Hillsborough: Twenty Year Remembrance

[liverbird]

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163885090406-0830.htm

"My message to our fans is to go out and buy it because it's for a very, very good cause. We must never forget the Liverpool fans who lost their lives at Hillsborough."

I challenge all posters here to download this single. Justice for the 96

[liverbird]

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163885090406-0830.htm



I challenge all posters here to download this single. Justice for the 96

Buy the whole EP. Two versions of the Fields. Elvis Costello doing Turning the Town Red. And Pete Wylie with Heart as Big as Liverpool. Best $3.96 you'll spend

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

Buy the whole EP. Two versions of the Fields. Elvis Costello doing Turning the Town Red. And Pete Wylie with Heart as Big as Liverpool. Best $3.96 you'll spend

It's on iTunes right?

[liverbird]

It's on iTunes right? Yes

[PaisleyPrint]

EP currently No.1 on iTunes, single at 24. HMV sold out - even on-line, as have the LFC shops.

Trying to get the single into the Top Ten for the anniversary week - fingers crossed.:)

[liverbird]

EP currently No.1 on iTunes, single at 24. HMV sold out - even on-line, as have the LFC shops.

Trying to get the single into the Top Ten for the anniversary week - fingers crossed.:)

Right indeed, Print lass!

Everyone needs to buy it. As I said their are two versions of the Fields -- the one with Kenny and Barnes and Phil T singing and a plaintive acoustic by James Walsh. On heavy rotation in the LB household and office:D

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

Great suggestion LB! I bought them right after I saw that you said they were on iTunes.

I would rep you, but as we both know, BigSoccer is turning into Communist Russia.

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

Grobbelaar - I Heard The Crowd At Hillsborough Cry "Please Help Us" (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2009/04/07/bruce-grobbelaar-i-heard-the-crowd-at-hillsborough-cry-please-help-us-100252-23330648/) - :(
THREE times the ball sailed over into the Leppings Lane end, and three times dying fans pleaded to Bruce Grobbelaar for help.

The Liverpool goalkeeper will never forget those hopelessly crushed faces that stared out at him against the terraced cages.

On one occasion while fetching the ball, a desperate fan even managed to cry at the South African: “Please Bruce, try and help us.”

Getting increasingly frantic, the goalkeeper tried to flag up his growing concerns to a nearby policewoman.

But he got the non-committal reply: “There’s nothing I can do.”

Finally, after the goalkeeper had retrieved the ball for a third time, he managed to persuade referee Ray Lewis to stop the game.

Bruce, now 52, remembers being startled how full the central pens were becoming as he took part in the warm-up.

He recalls: “The sides weren’t that busy and before the match they were thinking of delaying it by 20 minutes because not everyone was inside.

“In the early minutes of the game, I could still see people’s faces crushed against the fence. Three times they were screaming at me to try and get something done.

“I could see there was a problem.

“Anybody who was there at Hillsborough, the memory will stay with them forever. They went to watch their team to bring joy to them.”

After the match was stopped, the teams filed back into the dressing room where they were told there would be a delay of 30 minutes.

Bruce says: “We tried to keep warm, but fans started coming in screaming and crying, saying five or six people were dead.

“It was horrific. It’s hard to comprehend what had happened. This was not what we thought was going to happen.

“The journey back to Merseyside was very quiet and subdued. We were hearing more and more people had died.

“In Liverpool, Kenny and the coaches had a word with the counsellors who said, ‘Get the guys to speak to the bereaved families.’

“It was a stroke of genius what Kenny did and as well as helping them, it helped us.

“Hillsborough not only touched us, but it touched Tranmere Rovers fans and Evertonians. I went to see people in so many hospitals, I even travelled to one in Yorkshire.

“We all went to a few funerals and I attended the cathedral Mass. We realised that Liverpool the club would be there a lot longer than the players, management and its fans.”

After Hillsborough, Liverpool forgot about football for almost three weeks, cancelling fixtures as the city went into mourning.

