Sweet Silver Song

George Sephton, for 53 years the man behind the microphone at Anfield, was held at gunpoint at three consecutive European Cup finals. He talks of the Heysel disaster, how it unfolded, the aftermath and the long term effects of Heysel and Hillsborough on Liverpool FC. 

We discuss the Hillsborough survivors’ trauma, some of the causes of the Hillsborough disaster, how the Police caused the crush outside the Leppings Lane turnstile and Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield’s incompetence. The cover up, and finally we get the truth but not justice. 

Arrivederci Roma 

Those great European nights, Internazionale, St Etienne, Barcelona 2001. UEFA Cup final v Alaves in Dortmund.  Gary Mac, Michael Thomas and other Reds stars.

Applauding Leeds United and Arsenal winning the League Championship at Anfield. Throwing Tom Watts (Lofty from Eastenders) out of George’s box.

Chelsea 2005, Anfield bouncing, 6 added minutes, Eidur Goodjohnsen, Mourinho caught out lying, 

Barcelona 2019, YNWA, Imagine, George’s music choices. Paul McCartney, Teardrop Explodes, 

Our guest is Alan Harrison whose grandfather Herbert Roberts was vice chairman of Liverpool FC and was part of the recruitment team that selected Shankly. He approached Matt Busby for permission to speak to Jimmy Murphy, the Man Utd coach, and, the manager of Wales. Later, Alan’s s uncle Eric Roberts was Bill Shankly’s favourite club chairman.

Hear how Liverpool offered players to Man U after Munich. Why Busby left Anfield under a cloud. Busby recommended Shankly, who had previously rejected LFC because he wanted control, including selecting the team. How Shankly convinced us we could overcome a 5-1 first leg defeat at Ajax while wearing an away kit at home and changing to an all red kit. 

The Scottish connection, Ian St John , Ron Yeats, Tommy Lawrence and Willie Stevenson, plus Reuben Bennett and Shanks. Heavy metal Shankly football. Clinching promotion. Going to away games with a mate aged nine. Melwood - watching the A, B and C teams. Liverpool women’s football team.  Shankly makes a brief first report to the board. Shankly defends Ian St John sent off at Fulham for knocking out an opponent.   

Alan is stadium announcer at AFC Liverpool, playing at Marine’s ground in Crosby. He was nearly offered the job as stadium announcer at Anfield, but George Sephton beat him to it. We also talk about Gerry Byrne, captain Ronnie Moran, Alf Arrowsmith, George Scott, players’ injuries, Bob Paisley medicine man and, Alun Evans slashed, why Peter Wall was sold, Emlyn Hughes, Alec Lindsay, reserve team matches, and Lindsay’s Wembley goal. 

From Bulgaria to Italy to Anfield

 Tour guide Mario joins host Mark, and talks about: getting a job at Anfield, his first LFC experience, a Michael Owen hat trick against Sheffield League Cup on TV. First live LFC game, Roma away. First home match attended Roma 2005 and at home in 2010 against Sunderland. 

Roy Hodgson as manager, Wolves home, the worst home performance ever.  Anzhi from Russia. Barcelona  ECL semi final – the excellent performance in the away leg, losing 3-0. Half time substitution and team shake up. Gini’s scores 2 and the corner taken quickly. Kompany’s worldy goal for City at Leicester.Barca European semi finals, 1976 and 2001, Johann Cruyff, 

Anfield myths, This Is Anfield sign, Isle of Man

Michael Owen – Liverpool’s greatest striker of the 21st century? Comparison of Own v Torres, Suarez and Fowler. 2001 FA Cup final.
Wonder goals, Own v Argentina, Maradonna v England, Fairclough v Everton

Steven Gerrard the legend, recognised by Gerard Houllier as a youth player. GH brings Liverpool into the 21st Century, helps France win the 1998 FIFA World Cup, but fails to qualify for 94 when Houllier was national manager.

