Book Review - Sky Blue Heroes by Steve Phelps

We get sent a few books to review here in the Attic and it's always a delight, even if we don't always find the time to review them all. One book in particular I was looking forward to getting my hands on was this - Sky Blue Heroes by Steve Phelps, author of many a quality book about my beloved Coventry City.

Naturally there's been lots written about our 87 FA Cup win, but what makes this different is it's not a story of that journey told as a narrative by a distant voice; this is a collation of copious interviews with the people who were there and went on that journey. That doesn't just mean the fans. This includes everyone from the management, players, club staff and even the people who wrote the Cup Final song, Go For It City!

Starting with interviews from the players, the book follows events of the FA Cup run match to match, combining memories with excerpts from the club programmes and papers of the time. As always with these things, it's the minutiae that really set the scene... transfer figures in the tens of thousand rather than the millions, club jaunts to Spain rather than Dubai etc, all reminiscent of the pre-Premiership days when the 3rd Round Football Focus special would always show a 4th Division player doing his normal job (usually a brick layer) to show the discrepancy between top and bottom flight.

The chronological nature of the book not only means that each interview is short (rather than a series of long interviews with each person), thereby giving it a nice, punchy pace, but also allows the tension and excitement to rise as time goes on and what started as just another cup run in a freezing January, builds with each match to a rising sense of belief that this might actually happen and finally the explosion of sheer joy when it bloody well did!

It's a cliché say that something is a must for any particular set of fans, but this is a book that every Sky Blue fan has to read. For those who were there or at least a fan at the time, it's a beautiful recreation of the time and given the multiple viewpoints, there's always something you can identify with. Moreover, for those too young to have been there, it's as close as you'll get to living through it and in these dark days of League One, reminds us what we once achieved by having the right people and the right mentality.

So, if you're a Cov fan, make sure this is on your Christmas list!

Sky Blue Heroes is available from Amazon here.

- Rich Johnson

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Kit Collection Book Volume 2 Now Available!

Following the rather unexpected "success" of the critically acclaimed Football Attic Kit Collection book, it was only logical that a follow up would happen.

Given Volume 1 covered all the shirts I'd collected over the previous 27 YEARS, and Volume 2 would only be covering the subsequent 18 months, would there be enough kits to actually fill a second book?  Turns out that in that period, I somehow acquired approximately 100 new shirts. And not just any old shirts (though some are literally just some old shirts), but a plethora of special editions, charity shirts and some general oddness (rubber shirts anyone?). Not only that, but my first ever "match worn" Argentina shirt!

Feedback from the first book indicated a bit more info on each shirt would be nice, which coupled nicely with the smaller number of shirts. To that end, the first section of the book is dedicated to 'The Platinum Collection' (Premier would have been misleading) - a journey thorugh some of the more interesting shirts in my locker, from the awesome 1860 Munich Oktoberfest to the CD Guijuelo "Ham". Each of the shirts in this section get a whole page or 2 devoted to them, meaning close up pics as well as more info.

The rest of the book follows a similar pattern to the first, with sections for Coventry, England (& Scotland), Argentina, Internationals, Clubs and 'The Rest'.

While intended as an addition to the first book, a few shirts do make a re-appearance, either down to giving them some more space or because some new info has come to light.

What else is different? Well, it's 2 pages longer than Vol 1, at 100 pages.
It's also cheaper at £30 including UK Postage - Overseas buyers, I'll contact you to confirm your price before you commit.

So...there you go... If you'd like one, please fill out the form below and you'll get an automated email from me with instructions on what to do next. If you don't get one, check your spam filters then drop me a line.

NB The first Volume can also be ordered for a short time as well...if you want one, let me know in the Notes...any other message you wish to send...section on the order form. Volume 1 is also £30.

Thanks,
Rich Johnson

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Attic Kit Collection Book Available Again

For anyone who missed out first time round, the Attic Kit Collection Book is available again for a limited time! 

If you want one, I need to know by next Friday (12th June 2015).

The original info for the book is below.