Bruce even told John Barnes, the winger who in his own autobiography admitted ‘getting smashed on brandy on the coach ride home’, that he was considering quitting the game.

Liverpool played their first competitive game at the start of May against Everton at Goodison, which almost fittingly ended 0-0.

Soon, with the players’ thoughts away from the game, and the pressure of winning lifted, the Reds started playing their best football of the season.

Bruce says: “The games after the tragedy were difficult, but in a way playing seemed second nature and we produced some of our best stuff.

“It was almost as if we had to do it for the fans. We showed the world what Liverpool FC could do.

“I thought we should have left the FA Cup after Hillsborough and not carried on in the competition. But it was fitting that we played Everton in the final and that we won.

“If we had drawn I’m sure both teams would have shared the trophy in memory of those who died.”

Bruce remained at Anfield until 1994 and he believes the tragedy created an even stronger bond between players and club.

Now, the goalkeeper spends his time in the UK and South Africa where he runs coaching sessions with children.

In August he will move to Canada where his wife has got a job.

But Liverpool always has a special place in his heart.

“Now, there’s not much loyalty in football. Apart from Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, there’s not many local lads stay at clubs, it’s all about chasing the money,” he says.

“I’m still a big Liverpool fan and I always look for their results first. If I’m in South Africa, I make sure I wear a Reds jersey of some sort.”

This is such a sad story. Chokes me up a little bit.

[UncleMike]

I'm still relatively new to watching English soccer. The first footage I saw of Hillsborough was a couple of minutes on U.S. network news the day it happened, and then I never saw any of it again until I finally ordered Fever Pitch on Amazon.com, and the film showed the stars watching the news report, by which time 74 had been confirmed dead...

"The Liverpool manager, Kenny Dalglish, and his opposite number, Brian Clough, were clearly appalled by the situation... " the announcer said. Now that I can identify them both by face, it's clear, even through the distortion that results from TV screens shown in movies, they were shaken. An article I saw recently suggests that Dalglish never really recovered from the shock, and that from that day forward his days as manager were numbered. I believe it.

The film, of course, concludes with the epic season-ending match at Anfield, and, not yet knowing his name, I saw a clip of Grobbelaar, with that neon green jersey and that oh-so-'80s mustache, and I thought he looked like a professional wrestler. That, and that he was standing in against my favorite team, made me develop an instant dislike. I wish I'd known before I saw the film how he'd tried to be a hero at Leppings Lane. That raises him well above whatever victories his talents brought.

And that leads to the really sickening part: So many people who wanted to help weren't allowed to even try. It wasn't, "Don't. Let the professionals handle it. If you really want to help, the best thing you can do is stay out of their way." Having seen that within an hour's bus ride of home on 9/11, I know that this would have been understandable had this been what happened. But what happened was more like, "Problem? What problem? You're the problem!"

I wonder if The Sun printed that.

[liverbird]

I'm still relatively new to watching English soccer. The first footage I saw of Hillsborough was a couple of minutes on U.S. network news the day it happened, and then I never saw any of it again until I finally ordered Fever Pitch on Amazon.com, and the film showed the stars watching the news report, by which time 74 had been confirmed dead...

"The Liverpool manager, Kenny Dalglish, and his opposite number, Brian Clough, were clearly appalled by the situation... " the announcer said. Now that I can identify them both by face, it's clear, even through the distortion that results from TV screens shown in movies, they were shaken. An article I saw recently suggests that Dalglish never really recovered from the shock, and that from that day forward his days as manager were numbered. I believe it.

The film, of course, concludes with the epic season-ending match at Anfield, and, not yet knowing his name, I saw a clip of Grobbelaar, with that neon green jersey and that oh-so-'80s mustache, and I thought he looked like a professional wrestler. That, and that he was standing in against my favorite team, made me develop an instant dislike. I wish I'd known before I saw the film how he'd tried to be a hero at Leppings Lane. That raises him well above whatever victories his talents brought.