Bulgarian football – CSKA Sofia, Georgi Asparoukhov star of Bulgarian team at Goodison in 1966 World Cup.  Balon D’Or winner Hristo Stoichkov.  

Robert Zatz joins host Mark Kerr to talk about his first match at Anfield in January 1956 v Leicester City, seeing Billy Liddell and Alan A’Court and our managers Don Welsh and Phil Taylor. Then Bill Shankly arrives and brings in the great Scots, Yeats, St John and Stevenson.  He tells us how football was more attacking in 1950s and 60s, the promotion season 61-62, Roger Hunt, Leyton Orient.

Back in the First Division 1962-3, the first league derby match for 9 years, 73,000 at Goodison Park, Roy Vernon, Kevin Lewis. Mersey beat music.   FA Cup semi final disappointment against Leicester City, our bogey team, Gordon Banks, on the football specials trains.

Robert’s friend Kevin Keegan, superstar, Keegan & Toshack, Keegan & Dalglish, Manchester United matches 1977, 1962 & 1960. Players fighting, agents and wage negotiations. Johnny Morrissey sold to Everton behind Shankly’s back.

Tales of Kevin Keegan. The infamous 1974 Charity Shield, dirty Leeds, the battle of Goodison Park, Bremner & Giles.   

How George got the job as Anfield stadium announcer, George’s first match – and Kevin Keegan’s, nearly champions, 1973 champions and UEFA Cup winners, UEFA & VAR stupidity, 1,500 home matches, FA Cup winners 1974, Newcastle Utd & Malcolm MacDonald, This Is Anfield, Jurgen Klopp vs Brendan Rogers, Shankly retires, Paisley takes over, Ian Rush, Stuart Hall, Manchester United play a home match at Anfield, talking about ancient computers, Eggheads TV quiz show, Pete Wylie “Heart As Big As Liverpool,” You’ll Never Walk Alone, Gerry Marsden at Celtic.

You can buy George Sephton’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Voice-Anfield-Fifty-Years-Liverpool/dp/1838952683

If you have enjoyed this episode please share it with your family and friends, these podcasts cost money to record, edit and host, please buy me a coffee, https://buymeacoffee.com/sweetsilversong  

Please comment on our website www.sweetsilversong.co.uk or email us at [email protected]

If you have been affected by the Hillsborough disaster or by the Champions League final in Paris, reach out to the Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance https://www.hsa-us.co.uk/

Author Jeff Goulding continues talking with host, Mark Kerr, about his newly published book, Klopp’s Last Stand. We talk about the manager's last two seasons at Anfield, culminating in Jurgen’s proudest achievement, the youth players winning the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea. 

We paused to remember Gerard Houllier and his annus mirabilis of 2001, winning five trophies in six months.

We finish with Klopp’s final game against Wolves at Anfield and his farewell public appearance at the M&S Arena in Liverpool. 

Jeff then mentions his next project, a biography of Liverpool’s longest serving manager, the legendary Ton Watson, the first man to win the Football League championship with two different clubs, including Liverpool’s first two. 

Book links:  

https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/klopps-last-stand
 
 https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/stanley-park-story-0

Read George Scott’s biography, also written by Jeff Goulding, The Lost Shankly Boy, https://amzn.eu/d/09qgDZe

If you have enjoyed this episode please share it with your family and friends, these podcasts cost money to record, edit and host, please buy me a coffee, https://buymeacoffee.com/sweetsilversong  

Please comment on our website www.sweetsilversong.co.uk or email us at [email protected]

Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance https://www.hsa-us.co.uk/

Klopp’s Last Stand Part 1

Host Mark Kerr talks to Jeff Goulding the author of several books about Liverpool FC, most recently, Red Odyssey, a four volume social history of the club. The conversation centres on the fourth and final volume of this series, Klopp’s Last Stand, which tells the tale of the final four years of his tenure at Anfield. 

