

;-0)

[admin]

Alan: Your critique is much appreciated. I very much appreciate you taking the time to set the record straight in a number of areas and I sincerely hope that this practice will continue.

Your comment

"90% of Liverpool fans have likely never perpetrated an act of football violence in their entire lives."

is an excellent case in point. Indeed, a very small percentage of persons in the general population are involved in violence and I would expect Liverpool to be no different.


Further your comment

"Thus Peter's impression of violence, whilst understandable given his distance from events and the information he has received over the years, is in fact way off the mark."

is also understood and appreciated. The purpose of these articles is indeed to stimulate discussion whilst attempting to be as accurate as possible. We may have missed the boat in several areas here, however, it is never our aim to mislead or offend. Again thank you for your frank comments and discussion. Apologies to those who may have found our comments unsavoury or offensive.

[albie]

Hey Pete - absolutely no problem. No unsavouriness or offence whatsoever. Your thirst for information and your motives are clearly so genuine. I just hope my own first hand and also received insights can assist your own research in some small way. Please take a look at one of the other posts where I've referred to 2 books which I feel may be quite valuable for you in this regard.

[brammy]

y'all may have seen this... great site:

http://www.merseybeatnostalgia.co.uk/index.html

If ya ask me, I think that (aside from the Beatles, of course) THE SEARCHERS were the best Merseyside group.