And that leads to the really sickening part: So many people who wanted to help weren't allowed to even try. It wasn't, "Don't. Let the professionals handle it. If you really want to help, the best thing you can do is stay out of their way." Having seen that within an hour's bus ride of home on 9/11, I know that this would have been understandable had this been what happened. But what happened was more like, "Problem? What problem? You're the problem!"

I wonder if The Sun printed that. Right on Mike

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

I Was A Wife And A Mum Before Hillsborough - Now I'm Neither (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2009/04/08/i-was-a-wife-and-a-mum-before-hillsborough-now-i-m-neither-100252-23338102/)
JENNI Hicks is a strong woman. Having lost both her daughters at Hillsborough she has had to be.

Indeed during our two hour interview her quiet reserve cracks only once.

Yet her tears, spilled thousands of times over the years, are a testimony to how the disaster still has the power to shock and devastate two decades after the events of that sunny day in April 1989.

“It must have been about 11pm that night,” remembers Jenni sitting in the immaculate kitchen of her home in Gateacre.

“My then husband Trevor and I were on our knees, utterly devastated. We’d lost our daughters, we hadn’t had so much as a cup of tea for hours but we were told we had to make a statement to police.

“This officer was going on about whether we’d had anything to drink, whether we’d had alcohol and I didn’t want to know.

“Instead I pulled out a brown envelope I’d been given at the hospital together with Victoria’s personal effects. I tipped it up and inside was her ring and her hair clips.”

Jenni’s voice catches at the memory.

“I’m sorry,” she says fighting back her emotions. “I’ve only just remembered that.”

Twenty years on and Jenni is facing another Hillsborough anniversary, another year without her adored daughters Victoria, then 15 and 19-year-old Sarah.

Does it feel like two decades?

“Well, it feels like a long time since I’ve seen my daughters; in the early days five minutes felt like 100 years. At the same time it also seems incredibly short. It’s been a very long journey and you have to find new ways of living to cope.”

A petite woman with looks which belie her years she admits with heartbreaking candour how much she still misses being a mum.

“But I miss being a grandmother too. All my peers’ children are having children and tell me how wonderful it is but when you lose your kids that cycle of life stops.

“I suppose this is the second part of the grieving; the loss of things that might have been.

“But although Hillsborough is a big part of my life and it robbed me of my future it is not who I am.”

Her memories of the day which changed her life forever begin with her family, then living in Middlesex, piling into the car to make the journey to Sheffield for the game.

“We were season ticket holders so going to games was what we did as a family.

“We were all excited about the match but we were also talking about the future. Sarah was due back at university, Vicki was considering a summer job; it was a lively journey.”

The girls and Trevor went into the Leppings Lane end of the ground, Jenni to the seated terraces where she could get a better view but where, by 2.45pm, she could see the catastrophe unfolding before her.

“To this day I have no idea how nobody could see something was very, very wrong; it beggars belief.”

Confused and frightened she left the ground and went to the family’s usual rendezvous point but neither Trevor nor the girls showed up.

“I heard fans saying ‘people have died’ but I didn’t want to hear that word.”

She returned to the car hoping to find them there. Finally, after hours of chaos and with little or no official information, she was reunited with Trevor at the hospital where Victoria had been taken and the news was broken to her that her youngest daughter had died.

“I asked to see her but was refused; I was told she was the property of the coroner now.”

Later the couple were asked to scour scores of Polaroid snaps of the dead to try to identify their other daughter.

“I said: ‘are all these people dead?’ I couldn’t take it in. It was so disrespectful looking at other people’s relatives.

“I searched but Sarah wasn’t there. Then the police officer said ‘look again love’ and that’s when I saw her.

“Later they brought them both in to us and we gave them each a hug.

“We went up to Sheffield as a family but we came home a couple. I had to leave my daughters behind in bodybags.”

For many months afterwards she was ‘on a mission’ to discover where her daughters had gone.

“People would say: ‘they are together’ or ‘they’re at peace’ and I’d think: ‘how do you know?’ I could never see them as little angels sitting on a cloud plucking at harps. They’d be bored rigid.”

