Fanzines by Jonny O

Lots of my family and friends tell me every Sunday morning that they now buy the Times because of this column. Sales in the South Wales Valleys must have spiked dramatically (yes, yes, we’re all related etc etc). My Mother, as with all mothers, keeps everything I’ver ever done. She even has early copies of the now legendary football Fanzine ‘Dial M for Merthyr’ because I wrote some articles for it. That was over 30 years ago and I often think that the effect of fanzine culture on football during that time cannot be overestimated. You wouldn’t be reading this column if it wasn’t for them. It gave me the idea that maybe I could do something in football. My great friend, Mark Evans, who was the founding editor, is now in charge of International Football at the FAW. When he came up with the idea of starting the fanzine he was on the dole. I was still in college. We came down to two names. Dial M for Merthyr or You Sexy Merthyr F*ckers (Prince was massive at the time. Not in stature but in fame). Dial M won when we asked the lads who wrote the Sunderland Fanzine (Wise Men Say) what they thought? Both made them laugh but Dial M won on a single vote. I’d head around to Mark’s and his Father (Mr Evans) would let us take over the living room with stacks of paper and bring us cups of tea. There were five of us and we’d have jobs like folding and stapling the roughly typed pages long into the night (We’d argue about who had the job of licking the envelopes on the ones we had to send off. It was often used as punishment for spelling mistakes). On match day we’d then stand outside the ground asking people to part with the princely sum of 50p to get our thoughts, and daft drawings, about the beautiful game. To our glorious, giddy surprise it took off and we sold (to use a Merthyr expression) ‘bloody shed loads butt!’ We gave ourselves daft pseudonyms (Taffy Fox, Chairman Mao) that took on a life of their own too, as people would send letters into us. We formed a football and darts team that entered the local leagues. To use a modem expression, we became a brand, people calling us ‘The Dial M Boys’ at games. Inter fanzine football tournaments sprang up across the UK and life long friendships were formed. Merthyr developed links with Queens Park of Glasgow. Their fanzine was called The Spiders Web. We’d travel to see them once a year and they’d come to Wales. We still meet. I’ve watched the mighty hoops regularly this last 30 years and laughed long into the night with the same group of lads I met as a teenager, meeting in the same pub (the Horseshoe bar) in Glasgow and heading off for a day to places like Annan. I love it. 

Fanzine’s changed football as much as the new all seater stadiums or Sky. Their humour and hugely important campaigns to stop racism were at he heart of that whole era. They had brilliantly clever names like ‘A Kick up the R’s’ and ‘There’s only one F in Fulham’. Nottingham Forest’s was called ‘Brian’ and was run by the fantastic Julie Pritchard. It was so popular Clough himself had copies. Wherever I went, watching games, I’d pick one up. Seeking out the seller and making sure I’d tell them about our own fanzine. It’s remarkable the people that came from that world too. Pete Hooton who began the daddy of all football fanzine’s (The End) went on to form The Farm and achieve pop fame. There’s fanzines that Pete Doherty contributed too and others like When Saturday Comes have become institutions for the game. Times have changed of course. Much of it is now done online. Podcasts too are huge part of how football fans talk about the game they love. Dial M for Merthyr though will be out in a few weeks. In a physical form. I’ll send an article in. Mark, in between making sure the Welsh national team is sorted, will be nagging me to write something about a trip to Dublin back in 1990. Telling me the night before a deadline that he needs it now, exactly as he did when we first started. The days of typing painfully on a typewriter and photocopying are thankfully now long gone and of course you can buy self sealing envelopes these days. To be honest some modern advancements really can’t be praised enough. 

Rest in Peace Mr Evans ❤️