Brief history. First of all we had the South Stand Choir, first named so after our promotion to Division 2 1966. This turned into the 'City Boot Boys', again situated on the South stand, as the 'choir' become of age, circ, 1970, every club had boot boys and skinheads. Briefly the choir tried to rename the South Stand, the Sledmere End, after the road behind it. Other clubs had their ends named after roads and streets etc, ie' Gelder End at Leeds. The Sledmere Fusiliers was a line in a popular terrace song of that time. The Sledmere End idea never caught on. There was never a Kempton Fusiliers. During the 70/71 season City's kop had a number of skinheads and suedeheads who frequented the Monte Carlo Cafe down Midland Street and Albermarle YC on Ferensway, they made up the hardcore. City's kop moved from the South Stand to the East Stand, en masse, on May 3rd 1971, Chris Chilton's testimonial v Leeds. It was a planned move and proved very successful. Some fans stayed loyal to the South stand terrace but the 'lads' congregated in the East stand which was renamed by them as 'The Kempton' after the road behind it. A police purge in 1972 saw the demise of the Monte Carlo and Albermarle lads. Both places closed down soon afterwards. This coincided with a downturn in the teams fortunes on the field the crowds dropped off alarmingly. The mid to late 70's were a barren time for terrace culture in Hull. The Psycho's and the Cod Squad were basically the same lads who came to prominence in the early 80's. I still see some of the original South Stand Choir lads, a few of who were also Monte Carlo and Albermarle regulars too, but I can count them of the fingers of one hand. All are elderly, obviously, some haven't been seen for years, some are no longer with us and many left the area altogether after the police purge of 1972. The Psycho's/ Silver Cod lads have too lost some lads too early but most are still with us and can still fill Silver Cod, when called upon, on a match day.
Thanks. Genuine question - what was the nature of the purge in 1972? What were people accused of? Bit before my time so it’s a subject I’m not aware of.
I call it a purge because there was an incident in the city centre one Saturday night that led to it. City had been at Burnley and several lads who travelled on the football special went onto a nightclub in the city centre afterwards. At closing time there was an affray outside and someone was seriously stabbed, another not so seriously. The police tried to make it out as gang warfare, when it was nothing of the sort. The reporting on the incident was also questionable with the term 'The City boys were running down the street chanting....'. Other quotes were of the trouble at that time in the city centre, and I believe it coincided with the handing over of control from the old Hull City Police Force to the Humberside Police. Either way whoever was in charge of policing in the city centre wanted a clean up. They also wanted an end to the skinhead era which was also blamed for clashes in the city centre on Saturday afternoons with greasers/rockers. Several lads were rounded up and arrested over the nightclub incident, most of them City supporters, and loads more were dragged in over the following weeks on dubious charges and any incident that had happened in the city centre was pinned on them. Even those with no connection at all to any trouble but who fitted the bill as skinheads, or just being a teenager, or frequented Monte Carlo cafe or the YC, or stood on the terraces at City games were fair game to the police. Even wearing Doc Marten boots was an arrestable offence. Not forgetting a youth could get a borstal sentence for even the most trivial of offences if football or skinheads could be linked to the charge. This purge continued for a few months and many lads realised that attending a City game was no longer worth the bother. They even made us stand on the terraces in our stocking feet, take off our belts and braces, and anyone objecting was either thrown out of the ground ( down the south stand steps) or charged with some trumped up offence. Away fans could do as they liked. I do know of lads who left Hull altogether and sought work down South and in some cases, Holland because they could hardly set foot outside of the house without being thrown in the back of a police van and spending a night in the cells. Some may see it differently but I see it as someone who was there and right in the middle of it.
Thanks. if wearing Doc Martens was an offence these days half the lasses under 30 would be in the cells.
If this happened nowadays there'd be a queue of human rights lawyers sharpening their pencils and rubbing their hands together in glee.I witnessed it with my own eyes on the platform at Boothferry Park,away fans to be fair,all standing with their d'ms (and the occasional pair of monkey boots)off their feet and being searched.
