Everton Independent Supporters Association
Ian MacDonald

The Birth of the Indpendent Blues
12 January 2005

This weekend's trip to Middlesbrough marks a remarkable anniversary for a group of very loyal Evertonians.

It has been over ten years now — and over 300 coaches (taking in over 80 grounds) — since a group of Evertonians decided to organise themselves for away travel, hiring our own coaches.  At the beginning, that's all this group was interested in: travelling as a football fan should.  We've all had the experience of being treated as cattle when with Barnes etc.  You know the feeling: you get on the coach in the morning, travel down to London with no breaks, get near to the away ground, and you sit and wait for the escort. Then you get off outside the ground, get herded in and shepherded out onto the coach and away, dreaming of a break somewhere on the long journey home — especially if you have just won.

Actually, the Indy Blues stated off as the Winslow Blues.  The Winslow was the first base for this extraordinary group of fans.  But gradually the members were diminishing from frequenting this pub mainly because they were getting barred all the time, rightly or wrongly!  So a mammoth decision had to be made to re-locate our watering hole.  A lot of thought went into finding our new home: all the local breweries were contacted, ordinance survey maps searched and the 'Which report' on best Alehouses consulted.  After a lot of debates, soul-searching, meetings and voting, we came up with a pub 200 yards away: The Stanley Arms — affectionately known as the 'Blue House'.  I honestly thought it was a mortuary, it was always so dead before we came to roost; now we just get dead drunk, win or lose.

Charlie Hengler and his wife Doreen made us welcome when we cut the umbilical cord from the Winslow, and we always thank Doreen for the extra salt and spices on our free food after the games.  To boost the ale intake.

Don't get me wrong, there were many happy times at the Winslow.  Who could forget the parties we had after the Wimbledon and Coventry games and the 1995 Cup Final win?  Each time, we beat the odds stacked heavily against us and partied accordingly.  The Player of the Season award nights, so infamous now, were great occasions: give Julie and Gary Pepper, the licensee's at the time, their due — they paid for the spread and the Disco.

Going back to the Player of the Season awards, it is both bizarre and worrying that every player chosen — from Barry Horne, Gary Speed, Don Hutchinson, and Graham Stuart to more recently 'Judas Barmby' — each recipient has left the following season!  Even Duncan Ferguson, who'd have thought he would leave at the time?  It's come to the point that a lot of members and non-members were calling for us to scrap this albatross, black-spot award.  So we did .

When Barmby went to the dark side, we never gave him the trophy; we toyed at the idea of publicly throwing it in the Mersey but then thought we would rise above the typical unloyal mercenary footballer.

There are still about 15 of the original members going on all the coaches; membership fluctuates from about 75 to 125.  Of the many hundreds of Evertonians who have passed through the Blue House experience, some feel better and others worse for it.  Many come back like long-lost relatives, I always say we are an extended family...

I think the hardcore away following of Everton know this coach well.

We take at least one coach to every away game involving the Blues including pre-season games and mid-season friendlies.  Such as Yeovil away on a Friday night, where Barry Murray was doing his best to look like a Panda.  He had two black eyes from falling over off the table in the supporters lounge, in front of a astounded Everton team including Gary Speed (his last Everton appearance, by the way).  We were the only coach to go to the likes of Kilmarnock, Falkirk, Dunfermiline, Queens Park, Derby County and Hibernian for midweek friendlies.

Barry Murray, our secretary, has a somewhat brazen motto on his calling card: 'We go when others don't' — but it is true though.

We could fill more coaches but it's bad enough getting the money off the lads and ladies for just one or two.  It is sad but true that a lot of Evertonians live from week to week and spending money is less than our more affluent Premier league clubs fans.

But for FA Cup away games, such is the demand for our services that more coaches are laid on — with the help, I might add, of our trusty stewards such as Paddy Ando and Ray 'Sparks'.  I have to mention a couple of unsung committee members, Tony 'Blaky' Batty and James 'Baby faced' Lyon (James is the spit of the big baby who plays the drums in Reeves and Mortimer and now in Little Britain).

These two lads never get the credit their hard work deserves.  They collect monies for the coaches and tickets the weekend before the travel, get the balance off the sharks on matchday, and clean up the mess the less responsible members make on the coach.  Remarkable since they pay like everyone else and their services are given freely.

Over the years, the Indy Blues have become more than just a travel club, they have arguably become the bastion of the Evertonians political views.  Somewhere along the line, this supporters club was chosen by the media as a barometer of feelings on Everton issues.  Everton's Head of Communications has stopped that now to a degree locally — People's Club?  Ha!  But it's a long haul and we will be at Everton when rogue employees have gone — but how will they be remembered?