Jenni even consulted the late Archbishop Worlock.

“I was sure he’d know so I asked him where they were and if they were OK.

“He replied: ‘Anyone who gives you a straight answer to that doesn’t know what they’re talking about.’

“I realise now it was a terribly honest answer but I was taken aback at the time.”

And while she and the other families struggled with their grief they also had to fight for the truth to be heard about the tragedy.

“I thought it was an open and shut case; authorities should have closed the tunnel at the ground to stop fans coming into the already overcrowded pens.

“But something so simple was made so complicated.”

Her marriage did not survive the trauma of their joint loss or the personal grief which engulfed the couple and soon after the split she moved to Liverpool to be near the friends she had made through the Hillsborough Family Support Group and her two girls, at rest in Allerton cemetery.

Is she bitter?

“No bitterness is like a cancer, it can eat you away, so I’m fortunate like that.”

But she does admit to sometimes being stricken by ‘if onlys’.

“I call them my gremlins and I’ve battled them for 20 years. I was the football fan, I introduced Trevor and the girls to football and LFC. But what if I hadn’t been? Would my daughters still be alive?”

Now, as the 20th anniversary looms, Jenni says she has finally detected a shift in attitude towards the disaster.

“I’m still angry at what happened but not plate-throwing angry, more frustrated at how people can have walked away with impunity from it.

“There are fresh eyes on the story now though, different journalists, people who are reading about it for the first time and saying, ‘hang on, that can’t be right’.

“And that can only be to the good.”

She will spend the anniversary itself helping to organise and attending the memorial service at Anfield with Margaret Aspinall, vice chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group and then going on to receive the Freedom of the City.

“Then we’ll be going out for a nice meal to celebrate Victoria and Sarah’s lives, just like we always do.”

She pauses.

“You know for twenty years or so I was a wife and mum. Now I’m neither but you have to find a way to live a different life.

“And that’s what I’m trying to do.”

:(

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

Rafa - Please Buy The Hillsborough Single (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163885090406-0830.htm)
"I was lucky enough to be at the launch of the single and I think it is fantastic," said the Liverpool manager.

"My message to our fans is to go out and buy it because it's for a very, very good cause. We must never forget the Liverpool fans who lost their lives at Hillsborough."

Any money raised from the single will go to the Hillsborough Family Support Group but only HMV and iTunes purchases count towards chart placings.

[luciusmagister]

I finally bought it off itunes. I'm very pleased. I tried a couple of times but itunes wouldn't let me. Finally, I've got mine!

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

Hillsborough - A Fateful Day Of Change (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=635507&sec=england&root=england&cc=5901)
There has been no more emotive event in British football history than the Hillsborough Disaster of April 15 1989. It was the spring afternoon when a simple game of football became a massed human tragedy. Having failed to learn the lessons of Burnden Park in 1946, Ibrox in 1971, the Bradford Fire of 1985 and, in the same year, the Heysel riot, it was the watershed moment that football had to change or face extinction.

Two decades on, the recriminations continue, with the police authorities and organising bodies responsible still not brought to the justice that the families of those who died in Sheffield believe they should face. During two reports that sought to make sense of the disaster, Lord Justice Taylor laid blame firmly at the door of the South Yorkshire Police whose actions, or lack of them, had caused a dangerous situation to become one of mass fatality. In ordering the closure of standing terraces to be replaced by banks of seating, he changed the atmosphere and demographic of British football stadia forever.

All-seater stadia have a direct lineage to that sunny spring day. The modernising of football may have had regrettable consequences with high pricing, the poverty gap and the closed shop that many clubs have become being among the main complaints but at least the match-going fan is no longer at the risk yielded by nearly a century of neglect.

The disaster itself was a collision of factors that could have occurred many times before. Previous stark warnings had not served to solve the problems. The 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was chickens coming home to roost in the most harrowing style possible. By the late 1980s the football stadiums of England were dilapidated, a relic from the early 20th century when most of them had been constructed. Hillsborough itself had been rebuilt in the 1960s and had been one of the host grounds for the 1966 World Cup finals. The Leppings Lane end where the disaster took place had last been properly renovated in 1965. By the standards of that day, it was regarded as one the best grounds in the land.

