By Chris Wright
Red Issue, issue one
Today is a sad day – or, more specifically, yesterday was a sad day – with the news that one of football’s longest-running fanzines ceased operations after 26 years at the coal face.
Alas, Sunday’s issue of long-running Manchester United fanzine “Red Issue” (issue 259) was and is to be the last, with magazine co-founder ‘Zar’ citing the tiresome “bullshit” of modern football as the main reason behind his decision to call it a day.
In his final editorial at the end of issue 259, Zar wrote:
“The game we’ve been clinging onto is gone. Football now is happy-clappy families, half-and-half scarves, tourists and selfie sticks; there’s no point trying to fight that.
“We’ve been through all these points and arguments over and over again during the last 20-odd years raging against the killing of a culture that’s long been deceased.
“A United employee told us on Warwick Road recently, ‘Everyone in the club offices reads Red Issue. It’s like the antidote to working there’.
“But where’s our antidote? The Bullshit Industry’s become overbearing, and we can’t stand the stench any longer.”
Columnist ‘Mr Spleen’ also added: “You can only kick against the pricks for so many years before the toe caps on your boots wear out.”
How true.
Red Issue, issue 259
Indeed, in response to fans’ queries on Twitter, Red Issue were also keen stress that their folding was not due to financial pressure and that their current circulation meant the magazine was still a “viable entity” from a sales perspective.
Alas, it seems that they just couldn’t cope with the endless, relentless onslaught of the corporate sanitisation of the game they once loved.
Now, Pies don’t claim to be fans of Red Issue or their frequently dicey politics (here, here and here for examples) but it’s the bigger picture that concerns us.
With fanzines going under at a rate of knots these days, it’s telling that one as relatively flush as Red Issue is calling time on the medium as the internet forums take over.
Quaint and nostalgic yes, but when done well a fanzine can be a work of folk art, a social document; an intrinsic part of football (especially British football) culture.
Who knows, maybe the fact that we’re now losing them hand-over-fist is equally telling?
(Via MEN)
Suggested further reading…
10 Things Pies Just Can’t Bloody Stand About Modern Football