Every time anything happens regarding Everton we're at the fore.  I think respect may be too strong but this hardcore have done more than most in the name of Everton.

We led a campaign against our previous custodian, Peter Johnson, who ended up having a vacation ownership with our club.  After nearly twelve months of not speaking to the real owners — the fans — we found his Achilles Heel and threatened to picket his Park Food hamper business at Christmas.  PJ soon had dialogue with us and left in a couple of weeks, taking True Blue's offer on the table .

Over the years, the Indies have raised many thousands of pounds for charities.  A few years ago, it was found out that one of our members, Tommy O 'Grady, had twins who were born prematurely.  This led to complications and the charity Scope were helping these special children.  So Scope were adopted for that year's charity and such events as beard-shaving and head-shaving for sponsorship were embarked upon.  Marty from that time still sports a near shaven head and he had the thickest head of hair you've ever seen!

Another good cause close to my heart was the Deaf Children of Merseyside charity.  Paddy Ando goes on bike rides every summer all around the country for charity.

One holiday he went from Merseyside to Land's End for Scope so for the Deaf Children he decided to go the opposite way.  We were having a pre-season game at Aberdeen this particular year so we arranged Paddy to set off from Bellefield to start his task.  Gary Speed and Barbie pushed him off — ironically, they have now both since pushed off!  Paddy took about ten days to meet us at Pitordrie.  We even collected money outside the ground in buckets.  A few memorable things occurred at this particular away pre-season game.  One was the number of fans there to support the Blues — over 2,500.  Apparently, nearly all kids made the trip... or at least that was what the turnstiles said!

The locals had never seen away support like it except for the 'Old Firm'.  The other notable point from this journey was the stopping off on the way home at Stirling, the home of one Duncan Ferguson.  What happened here was chronicled by the Echo, such was the occasion.  When this fifty odd strong party walked into the local pub in Stirling the bartender quite innocently asked Were we here to see were Duncan 's parents live?  Well, when the entourage was given the location of this shrine, all the glasses dropped onto the bar and the party walked out on their pilgrimage.

It was like going to Graceland's to see Elvis's birthplace.  I was left with Barry Murray and thankfully Paddy Ando otherwise I would have had to get all the rounds in.  After about half an hour, Barry said "Ian, you better go and see what they're up to".  So off I went up the road to Duncan's home.  As I got closer to the house, I could see the large party of fans shaking hands with his Mum and Dad and taking memento's from the garden (Mad Alex still has a stone from Duncan's house in his wallet, it's his pride and joy). 

I introduced myself to Mr & Mrs Ferguson and asked them to have a quick look round to see if anything was missing, videos medals etc (only joking!).  They asked me in for a private showing of all of Duncan's keepsakes: his shirts for Dundee, Rangers and of course Everton; his medals from Rangers and Everton's FA cup win.  The Ferguson's were as pleased as the fans were of each other's company — you could see the pride in their faces as they spoke of the big fella.  At the time, Duncan was branded Duncan Disorderly and was the target of the gutter press: high-profile young footballer ,enjoying life...  But what I told these proud parents were the things you don't get to hear about, like the numerous visits to Alder Hey and giving money to good causes that their son did on the quiet.

Before I leave the Aberdeen trip, I must tell you of the time Paddy was trying to put his bike under the coach locker and the driver said "Oh no you don't — you lot have robbed enough towels and the like already, you're not taking that bike!"  I had to show Paddy's picture from the Echo before he would believed me it was his bike.

Other charities helped by the Indy's include Bowel Cancer Awareness, Blind Children of Merseyside, Hillsborough, Cerebral Palsy, Blueblood and more recently helping Bernard Murphy's family after his tragic death. We must have raised well over £50,000 for various deserving causes.  So were not all bad .

There have been many, many laughs on these trips, they are days out — not just about watching Everton.  In the past it's the 90 minutes in between that mess them up — now, thankfully, Sir David Moyes is making away games a near full-time party experience.

But it's always great when we win away from home.  The highs?  Well, the semi- final at Leeds; beating Man Utd and the world press at Wembley; staying up at Ipswich; the away win at Newcastle (3-1 care of super Kev and Gemmill); Leicester (the first away win in nearly twelve months); Arsenal and Sheffield Wed ( the laughing Russian inspired at both) and West Ham 4-0 away.  The lows?  I don' t care to mention....