The era between the golden footballing age of the 1960s and the late 1980s saw stadia neglected to the state of decay. As attendances steadily fell so too did available revenue to spend on rebuilding grounds. Sheffield Wednesday, who spent much of the 1970s at the lowest ebb in their history, were by no means a wealthy club. But then again, by today's standards, few clubs were.

To attend a match in that time was not the sanitised theme park that many Premier League clubs now aspire to. Fans who chose the terraces sometimes had to be prepared to stand for hours before games so as to make sure they got in. Access to toilet facilities were limited on big-match days, giving rise to many a story about fans feeling the warm, wet and deeply unpleasant sensation of being urinated on. When goals were scored or in other moments of high excitement, fans found themselves catapulted forward and back, up and down, steep and often decaying terraces. You would rarely end a match where you started to watch it. Take a look at videos of games from the era and view the swelling sea of humanity as a goal goes in. You don't get that at the Emirates for your £65. It looked dangerous. It felt dangerous. It eventually proved deadly.

Another facet of the era was the fencing in of supporters. Hooliganism's growth in the early 1970s had led clubs to construct high and forbidding fences, caging fans in to prevent them from storming the pitch. As a result, fans were often given a poor view of the games, having to watch the action through tiny grids of metal. Should an emergency occur, they were penned in to face their fate as panic set in.

In 1974, Manchester United, at the height of their "Red Army" era, had been the first to put up perimeter fencing. The seventies drew on and hooliganism grew worse, hitting its apex in 1985 when 39 people died at Heysel when a wall collapsed after Juventus fans fled from a charge by Liverpool fans at the 1985 European Cup Final. Such incidents meant that the small safety gates placed in the fences in case of emergency were almost always locked. At Hillsborough in 1989, the gates were only opened by policemen when it became clear that things were turning deadly. To do so, they had to go against orders.

The "English disease", and the attitude of the Thatcher government - "the enemy within" - and establishment towards the game had football on something approaching its last legs. There was no TV injection into clubs of the type currently enjoyed. A latter-day deal for Football League rights far outstrips the amount ITV then paid for their one live match a week from the top division. In 1989, both FA Cup semis were played at the same time, 3pm on a Saturday. Neither were televised as live broadcasts. To the younger generation of football supporters, this must resemble some form of footballing dark ages.

Hillsborough Stadium itself had previous. The FA Cup semi-final of 1981 between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolves had seen 38 people injured when the late arrival of Spurs fans at the Leppings Lane End after bad traffic on the M1 had led to a terrifying crush. This incident had seen the ground ignored for semi-finals for another six years, only being allowed to re-stage such games by the FA after the terrace was restructured into five pens stretching behind the goal.

Even after similar crushing was reported at the 1987 semi-final between Leeds United and Coventry City, the FA chose to place Liverpool and Forest at Hillsborough for 1988's FA Cup semi, a carbon copy of the game that would end in tragedy.

The 1988 game had seen fans feeling similarly uncomfortable with many a complaint made about how Liverpool, with a far higher average attendance, were granted the smaller end while Forest fans were given Hillsborough's own Kop, itself redolent of the stand of the same name at Anfield. The flow of car traffic from the roads the fans of each club would be travelling from was the given explanation for that.

The FA chose to hold the 1989 match in the same place, citing its precursor as a success. That the ground did not possess a valid safety certificate was only later discovered.

A personal memory of the stadium of the time comes from two months before. Manchester United travelled to play Sheffield Wednesday on February 11 and took a huge (12,000+) away following to South Yorkshire.