Yesterday's HDM Flashback section printed the front page from September 18 1976. The headline was 'HOUR OF HELL IN WEST HULL'. Eight people were arrested ( four City and four Blades) after 500 Sheffield United fans went on the rampage as they left Boothferry Park, leaving a trail of destruction. Houses and businesses had their windows smashed, including Robinson's funeral directors. Arthur Canvess, of Boothferry Road, was sitting in his armchair when he was hit by a half brick* causing him a bruised and cut shoulder. 'It came with such force it knocked me to the floor, it was like a gun shot', he said. * The picture of him has the caption, ' Mr Arthur Canvess who was sitting in this armchair in his Boothferry Road home when he was struck by a lump of concrete hurled through the window'. Similar journalistic standards even back then.
I was ****ting myself that day. Took off my wrangler jacket covered in City patches and legged it to Priory pub.
Just reading Terry Neill's book 'Revelations of a Football Manager'. Fascinating read, Didn't know that Malcom MacDonalds dad played for Hull City as an amateur? Also, that Neill accepted the player managers job at City for the grand total of £7,500, a year, plus a £10k bonus if he got us promoted. Another lesser-known fact, when Neill came to England from Belfast as a lad to sign for Arsenal, he roomed with Ian McKechnie who was on Arsenal's books at the time. Finished the book....written in 1985 so some of Neill's thoughts at the time regarding hooliganism, how to deal with it and the transfer market sound a little dated and his predictions for the future couldn't have turned out more wrong. He saw Hull City as a 'small lower league club' but he used the same description for Stoke City from whom he signed Alan Hudson. His time at City were covered in four pages but we do get some brief mentions throughout the book. He wrote that McKechnie liked the pop a bit too much and Neill once knocked him out cold in an hotel during the clubs Scandanavian tour (I assume it was 1971) when he was acting like an arse. He actually sent McKechnie and Billy Wilkinson home early from the tour. Ian Butler was of a similar nature too and Neill said this prevented him from being ' a great player at a bigger club' A City pre -season tour to South America gets a mention too, only because the precarious flight and landing when Neill nearly **** himself. Terry Neill speaks highly of Harold Needler throughout, he also wanted Dave Sexton has his assistant at City but finished up with Wilf Dixon, who Neill thought would take over as manager when Neill eventually left, as it was Neill recommended John Kaye instead. At the end of the book, Neill's managerial career and statistics as manager at both Arsenal and Spurs are detailed but there is no mention of his four years at City. Personally, I enjoyed the book (£4 from a charity shop), and I liked Terry Neill. But I always thought he was using City as a steppingstone in his career, and he wasn't as a good a centre half as he thought he was. But a good read nevertheless, although I would have liked as much information of his time at City as he went into details about his time at the other two clubs. Only the Falklands War prevented him signing Maradonna for Arsenal for example.
Great read, the City Lads no longer with us are remembered on this tribute flag, I'm sure we all knew some of them. RIP.
Love that flag and the sentiments behind it, I could add a dozen or more lads who were City through and through who are no longer with us, Keep the Hull flag flying high.
Was at Hillsborough with Puss in April 89, he died that same year and a week after they turned his life support off I got splatted and put in a wheelchair for two and a half years by a tosspot doing nearly 50 in a 30 zone. Safe to say I've had better years.
I have a Puss story or two. I ran a Sunday League team from the original Pecan Restaurant, Hull's first real Italian Pizzeria, back in the early 80's. We entered the league in Div 16 and I had to play lads who worked in the restaurant at first. We kicked off on a Sunday afternoon on Pickering Park. We got hammered in our first two games and in the third we were already losing seven or eight nil when Puss suddenly turned up on the touchline. I asked him to give me a handout, and he did, no boots, and he played in his jeans for the majority of the second half for us. Believe it or not he scored two goals. We still lost 10-3. Another time, Bradford City away, classic TSA, Chalk Lane Club bus trip, Puss jumped out of the bus via the fire doors as we were parking up (we were all very, very drunk) when some Bradford lads had arranged a welcome committee for us. The police had him in a headlock within minutes, and I pretended to be his carer (honestly) and managed to persuade them to let him go and put it down to over excitement with it being his birthday and the first football match he'd ever been too.
That’s brilliant. Puss was such a great lad, and despite his size was a fantastic footballer. I had the pleasure of playing alongside him and going to City with him occasionally. RIP Puss.
He certainly made a difference and left his mark on a couple of opponents. I tried to get him to sign for us but he just laughed, Division 16? Huge character and a top lad.
