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 At the end of the 2004/05 season Albion's sole surviving fanzine the Grorty Dick folded, meaning that for the first time in over 20 years West Bromwich Albion would no longer have a fanzine devoted to them. Below we take a look at each of the fanzines to have appeared in that time. If anyone can add any information to what is listed below, or has any corrections then please contact us.
Scroll down or
click on each title for more details.
Starting off as the in-house magazine of the Halesowen
Branch Supporters Club, Fingerpost was the
original West Bromwich Albion fanzine,
It
was also one of the very
first regular fanzine-style publications in the Country.
Branch member
Simon Wright was the man in editorial charge during the fledgling years of
the fanzine's existence.
The first issue
published was an
A4,
15-sided, photocopied effort and appeared in
September 1983 with a cover-price of 20 pence.
The A4 format
was kept until issue 21 when the switch to a more compact A5 size was
made although
the
A4 size did make a one-off return for the fanzine's 50th issue in December
1987.
Issue
46 saw Fingerpost professionally printed for the first time
and also the first real use of adverts. The glossy 32 page issue sold for
40 pence.
Regular
features in the fanzine included first team and reserve team reports,
provided in the early days by Mike Thomas. There was naturally a lot of
space dedicated to supporters club news whilst the supporters club
football team the Strollers were also heavily featured. Away travel had
it's own dedicated page, Dave Farr the man in charge before current
Baggies Travel supremo Dave 'Mammoth' Holloway took over. There was a
regular look at fanzines around the country in the Alternative Football
Network section and there was a 'Blackmail Corner' in which embarrassing
photos of players were published. The Magical Mystery Tour took a look at
forthcoming away games whilst topical cartoons were also a regular
inclusion, Glynis Harrison - later to marry editor Simon Wright providing
many of them.
The fanzine
also did it's part for good causes, helping to organise a benefit game for
Everton fan Rob McMurray after he was blinded during an incident with
Albion fans in 1989, whilst profits from issue 66 were donated towards the
Hillsborough disaster fund. The fanzine was also heavily involved in
fighting Margaret Thatcher's I.D card scheme.
Amongst the
regular contributors to the fanzine were; 'Baggie Bert', Helen Bolton,
Steve Carr,
radio
presenter and former Hawthorns matchday announcer Malcolm Boyden, Stan Foggo, and Adrian Goldberg, now a TV and radio personality.
The fanzine
retained close links with the supporters club until
1989 and Issue 67 when an
article by Adrian Goldberg
criticised the football club's attitude
towards the ordinary fans as well as the large increase in ticket
prices for the 1989/90 season. The article led to a fall out between
the club, the supporters
club and the fanzine editors and as a result the
fanzine was removed from the club shop and sellers banned from selling
inside the stadium. There were just two more issues produced by the original editors
before another fall out with the supporters club over articles in the
proposed issue 70 (which was due to be the last ever issue) led to the
editorial team leaving to set up the Grorty Dick.
Glenn Willmore, who would later be the mastermind behind The Baggies
newspaper took over the editorial reins for a spell before the trio of
Roger Burns, Neil Edmunds and Ian Edmunds took charge. Fingerpost continued under the stewardship of the supporters club
committee for just over another
two years before the final split between the
supporters club and the fanzine occurred. In January
1992 and apparently feeling that the fanzine was making the
supporters club look bad in the eyes of the parent football club the
decision was made to end all connections. Issue 87 saw the end of the
famous fanzine.
Date:
1983 - 1992
Issues:
87 Grorty
Dick, started life in
November 1989 due to a fall out between the editorial team of The
Fingerpost fanzine and the supporters club committee
(see Fingerpost
above). The
very first issue, containing most of the material meant
for issue 70 of Fingerpost, went on sale on
November 25, 1989 priced 50p.
Just 1000 copies of the 28 page publication were printed and
nowadays, like most early issues of the fanzine,
it is extremely difficult
to obtain. The editorial team for that initial issue
consisted of Andy Beaglehole, Glynis Harrison, Simon Wright and Steve
Carr, the latter two would still be there 16 years later for the fanzine's
final issue.
Containing
many of the features and contributors from the already well-established
Fingerpost, and free from any interference from either the supporters club
or the parent club, Grorty Dick quickly became the number one West Bromwich
Albion fanzine. Issue 50 appeared in January 1996 whilst
issue
100 hit the streets in March 2000. Over
the years the GD team campaigned for many causes. They
were strongly against the I.D card scheme which was proposed for football
fans in the late 1980's, they helped with the Len
Millard appeal - a fund-raising effort to provide Albion's former captain
with a motorised wheelchair, proceeds from issue 17 went to a
mutiple sclerosis
charity,
funds were raised for Albion's youth team and more recently
the GD team were behind the fundraising for
the Jeff Astle Memorial Gates.
The fanzine's last fundraising effort was for the Dovedale Day Centre, an
effort that raised over £700.
May 2005 and
issue 151 saw the last ever Grorty Dick published, the advent of internet message boards
and so somewhere else for fans to express their opinions perhaps playing a part in it's demise. A sad end for
what was one of the very best fanzines around. The
name Grorty Dick was taken from a centuries old Black Country culinary
dish !
Date:
1989-2005
Issues: 151
In March
1992 the
former editorial team of
Fingerpost started a new
fanzine; The Last Train To Rolfe Street. They
had originally hoped to keep the Fingerpost name alive but were prevented
from doing so by the
supporters club committee. Other names said to have been considered for the fanzine's
title were: The Road To Wednesbury,
Blue and White Peter,
The Liquidator and Throstle Droppings ! Basically the Fingerpost in
everything but name the
first issue of the "LTTRS" appeared in March 1992,
it was an A5, 36 page issue with a cover-price of 60 pence. The fanzine stayed A5
size until issue 14 when a switch to A4 was made.
The last issue,
believed
to be issue 16, was published in early 1995.
Date: 1992
-1995
Issues:
16 The
Albion Chronicle was a short lived fanzine lasting just the five issues
under the editorship of James Holland. Issue 1 hit the streets in October
1992, a 32 page A5 effort costing 50p.
The last issue was published in the Summer of 1993. Date:
1992-1993
Issues: 5 Almost A Chant was a rarely seen and
fairly short-lived fanzine with ties to the West Bromwich Albion
London Supporters Club. It emanated from an address in Middlesex and the
last issue known to this writer was number three in 1992, although it is
believed the fanzine was still being published the following year. Date:
1991-1993 approx.
Issues: 3 known
A gallery of fanzine covers can be found
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