‘Fanzines are easier when they’re about shit teams’ tweeted our good friends at the Barnsley fanzine West Stand Bogs a week or so ago. A received wisdom among fanzine folk, and perhaps there is some truth in it, given that the latest issue of popular STAND appears to have come together so easily we’re able to start selling it a game early.
We’ll be selling this issue outside the Keepmoat Stadium on Easter Monday as planned; taking up our usual positions – near the Belle Vue Bar and South East corner statue – from about 1:30pm. But as it is here with us now, we’ll also be selling it on Good Friday too, taking up a position outside the away turnstiles at Colchester United from around 1:45pm. Look out for the cold, wet fella with the red satchel.
The fanzine is, as ever, still a minimum price of just £1, which remains a bloody bargain for 40 packed pages of Rovers-related content written by you, the fans, for you, the fans. And don’t forget, all profits from popular STAND go to local good causes – with £1,000 donated in December – so if you’re able to pay more for your copy then please do so.
Though Rovers may be struggling at present, popular STAND thankfully isn’t. Issue 80 sold incredibly well and the quality certainly hasn’t dropped for issue 81, so if you’ve never bought a copy before, do please give it a try. At worst, you’ve given £1 to charity. Here’s a few choice quotes from just a handful of the articles that make up another great edition of the fanzine.
Make no mistake, we are League One’s soft touch with too much being asked of a collection of twenty-something loanees who have never been in a fight for third tier survival.
Rob Marshall
The reality is the only thing I can remember about my first afternoon at Belle Vue is spilling the contents of my dad’s Thermos all over the pages of the programme he’d lovingly bought me and glueing the pages firmly shut with a gloopy mix of Heinz vegetable soup.
Darren Burke
If I’m paying £25 for a League One football match, then at the very least I want a neck-rub at half-time.
James McMahon
A Saturday afternoon not spent outside watching football is like chips without vinegar. Sure, it’s not an impossibility, but can you really bring yourself to trust anyone who likes it that way?
Glen Wilson
Here’s a complete run down of what’s inside issue 81 of the fanzine; as ever, it’s an absolute steal for the minimum price of £1
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- Editorial; what exactly have the board done wrong?
- Steve Uttley obituary
- The Bernard Glover Diaries
- The Belles, The Belles; the women’s season is under way
- Memorable Memorabilia; Mike Follows’ Belle Vue photo
- A guide to watching Rovers from afar
- Tyson’s Fury
- Marshall Matters on where the season has gone wrong
- Howard’s Marks; what became of Scarborough?
- Bernard Glover’s Believe It or Not
- Conference Calls remembers ‘Dangerous’ Dave Morley
- Jack the Miner wonders why Paul Dickov feels let down
- Voice of the Pop Side visits a Midlands side chasing a surprise title
- Darren Burke remembers his first match
- Jack’s Craic goes looking for John Ryan
- Could a supporters’ strike halt the spiralling cost of football?
- James McMahon has greater concerns than cheap tickets
- Dave Waugh has a grumble about Praise or Grumble
- Evans Watch
- Beneath the Statue on not being tired of the actual football
- Dutch Uncle on the ties between Swansea and Rovers
- Reg Ipsa; Legal Beagle
- Laws of the Game: School Yard Edition
popular STAND fanzine 