DAVE KIRBY'S TERRACE VERSE

[motty]

DAVE KIRBY'S TERRACE VERSE

 

Dear all

 

As you may be aware Dave Kirby has released a new book called Football Culture, Dave has provided the HJC with a number of books, with donations being made to Zoe's Place and a charity that should be close to any true redman's hearts the Hillsborough Justice Campaign.

 

I would be grateful if you could highlight details on your web site and or print details in your fanzine to help create awareness for Dave's book and of course the HJC. If you have a message board on your website, please post details on there.

 

Here is the link:

 

http://www.footballculture.co.uk/

 

 

Liverpool's resident after-dinner poet Dave Kirby has bowed to popular demand and put down in print 15 of his finest terrace verses.

 

The Kirkby-born Anfield season-ticket holder has proved a big hit with fans and his work can now be enjoyed in a new 'House Of Scouse' publication.

 

Released to coincide with the 18th anniversary of Hillsborough and uncannily consisting of 96-pages, 'Football Culture' is priced at just £5, with donations from the book going to local charities.

 

All of Dave's best work is featured, including favourites such as 'The Old Boys Pen', 'One Night In May', 'The Justice Bell' and 'Jester's Hats' (which we have reproduced below).

 

"For me, one of the best parts of doing an LFC night is seeing the horrified expressions on the faces of a footy audience when the M.C. announces that there's a poet coming on," says the author.

 

"And I totally sympathise with them because in the environment that most of us grew up in, the word poetry is sacrilegious... provoking a reaction similar to a vampire after it's just been shown a crucifix.

 

"That's mainly because over the years academics have hijacked poetry and taken it over the hills and far away until eventually it disappeared up its own orifice. It's a shame really...because like any other form of writing, poetry can work for anyone if it tells them about their own lives or gives them something that they can identify with or relate to.

 

"I use it solely as a means of communication...capturing an emotion, a moment in time or an observation and then sharing it in a voice that people can understand. I like to think that I'm doing my bit for Liverpool’s capital of culture status, introducing normal match-going lads to poetry, and at most LFC nights - people always ask me the same question... Where can we get your stuff?.. That's why I had to get this book sorted."

 

To purchase a copy, or for more details, click here

 

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/archivedirs/news/2007/jan/15/N154693070115-1425.htm

 

Football Culture, Terrace Verse by Dave Kirby

 

Jester's Hats

 

I'm sitting underneath the kop

With me little six year old lad

I look in his eyes, and see that gleam

The one that I once had.

 

And then he pulls me by the sleeve

And points at some fella in red

And he sits and stares at the Jester's hat

That he's wearing on his head.

 

So I just shake me head and frown

At the way that football's gone

I mean...I know the reasons why it's changed

And I know that times move on.

 

It's just that every now and then

When I'm with me lad at the match

I wish for one day I could take him back

To the days before Jester's hats.

 

To the ones when everyone got the bus

and paid in at the gate

When kids sat on their da's shoulders

Or stood on a wooden crate.

 

There weren't any fast food burger bars

Or close circuit TV

No fan cards - no corporate ways

or £2 cups of tea.

 

And the banter from the Kop back then

sort of captivates a time

When the city was filled with characters

And the humour and the wit were sublime.

 

You never heard songs like 'easy...easy'

I'm talking about songs with soul

Sang by Dockers, labourers, and sparks

And brickies...or lads off the dole.

 

There was something about that atmosphere

That you don't get anymore

It was working class and passionate

And genuine and raw.

 

And it was mainly always scousers

that used to fill the ground

There wasn't any middle class

Or people from out of town.

 

But now they come from everywhere

And I haven't got a problem with that

It's just that it hurts when I think of the days

The days before Jester's hats.

 

So me lad finishes off his burger meal

and he grabs his little flag

then we head upstairs and take our seats

Inside the 'Dad and lad.'

 

And I look round at the other kids

All sitting with their Da's

And see fella's my age whose childhood seat

Was an old kop terrace bar.

 

Our nineteen seventies hairstyles

Are now receded or laced with grey

it seems like us old Kop terrace boys

have long since had our day.

 

Sometimes it's hard to accept the fact

that you're slowly getting old

especially when you measure your life

Round the fields of Anfield road.

 

You think of Wembley, Paris, and Rome

And they seem like yesterday

But then you realise that twenty odd years

have somehow slipped away.

 

So then the final whistle blows

And I grab me little lads' hand

I wanna tell him the way the Kop once was

But he wouldn't understand.

 

And I know that the seats are safe and sound

And I wouldn't want it any other way

It'd just be nice to take him back

If only for just one day.

 

So then we filter out the ground

with all the other reds

And I know he'll dream about the match

Tonight when he's in bed.

 

And as he sleeps I'll hold his hand

And have a quiet chat

I'll give him a hug...and little kiss

As he dreams about jester's hats.