A few years ago, on a bank holiday, we were at Wimbledon.  We had a great time on the way down in this long journey — so much so that, when we stopped, I had to have a good look round.  The surrounds were unfamiliar but familiar in a strange way.  The new coach driver had only stopped outside Wimbledon tennis arena by the old Plough Lane stadium!  But Wimbledon hadn't played there for years and Palace's ground (where they then played) was a good half-hour away... DOH!

Favourite away grounds are: West Ham, Chelsea, and Arsenal.  For years, we went to St Joseph's near the Bowlyn Inn at East Ham.  The other season, before West Ham went down, new owners had taken over the working men's club and would not allow away fans in unless signed in by a member.  Seeing some friendly faces, we told them of our plight and fifty or so West Ham supporters signed each and every one of us in!  That gives you faith in fellow fans.

When Home Farm Dublin were sponsored by Everton (we got big Dunney off them) we use to take a coach via Holyhead to watch them if Everton weren't playing.  The same at Bohemians and Drogheda when Everton played them and more recently Bray Wanderers last season.

Worst away friendly was Tranmere — what was going on there every pre-season under Johnson and early True Blue???

Hopefully, our preseason trips will take in the likes of Singapore and the USA again — not Devon and the North West.  We booked 70 to go to Hong Kong the summer before last but bloody SARS stopped that trip of a lifetime to go watch the Blues.

I hope Big Keith sorts out Singapore or the ilk with longer notice than over the years.  It's cloak and dagger figuring oiut our pre-season friendlies, the Club giving the fans little time to organise and forcing them to go with inflated late travel prices.  Other Premiership clubs have a lot longer notice on their prestigious games; we are the Peoples Club after al,l are we not?  We should be looked after a bit more in this department at least.

I've got to mention the time when the derby game was rained off at Anfield and we stayed on the ale all day.  Mark Crosby fell out of the Blue House and took the short cut home through the cemetery in Anfield.  Mark (who is a very intelligent lad by the way and a teacher) fell into a newly dug grave but, because of all the rain and the slippery sides, he couldn't climb out!   You can imagine a passing courting couple's horror then of seeing him dragging himself out of his muddy grave and moaning for help...  Priceless! 

Mark looks like a Skeleton to boot — or Blackburn's ex-winger Gillespie!  His mum and Dad, Charlie and Lily, are the salt of the earth.  Charlie is our respectable Chairman and Lily takes time out to make such things as our famous Blue Father Christmas.  You should see the look on the kids' faces every year when they see a Blue Santa!  We all know who is Santa dressed up but we're not telling — he even walked around the Coventry game with Mother Noblett on Boxing Day.  We filled his sack with sweets and small toys — most got thrown back at him!

There are many characters in the Indy Blues. There's Gary the Rat; Gary once asked me to mention his name in the Echo...  I told of a story when Gary, who had recently took up golf, saw P J in the golf shop and re-marked to him "haven't you got enough clubs already?"

Gary can always be found at the back of the coach with John Leary (his Dad is mad) and that womaniser Jay Windrow.  We also had a George Michael lookalike, John Walker — he can always be found in the toilets, er, I mean back of the coach.  Then there is Gary the Baker — named because he use to work in Sayer's — and his Girlfriend Nikki; they met on our coach like a lot of couples who have since married.  Couples such as Hutch and Julie, Gemma and John, Tony Redfern and Linda, and Chris the Jeweller and Debbie also met on the love-coach.  But the coach and Everton have also been responsible for many divorces... You see — Everton is for life!

Then there's Tony the Flag — named due to his massive collage of Flags sown together.  His mob includes Julian from Warrington, who we call Tyrone from Coronation Street; Paul Melly, who was caught talking too and demanding a drink off the Tetley's Bitter man cardboard cutout whilst we were in Torquay pre- season; Adrian Thomas (went a whole ten years without missing a single game anywhere!); and Mark.  Then there's Guy who works in a hospital and looks like he needs treatment there!  Mick Gallagher, a regular when he's not on the rigs; Disco Dave Dawson, a private detective;  Mick Jones, a roofer from Kirby and an ever-present Blue through thick and thin — Mick's had more batterings off his wife, Janice Battersby, for following Everton in Europe than anyone I know

Tony Iceland, who we haven't see lately (we think he's got one of those Philippine mail-order wives and won't show her off) — we met him in Iceland, you would never have guessed!  Then there's big Graham an ex-Ford worker, now Tarmac: one on the taxis by day and a singer /songwriter by night (Fuck off Red Men — a classic).

