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Lifted Over The Turnstiles
at 17:23 7 Nov 2022

Simon's books are a tour de force of the football grounds world. Brilliant stuff, and I have massive respect for his work. He concentrates on the history of the grounds, whereas my books deal in nostalgia and emotion – what it was like to stand on the terraces, feel the sway, smell the Bovril, exalt to the skies with a local derby win or feel the dark, dark disappointments of what it is to follow a football team when they lose a game they just had to win. But all done from a fan's perspective. Whenever you hear about an old football match you hear what the players thought, or the manager, or the journalists in their ivory press boxes. Not the fans in the rain, who queued hours for a ticket, who found their way to the game navigating by the shine of the floodlights. I know that older Ipswich supporters will understand what it meant to stand on the terraces, to go berserk when a goal went in (it is nothing like as good in these days of all-seater stadiums). The books are photo-led, and show the places where these emotions were experienced. The words alongside describe the quirks, the emotions, the nostalgia. Often, what we remember is the people we were with as much as the games we saw. the scrapes we got into. The dangers, the mad bits. Football was different back then. That's what I'm trying to capture and remind people of, before all those who properly experienced it fade away. Sorry, too long an answer, I know. Cheers SmithersJones.

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Lifted Over The Turnstiles
at 14:52 7 Nov 2022

I will do that, thanks very much.
I have an enduring fascination for football grounds in the standing days. I began going in 1965 and experienced all the good (and bad.....and crazy) times.
Cheers.

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Lifted Over The Turnstiles
at 14:38 7 Nov 2022

Good afternoon.
I’d like to ask for some advice please. I’m putting together a book — a photo-led nostalgia book, not entirely a history tome — about how grounds used to look in the black and white era before the Taylor Report swept away standing terraces. Portman Road with its rich history will, of course, be featured heavily.
The book (hopefully Vols 1, 2 and 3) will be a follow-up to my Lifted Over The Turnstiles 3-volume collection of books about Scottish football grounds: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=lifted+over+the+turnstiles&i=stripbooks&cri
Or Google “Lifted Over The Turnstiles Book”.
I’m wondering if there are any club enthusiasts, historians, old press or private photographers, archives, or other sources you might point me towards. Ideally, I’d like pix of the ground’s terraces and stands empty, or on-pitch action with a good, illustrative view of terraces in the background. If possible.
Old pix at high-resolution (screengrabs from websites don’t come up well in print). Preferably 50s, 60s, 70s – the way a supporter aged 60 to 80 will remember it.
I am willing, of course to pay for copyright and will give credits in the book for the provenance of the photos.
The aim is to celebrate the experiences of standing in a swaying, tight-packed, excited/angry/celebrating/commiserating/local-derby-fevered football crowd. It is a thing younger supporters will never have experienced. I still miss it.
I want to do full and proper justice to the ground as it was.
I can be contacted at stevefinan1963@gmail.com
Many thanks.
Steve Finan

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