As I sat in the main stand with my father, the first half was dominated by events on that Leppings Lane end. It was difficult to concentrate on the on-field action as it became clear there was something afoot in the away end. While we knew the "back way" over the Pennines to get to the ground, the majority of fans had been delayed on the motorway over. Late arrivals were obviously causing a bottleneck. Some form of panic was taking hold, with the central terraces over-filled. Eventually, a significant number of fans were filtered by police and stewards into an empty and uncovered stand in the left-hand corner.

On that occasion something approaching sensible stewarding prevented anyone getting seriously injured. Two months later, with the game much higher in profile, the policing of events lacked anything approaching that level of calm and lateral thinking. Despite the late arrival of many fans, no delay in kick-off - a common safety practice these days - was sanctioned. Sadly, this was far from the last mistake made by police on that fateful day.

The overly rigid segregation of fans on entry to the Hillsborough area and closing off of certain routes led to crushing in the tight back-streets around Leppings Lane. The sheer mass of numbers kept waiting by the plodding click of the turnstiles, of which there were far too few, led to police to make what Lord Justice Taylor would later describe as a "blunder of the first magnitude".

In choosing to open up Gate C at 2.52pm, opening up the central pens on the lower terraces that were already choc-full of fans already in some discomfort, the police, led by Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, set disaster into agonising motion.

An estimated 3,000 fans, unfiltered by the turnstiles and not guided by police or stewards into less packed pens, piled into an area reserved for 2,000 people. It was later found that no more than 1,600 should have been allowed into the pens for them to be anywhere near safe. Many of those who had gone in through the opened gate found themselves, as a result of a collapsed crash barrier, propelled to the front and eventually crushed against the fences. Before it was clear there was a disaster afoot, BBC TV commentator John Motson had also remarked on the lack of fans in the terraces to the flank of the fateful central pens.

By kick-off some fans were either dying or dead yet police were trained to think first of hooliganism, thus denying the other emergency services the extra time they may have been able to use to save lives. Another personal memory is that at the game I was at that day (Macclesfield Town v Dartford), the initial reports of people being dead at Hillsborough centred around hooliganism. Even then, the thought of the "50 dead" estimated that sunny afternoon seemed unreal and utterly tragic, a terrible waste of life.

Only one ambulance ever made it onto the playing field, but not until 3.36, by which time the game had been abandoned as fans spilled on to the pitch, with some of the dead already lying pitchside. In the words of Taylor, Duckenfield had "frozen" and failed to respond to the pressing emergency of the situation. Even now, the families of the lost are seeking explanation as to why their loved ones did not receive the treatment that may have saved them until it was far too late.

Such questions will continue to be raised in the next few days and for years to come. The aftermath of the disaster continues. No criminal charges were ever brought against the authorities involved and private prosecutions against Duckenfield and other officers also failed to bear the fruit of justice to the families of the 96 who died. Yet they fight on. The police had tried in vain to cover their tracks, first lying that Gate C had been forced open and then choosing to blame drunken fans for the chaos that they failed to control. Taylor's report found that of the dead only a small minority were over the alcohol limit for driving a car. In choosing to paint a similarly vulgar picture of the conduct of fans' behaviour as "The Truth" in the week after the disaster, The Sun newspaper knocked 200,000 readers off its daily circulation. It has never recovered those readers.

That and other scars continue to run deep when considering Hillsborough. Many fans bemoan the comparative lack of atmosphere in stadiums after terracing was torn down in the early 1990s (Liverpool themselves were one of the last clubs to do so, not ripping down their Kop until 1994). Debates on safe-standing always fall on the stony ground of what happened that day, despite such policies existing successfully in Germany. The families of the 96 continue to be active in the cause of seeking justice, with the likes of Steven Gerrard, who lost a cousin on that Sheffield afternoon, being fully supportive of the movement.

Twenty years on, the events of April 15 1989 are never far from the footballing public's consciousness. It was the day when neglect bore horrific consequences.

In the coming week the Hillsborough Disaster will be back in the limelight, and rightly so. The tragedy of so many lives lost in the trivial act of watching a football match can never be underplayed. In the cruellest way possible, the realisation of its causes and effects changed the game forever.