It's been a long time coming with many, many, MANY weekends spent photographing kits, editing said photos and then writing stuff about each one, but it's finally here!

The finished product is a 98-page hardback featuring over 200 different kits (almost my entire collection).

 

The price is £29.99 + P&P 

Not cheap I know, but that's economies of scale for you...

UK Postage is £4. If you're outside the UK, I'll give you a postage quote before you commit.

So, if you want one, fill in the form below and I'll contact you to sort out payment.

-- Rich Johnson

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Book Review - A History of Bradford City AFC in Objects

To begin with, I feel I must start this review with an apology. I received this book before Christmas and fully intended to write this there and then, but as with a lot of things these days, the time to sit down and write anything that would do this book justice just never happened. So John, my heartfelt apologies that it's taken so long to get this on the site...

A History of Bradford City AFC in Objects (herein known as AHoBCAFCiO - the chemical symbol for AmberClaretide I believe) by John Dewhirst is exactly what the title says it is.

Often with these sort of books, there seems to be 2 possible routes to go down. The first is the text-heavy affair with either a few black and white photos scattered throughout, or a centre section where all pictures reside. The second is the reverse, where there's pictures aplenty, but one gets the feeling they're their to make up for a lack of substance.

This tome bucks both of those trends by managing to cram not only over 1000 pictures of memorabilia from the club's 112 year history, but also fills its 340+ pages with an inordinate amount of prose (67000 words in fact!) John makes the point in his intro that he could have followed the trend and written a history in 100 objects, but his rationale was 'why impose an arbitrary limit?' and anyone who owns this book should be grateful for that decision.

With the book broken down into related sections such as Club Crests, Playing Strips etc, rather than a chronological journey, it works perfectly well for those who devour their books in one sitting and for those (like me) who prefer to dip in and out when time allows.

One of the two largest chapters covers the expected subject of Merchandise & Memorabilia. Within you'll find a huge array of old skool staples such as scarves, pennants and badges and the more modern items of tat...BCAFC Energy Drink anyone? Don't worry, you can clean your teeth with an official BCAFC toothbrush after and stuff the lot in a Bantams bum bag! One of my favourite ads from this section is entitled Talking Shop and looks like it's from the mid 80s. Alongside your wool hats and scarves, you can also get a wall plaque for 50p, an acrylic jumper for £9.99 and a belt for 50p. Best of all, for only 75p, you can get not only Men's Pants, but Women's Panties...an item I'm pretty sure never sold out.

The other big chapter is devoted to Club Documents and Publications, which, as well as providing plenty of examples of tickets, calendars and newspapers, also has a delightful selection of letters from the club on such subjects as acknowledging another club's interest in an outside forward and their application to rejoin the Northern Section of the football league. The main bulk of this chapter is reserved for the fittingly named 'The Evolution of the BCAFC Programme', which takes you from the earliest sheets of paper through to the modern day, glossy type. It's also interesting to note how often the name of the programme has changed in recent years, having operated under the standard title of 'Official Programme' for most of its historical life.

To sum up, there is a stickered quote on the front of my copy from Hunter Davis, which simply reads "this is the best illustrated history of any club I have ever read" and I have absolutely no reason whatsoever to disagree.

A History of Bradford City AFC in Objects is available via Amazon

--by Rich Johnson

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Preview: Football Attic Podcast 22

This Saturday, March 8th, we'll be recording Episode 22 of The Football Attic Podcast - and we'll be interviewing a very special guest, author Greg Lansdowne.

Greg's new book, 'Stuck On You: The Rise & Fall... & Rise of Panini Stickers', is a fascinating look at the heyday of football sticker collecting in the UK. Covering Merlin, FKS and many other manufacturers as well as Panini, it's the must-have book for anyone that's ever known the joy of swapping and sticking!

Ahead of the podcast recording, we're inviting you to send in your questions on sticker collecting. Whether it's a technical query about one of the Panini albums or you're just curious about which collection Greg likes the most, leave us a message below or email admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com.

We'll do our very best to read out your questions as we indulge in our love for one of the most a-peeling pastimes ever! Thanks for your participation!