2020-21 Season   Annihilation at Villa, the Derby match wrecks the entire season, the bleak midwinter, injury crisis, defensive frailty, winning at Old Trafford, Allison’s goal at West Brom, Allardyce’s reaction, Neviile gobsmacked as we finish third. Klopp ages visibly. 

The importance of supporter representation. Rafa Benitez – “We know where you live.” 

2021-22 Season  Moving across Stanley Park. The Torres transfer. Carabao Cup 2022, the final against Chelsea. A tale of two penalties. Consoling Kepa and Karius.  Champions League final chaos in Paris

Book link:  https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/klopps-last-stand

If you have enjoyed this episode please share it with your family and friends, these podcasts cost money to record, edit and host, please buy me a coffee, https://buymeacoffee.com/sweetsilversong  

Please comment on our website www.sweetsilversong.co.uk or email us at [email protected]

Read George Scott’s biography, also written by Jeff Goulding, The Lost Shankly Boy, https://amzn.eu/d/09qgDZe

Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance https://www.hsa-us.co.uk/

Host Mark Kerr talks to fellow Anfield tour guide Bob Williams and to the subject of the biography, The Lost Shankly Boy, a book that tells of his five years as a Liverpool player. 

In this episode: Shankly resigns, Paisley the unknown trainer, Ronnie Whelan brought back to earth, St John finds out he is dropped, Shankly’s big regret, injured players Chris Lawler, Gordon Wallace, the Back Room Boys, Heysel and Hillsborough, trauma of survivors, hooliganism, facilities improve, state of pitches, Klopp’s legacy, Getting a Man Utd kit for Christmas, team uniform, a boggy pitch, the Kop starts singing, Anfield expanded but at what cost to local supporters? Shankly siege vs Klopp press, Mo Salah & Luis Suarez. 

Bonus Tracks 
1.      Billy Liddell hat trick, Jimmy Melia gets the shock treatment, Gordon Wallace and the first goal on  Match Of The Day, Viva Bobby Graham, sporting supporters, goalkeepers – Ray Clemence, Billy Younger, Bert Slater, Jim Furnell, Tommy Lawrence – and, Loris Karius. 

2.      YNWA         3.      George Scott signs for Liverpool

If you have enjoyed this episode please share it with your family and friends, these podcasts cost money to record, edit and host, please buy me a coffee, https://buymeacoffee.com/sweetsilversong  

Please comment on our website www.sweetsilversong.co.uk or email us at [email protected]

Read George Scott’s biography, The Lost Shankly Boy, https://amzn.eu/d/09qgDZe

Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance https://www.hsa-us.co.uk/ 

Stephen Done returns, he was the club’s archivist and museum curator until he retired in July 2024. We discussed more Anfield myths and legends, including: You'll Never Walk Alone - when and why did we start to sing it, did Celtic or Man U sing it first?  What is the best version of YNWA.  The back room boys, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Reuben Bennett, Ronnie Moran, Roy Evans, the Boot Room, the black books and inviting the opposition into the Boot Room. We moved onto Elton John at Anfield, his love of football and his total respect for LFC and why Kenny Dalglish signed John Barnes. Finally, Paul McCartney red or blue? And why is a Liverpool player on the Sergeant Pepper cover?

Stephen Don's books, some on LFC, and his Inspector Vignoles stories can be found here: Inspector Vignoles stories   https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B0034OKJ78   

Finally, if you would like to contribute to our recording and hosting costs, please buy me a coffee:  https://buymeacoffee.com/sweetsilversong

Stephen Done, recently retired as the curator of the Liverpool FC Museum and official club archivist talks about some of the stories and separates the truth and the myths.

The birth of our club, why did Everton leave Anfield, beer, myths about a return to Stanley Park,  the club crest & the Shankly Gates, our Scottish roots and Alec Raisbeck our first superstar player. Shankly myths - the dressing rooms, the proposed triple decker Anfield Road Stand, the original Liverpool Football Club (not us). This Is Anfield – who put it up, when and why, plus a few stories, including Shankly and Supermac.