[liverbird]

Damn good article -- good find CCSC

[liverbird]

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163840090410-1759.htm

Liverpoolfc.tv: You were only young at the time, but what do you remember about the events of April 15, 1989?

Steven Gerrard: I was still a baby. I was only nine years old at the time so I only have small memories from back then. But I've learned more about the actual events as I've got older.

Your own family has a personal connection to the tragedy. Tell us about that...

Well, I was really shocked and deeply saddened when I watched the scenes live. I was completely and utterly shocked, whilst wondering if there was anyone we knew personally at the game. It was exactly the same for every Liverpool fan at the time because I'm sure everyone was wondering if they knew anyone who was at the game too. I remember going to bed that night, lying there praying, and keeping my fingers crossed that it didn't get any worse than what we had already heard. Unfortunately for myself and my family we got the dreaded knock the next morning to say that a member of our family was at the game and had been tragically killed.

Is it true that in terms of Jon-Paul's memory, he has always motivated you to become a Liverpool player?

Yes definitely. Obviously it was a difficult time to know that one of your cousins had been at the game and had been tragically crushed. Seeing the reaction of his Mum, Dad and family helped drive me on to become the player I have developed into today.

In terms of the importance of Hillsborough to Liverpool Football Club, could you clarify just how central this event is in our history?

It is central and very important to this club. The 96 will never ever be forgotten, and nor will the people that got hurt. But it is important these people get remembered individually and not just as the number 96. This club has fought for justice ever since and will continue to do so. We have stuck together since that day, like we always do here, and that shows what kind of football club we are, sticking by each other when times are tough. We are not just about what happens on the pitch but we are all one off it as well.

That commitment to the cause was epitomised with the Kop mosaic, 'The Truth' before the Arsenal match a couple of years ago, wasn't it?

Yes, of course. You can always rely on our fans to give proper support when times are hard and it's the same with Hillsborough. Time has gone by, but the scars will never ever be healed and the fans will never ever forget. So you can always rely on our supporters to be there for you when you need them.

When foreign players arrive at the club, is it important they learn about the tragedy?

I think it was such a big tragedy that the majority of the players are already aware of the event. They have probably seen the scenes on the news as it would have gone out worldwide on the television at the time. Straight away you learn the values of the club and what it's all about; not just the good times but the bad times as well. So the players are brought up to speed about what happened at Hillsborough and they pay their respects every year like all the staff of Liverpool Football Club do. We go to the memorial service every year and thousands of people still turn out to this day, so it goes to show that the Liverpool supporters will never forget about it and neither will the players.

In terms of the annual memorial service, it is obviously very difficult, but also a very important day for yourself too...

Yes of course, even when I stop playing for the first team I will continue to go to the service and show my respects every year. I do see Jon-Paul's family there as well so it's nice to go and share the memorial service with them, as well as all the other families that are there showing their support.

This year the families of the Hillsborough disaster have been given the freedom of the city. What can you say about the way they have conducted themselves throughout this period?

It's unbelievable really. They have shown great dignity. I think they should be proud of themselves. I know how horrific it has been for them so I think they have conducted themselves very well and should be proud.

Finally, as captain of the club, is there any sort of message you can give out to the families and survivors of Hillsborough 20 years on?

Just to continue to conduct themselves the way they have done so far. They have behaved impeccably and the club are very proud of them and the way they have handled this tragedy. The players will continue to be a support for them, I can guarantee that.

[CCSC_STRIKER20]

BBC Blog - Steve Wilson - Hillsborough : A Personal Memory (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/stevewilson/2009/04/hillsborough.html)
It was a run-of-the-mill conversation with a friend in a pub. The kind of conversation you might have any night of the week - the kind that might change your life.

I had just bought my ticket for the 1989 FA Cup semi-final, a ticket for the Leppings Lane end. I had been to Hillsborough enough times to know that the view from this sunken terrace was of railings and boots almost at eye-level.