And you can order your own copy of 'Stuck on You' via Amazon UK for just £12.99 (paperback) and many other great retail outlets.

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Got Not Got CCFC & Kit Book Review

Last year we reviewed the 2nd incarnation of the retro football bible, Got, Not Got and a few of the spin off titles that were starting to appear alongside it. There's no new version this year as instead, Derek & Gary have been busying themselves creating a wealth of club specific volumes, ranging from the giants of Man U and Liverpool, to the smaller, but no less loved clubs such as Norwich.

Falling neatly into that last category is The Lost World Of Coventry City.

This book holds a very special place in my heart, not only because of the team in question, but also because I was able to contribute lots of my own memorabilia collection to its hallowed pages. NB...most of the pics in this review might just well be of pages with my stuff on, cos...hey, it's my review ;-)

On top of that, anyone who's listened to our podcasts will know how often I've bemoaned the sheer lack of attention Coventry has had down the years, so to have an entire book all to ourselves is bliss!

Following the usual GNGLWoF format, this is just chock full of pretty much everything you could imagine that's ever been produced with the CCFC name on it, from the standard club programmes, Subbuteo & Panini, through the more obscure stuff like myriad pin badges and CCFC gnomes, culminating in what must be the nadir of Coventry City memorabilia, the Cup Final 7", "Go for it City".

OK, so the single itself may not be all that bad and of course, anything to do with that Cup Final will always be endearing to any CCFC fan, but the B side, "Go for it Cupid" (my heart, shooting to win) is possibly one of the worst pieces of music ever set down on vinyl!

There are pages dedicated to Coventry's kit manufacturers down the years including the iconic Admiral & Hummel and the possibly less remembered Ribero, covering the infamous chocolate brown kit and of course, the test card shirt from the late 80s.

As with every other Got Not Got book, the joy is not only in the sheer wealth of material covered, but also the depth of knowledge shown in the writing. If you are a Coventry City fan, you simply have to own this book and the same goes for fans of the other clubs who have also had the "Lost World Of..." treatment thus far,

The second book on review here is another that has me firmly within its target demographic. If I wasn't spoilt enough by a book all about Coventry, "Shirt Tales & Short Stories - The Lost World of Football Kits" is surely the icing on a book shaped cake.

Covering English clubs from Arsenal to Wolves, it also features a selection of Scottish teams and a page for each of the home nations.

Each team is given a double spread featuring several kits from their history, covering both much loved classics and also the ones some would rather forget along with text detailing the selections and a brief history of the clubs' shirts.

A large amount of the photos are from the vast collection of Neville Evans who runs the National Football Shirt Collection, and these lend a real air of quality to the book, with each of his shirts lovingly and professionally photographed.

As well as the shirts themselves, scattered throughout the book are kit adverts from the 70s, 80s and 90s as well as shots of the kits in use from the time.

As with the CCFC book, if you have any interest in football kits whatsoever, this is an absolute must! It may not cover every club going, but those that it does are given the VIP treatment...and of course, that means there's room for a Volume 2!

- Rich Johnson

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Help Fight Cancer & Win a Kit Collection Book!

Earlier this year, Rich finally got round to photographing his ridiculously large kit collection. He then spent far too much time creating a photobook of them all (reviewed here by kit book legend John Devlin).
It was limited to a run of about 20 books and they sold pretty quickly so if you wanted one, alas it's no longer available...however...

We have a special copy to give away...sort of...

Rather than just make this a competition, we thought we'd do something good and raise some money for charity and sticking to the football theme, we've chosen the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK.

To this end, we've set up a Just Giving page to make the process nice and easy.

All we ask is you make a £2 minimum donation. You can donate more if you wish - for each multiple of £2 you donate, you get an entry into the draw to win the kit book. So if you donate £6, you'll get 3 entries, trebling your chance to win...

The event closes on Sunday 14th December, after which we'll draw the winner and try and get it to you by Christmas!

Please leave some form of contact details when you donate so we can contact you if you win.

So...what are you waiting for? Get donating!

www.justgiving.com/FootballAtticKitBook

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