chapter ONE/09 ' SPIRIT …. John’s Imagine , Liverpool’s EINSTEIN & Shanks’s KOP!

Ch1/9

SPIRIT ….

John’s "Imagine! , Liverpool’s EINSTEIN & Shanks’s KOP!

…WHY wouldn’t you LOVE the LIVERPOOL SPIRIT synergized in the 60’s by John & the Beatles, Shanks & true Red SUPPORTERS of that generation, ..creating alocal & global phenomenon still appreciated by so many worldwide 60 years on…? ??????? watch these 2 videos & tell me if you honestly UNDERSTAND why we live for “LIVERPOOL way” football & our songs, banners & TEAMS..

my other LIVERPOOL souvenirs....

During the second week of “residence” of my /F & U ngo refuge-E centre, ( as recently announced as “political refugee” I had been reading through my original LIVERPOOL match programmes..

These were collected at games during my youth as “souvenirs”| dear to me, to keep through so many changes & different locations almost 50 years, some of them, but rarely absorbed…

I have been looking through the “away games” and , at time of writing going through the home game progs>…

(** however, these irreplaceable souvenirs, along with other emotional, practical & VITAL items stolen by a state attorney & hi 2 corrupt “policemen” at Kumbor, Herceg Novi )

the 2 “mentors of my youth were John LENNON , and his lyrics , and “Shanks” with his motivational SPIRIT who influenced our “KOP” ; <head> 25,000 – 30,000 , mostly working class males, factory or dock workers; stood on terraces shoulder to shoulder, supporting “OUR RedS” with chants & songs (often of local lads THE BEATLES or “Gerry & the Pacemakers , or of “Cilla” even… :) (see BBC docu of the 1960s “Panorama”)

A few years ago I made the case to a young dutch technical student whose flat I shared for a short time whilst playing for a “veterans team” in Zwolle.. that BILL Shankly (and John Lennon) was more important to ordinary people, “Shanks” instilled a philosophy at the club dragging it from the lowly 2^nd division, to become a GLOBAL entity now followed by upwards of 30 million worldwide (probably “interests” treble that.. Football was the core , but his ideals & methods were about LIFE..

A bond , a family, a SPIRIT so magical ... we knew when & what to sing without orchestration...2 hours before the game , throughout & often well after , often in celebration of our winning TEAM… a poor dark dirty city back then, our stand at one end of the ANFIELD stadium behind the goal SUPPORTED & lifted our lads to great success. And scared the opponents! Without violence , with SHEER force of OUR collective ENERGY!

WE could have gone to WAR,, and beaten anyone, amongst our songs & chants , “LIVERbird upon my chest”

Y.N.W.A … “When you hear the noise of the Bill Shankly boys” “Fields of ...” “boys are in town” and…

“WE fight and NO surrender” ..

On this KOP, with 25-30,000 signing & chanting, with no leader or “orchestration” we were ONE in Spirit

In defiance

A REBEL call to arms…!

Against all those Rich business sponsors of the southern/LONDON clubs , their corrupt ministers , cronies and anti-socialist policies aimed at crippling our families & destroying our SPIRIT///

There were no jobs to satisfy me on Merseyside, tory policies would make almost 50% unemployed!
But we had teams who would dominate them in UK & throughout the EUROPEAN continent..> “SHANKS: had injected his SPIRIT >.. “imagine” ? “ we would conquer the world”

…. and I almost did!

I had missed much of my teenage schooling through (valid) MIGRAIN attacks & (invalid) bumking off remaining lessons to kick a ball about with local lad in the back field instead.. (:Scallies:_) I was an excellent student, when I bothered, but teachers bored or disappointed me, they didn’t earn or deserve respect! My parents, especially mum taught me me much more, she was gen sec of the Labour party, and also the local co-operative society///…. Our kitchen was her “office: neighbours with problems would come in, she would make them a “cuppa” (tea) and heLp them solve their Problems, …

MY education was when she explained the Problems & solutions to me, wHen I was 10, she talked to me as an ADULT! … 3 siblings at least 10 years older than me were getting married etc & she aLso enlightened me about much of their “dramas”!!!

She came with me to London & I got my first job , at my first interview (as I told young “LUKLA” recently) with a family owned shipping company.. as basic office boy/messenger going to docks (London was still a big port then) paying the import taxes, taking samples to customers & learning about a city of 15 million (greater London district) ..was it hard work ??? NO ! It was an adventure,, and despite being a “drama magnet”it always has been (good or bad) an ADVENTURE! ..

I bought my first business suit after a few months, 8GBP per week pay, some to housekeeping, some for travel & a record or shirt & still out to the pub every weekend (Southend) or a football match! If I wasn't playing myself!

An adventure going out around London, with the truck drivers delivering butts of sherry, port or wine to musty old cellars around the old city, under London bridge etrc, a adventure , making fun of Japanese or US tourists at nearby tower hill, (our office in Eastcheap, near “the Monument”)

FUN, until ondeday , got my new suit dirty collecting wooden wine cases up from the company’s dusty cellars so that the directors (Harold & john Porter were the upper class snobs that owned it) could entertain rich custmers at lunch.. I rected naturally “ oh look at my new suit?” ..the company sec?general manager Albert (Vaughan was a relative of the Porters) replied instantly “ boy, if you dont like the job, we can find someone who will replace you!”…

A reminder of my “mission” ?

REVENGE?

Not much more than a year after that “rebuff” I had formed “Seabrook & SMITH Ltd” shipping services & international agenncy which made a MILLION GBP in the first year s trading...( ** attracting unwanted govt attention?) PROFITING FROM ALL THOSE WINE SNOBS WHO became my DEFEATED RIVALS..

Bypassing their “old boy” (upper class) network , by year 2 having shipped 96 million bottles….I targeted the “ordinary ? ? new wine drinker via super-store chains such as Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury, Tesco, Waitrose & Morrisons..etc & others with my own UNIQUE methods…(& minimal costs/overheads) I had taken what I learnt and improved it 1000% with intelligence , creativity & by simply asking the buyers to give me/us a chance..& I gave them great service...way ahead of anyone ..

From our 500 GBP investment I had made a “fortune” ( a million GBP then, is worth, taking into account “:inflation” about 20 million now!) …. I gave Vanja (from Skuribanda pub) a photo of the 1993 Wine & Spirit benevolent banquet , attended by alll THE people of the world wine trade, 1,500 guests at the great hall of the Grosvenor House hotel, Park Lane, London west end, entertaining a table of 10 guests atMY table… I waived casually in the direction of my rivals!