Ian Cheeseman: Forever Blue

As Manchester City return to action with a home game against Liverpool this weekend, an era of a certain type of fandom will come to an end.

King of the Kippax, the City fanzine, will publish it’s 300th, and final, edition. Back in 1988, when the first edition went on sale around Maine Road for 50p, the fanzine and others like it, were seen as a rebellion against the ever more “sanitised and bland” official matchday programmes. KK gave the fans a voice, just like the radio football phone-ins of the time.

Husband and wife Sue & Dave Wallace were the creative force behind KK, Dave as editor and Sue as illustrator, though they both spent much of their free time putting the publication together. It was a labour of love, a passion project. They put together a diverse band of regular contributors who wouldn’t hold back from giving their opinions, though Dave & Sue still made sure that the fanzine didn’t become a hate publication, maintaining a level of integrity that meant it was respected by all.

A couple of weeks ago I went along to King of the Kippax HQ, which is their home near Wigan, to ask them about their time putting this iconic fanzine together and how they would feel now that their passion project was coming to an end.

As Dave explained to me, KK felt like a natural progression for him as a fan, “I’d served my time, having already had letters printed in the papers. I’d won competitions and I was a member of the Football Supporter’s Association so I was meeting with fellow supporters from different clubs that were passionate about things I was passionate about.

“The things we cared about were not being represented in the main stream which led to the fanzines all over the country. The first one at City was Blue Print, which I contributed to at the start. In September 1988 we started our own, having had an editorial difference with them. It was a bad time for football, there was hooliganism, the introduction of ID cards, the Heysel Disaster and you never really saw the humour of football fans being represented so we wanted to put that right and give fans a voice.

“The stuff the clubs were putting out was bland, gloss so we told it “as it was”. Occasionally we went a bit too far, but it was better to do that and then bring it back a bit. I’d often be stood on the Kippax after the previous away game and people would want to know what it had been like from a fan’s perspective. They wanted to know how many City fans were there, what were the chants, what were the police and the stewards like and the home supporters, so it was that sort of thing that we wanted to bring out with different match reports that weren’t just “who kicked the ball to who” but everything that surrounds the game.”

If you want to see more from Dave & Sue then just go to my Forever Blue YouTube channel. The last edition of King of the Kippax will be available to fans at the Liverpool game or online. KK will be missed, fans need an authentic voice as football goes more and more corporate and away from the core supporter base. Maybe like King Canute, who famously tried to stop the tide coming in, it’s a forlorn hope, but publications like King of the Kippax have tried to remain down to earth a represent “Legacy Fans” as they’re referred to in the modern era. It’s the end of an era but I guess all good things come to an end. I’m sure Dave & Sue would still agree with me, though, It’s Great to be a Blue!