Roy Gregory and Harry Wildman — two of the best Evertonians I know — they literally live for the club; top men and I have the greatest respect for them.  Roy's first away game was the 10-4 defeat at Spurs in 1958.  He's only missed two away games since then and one of them was our fault when we left him in Thirsk by mistake on the way up to Sunderland.  Harry, lovingly known as H by hundreds of Evertonians, has won the Echo Supporter of the Year award — and rightly so.

Other past members include Jimmy the Coat (he keeps leaving his coats all over the place); Dave Charles (relative of that dummy Lord Charles); Eddy Carter and his family (who are always late); Brian and Tracey (another Everton love-match) and young Jenny who's grown into a lady since they first came on our trips.  Mark Wilson and his brother Andy — little and large; Phil Pellow, our Jimmy the Cricket conscience and lawyer for the stickier times.  Bembo, Feeley, Davo, John the decorator, Paul the jailor, Phil from Glasgow, Podge, Parker, Willow... and loads more.

Then there are lots of floaters who come with us periodically (or if there was no train available).  At the front of the coach sit two more people: one's named Barry and another named Ian... enough said about the odd couple! But I have to mention Barry's wife Karen — a real diamond — she is definitely too good for him!   The things that girl puts up with are just amazing!  Sure she'll have something to say one day about all the hardships she's been through because of that crank of a husband of hers... and no-one could argue that she's just moaning for moaning's sake!  "That girl's my world" should be shouted from the rooftops by Barry, á la Freddie Boswell.  Barry's party piece is dropping his trousers at away pubs to reveal the "Liverpool" tattoo — on his arse!

Lots of people have been touched by this group of fans — mostly for good deeds.  Obituaries are always placed for anyone we know about who has passed away from the Blues.  We are always called on in times of trouble and looked upon as a voice by many... but not all.  We may not be everyone's cup of tea but we enjoy ourselves and have always tried to help the club we love.  It's been a roller-coaster of a ride watching Everton these last few years — but it's been better hanging on in there with the Indy Blues.

We used to go to fans meetings with the old CEO Michael Dunford and suggested many things to improve he club.  For instance, we have a large network of other teams' fans who we have dialogue with and watering holes near their grounds.  One such set of fans are from Sunderland.  Apart from going to their pub to meet Gazza and Jimmy Five Bellies, we asked how did they fill the Stadium of Light when they were in the Prem?  Junior season tickets for £99 was the reply!  We passed it on to Mr Dunford and, hey presto, he took it on board.  We suggested bringing the ball boys back, a shop in town, on-line ticketing, an away-ticket voucher system, and many other things, all at least four years ago.  More recently Everton decided to stop doing meal and ticket deals for the away derby game; that's not fair and caused trouble with more affluent reds in amongst us.

We fell out with certain members at the Club when not one player turned up at our Christmas kid's party after months of organising it as an annual event.  Only David Weir turned up at the J-Club party on the same afternoon.  A hundred kids were let down that day and worse still was the look on our partners faces after all the loyalty we show the team all season. Not one apology came — the players were not told, according to them.  Then there was the Leyton Orient lock out after warnings it would happen — they wouldn't listen.

Our relationship with the Club grew colder as our ticket allocation was taken off us for the final away game at Arsenal a few seasons ago.  We took 70 away tickets on average and, unbeknown to the committee there was a financial hiccup... so, without telling us, our CEO sent our seventy ticket's to ESCLA three days before the game!!!  It was a hard task to muster tickets for this game (especially being Arsenal and on that day getting the Premiership trophy awarded to them) but we secured 36 in the end provided by loads of supporters groups who heard of our plight — two even came from Bill Kenwright.  We drew lots and those that lost went to the Drayton pub nearby.  Petty... but sadly typical of the time.

Even presently, during our summer of discontent, we held a large meeting at the Blue House to try and explain our plight to frustrated concerned Evertonians.  When we asked the Club to come, they declined.  One comment was "Why go to a meeting full of drunken knobhead Evertonians?"  ... how bad is that? — from an employee of the People's Club — you couldn't make it up.

Our new CEO seems a good guy, thankfully, and hopefully he will be warmer to fans concerns and constructive criticism.

There are too many stories to write on here: funny, sad and bad.  Above is just a small sample.  It's a long haul following the Blues...

We are a big extended family, we may fall out once in a while with each other but we always make up.  A strong bond occurs within this group; it will be a sad day when it all drifts away.  For this is the best way in my humble opinion to watch the Blues.  It's cost the Americans billions to put a man on the moon but, for less than the local coach firms charge, you can get there with the Independent Blues.

Ian Macdonald
Independent Blues