My friend Tony, a Manchester United fan, sympathised over a pint and told me that he had found a way to the open segment of terracing over the corner flag. "Less atmosphere, but if you want to actually get a decent view of the game it might be worth checking out. Just get through the turnstile and head left."

At about two o'clock on 15 April, I made my way into Hillsborough and was confronted by the low-ceilinged tunnel that led to the central terracing behind the goal - already looking full.

I headed left.

This Saturday, Football Focus will be live at both Anfield and Hillsborough to mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster at Sheffield Wednesday's ground - a disaster which claimed 96 lives and which changed British football forever.

As part of the programme, I was asked to return to Hillsborough to retrace my steps that day. I had some misgivings about taking part. Firstly, I felt my story was insignificant compared to that of so many others - I'd been safe throughout and didn't know anyone who died. Secondly, although I had been back to Hillsborough as a commentator, I hadn't stood on the Leppings Lane in the 20 years that have passed. I expected it to be difficult. It was.

The turnstiles are still there, the tunnel is still there. Everything about the place resonates, everything so familiar. Just being there induced a feeling of nausea in the pit of my stomach.

For the purposes of the camera, I went through the turnstile and was confronted by that low ceilinged tunnel - empty. Again I headed left for the terracing that had been my vantage point on that awful afternoon.

For 96 people who paused at the tunnel and headed straight on, there would be no chance of safety. No chance to step away from the seemingly trivial decision they had just made. No way to escape from the cage behind the Hillsborough goal.

I was 21 in April 1989 - older than many of those who died. In the 20 years since, I have been blessed with a happy marriage, three children and a fulfilling career. What might the 96 have done in that time? What love affairs have never been, what friendships never forged, what children never conceived?

The game has changed, and some say not completely for the better. But if you are lucky enough to be able to take your children to a match and sit in safety; to be treated with respect by those who police our grounds and to get home again without being crushed or scared, give those 96 a thought.

Honour, for a moment, those whose deaths made it happen.

Seven Photos Needed For Hillsborough Montage (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N163976090410-1734.htm)
LFC TV needs just seven more photos to complete our montage of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster to mark the the 20th anniversary of the darkest day in the club's history.

On April 15, we aim to feature the faces of all those who died as a result of Hillsborough on both the homepage of the website and the TV channel.

On LFC TV, a photo montage - with one picture following another -will be shown with the name of each individual placed below the photo. The photo montage will be set to an appropriate musical soundtrack.

Thanks to the help of the families and friends, we've managed to acquire 89 photos which means we are missing just seven photos.

The photos we are looking for would feature the following seven supporters:

David William Birtle, 22

Raymond Thomas Chapman, 50

Alan Johnston, 29

Joseph Daniel McCarthy, 21

Inger Shah, 38

Peter Reuben Thompson, 30

Martin Keneth Wild, 29

If you can help us get in touch with any of the families or friends of the seven supporters named above, we would really appreciate it.

If you have a photo of any of the above, you can send it to Hillsborough, LFC TV, Media House, Unit 14, Matchworks II, Speke Road, Liverpool L19 2RF - obviously we will return all pictures sent in - or the photo could be emailed to Hillsborough@liverpoolfc.tv. Whether the picture is emailed in or posted, it is essential that the following information is included:

The name of the person in the photo
Your name
Your Relation to them (Family, Relative or friend)
Return Address to send photo back (doesn’t apply to email)
Contact Number

If you can help in any way, it will be much appreciated. If you can't help, but know someone who can, please pass on this message. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch via email Hillsborough@liverpoolfc.tv.

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Minute Silence Marks Hillsborough Anniversary (http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/9443498/Minute's-silence-marks-Hillsborough-anniversary)
Commemorations to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough stadium tragedy began Saturday with a minute's silence before Liverpool's match against Blackburn.

Before the kickoff at Anfield, Blackburn's former Liverpool player, Stephen Warnock, carried a wreath on to the pitch and laid it in front of the Kop.

The number 96 picked out in the floral tribute, marking the number of Liverpool fans crushed to death on April 15, 1989 in a fenced-in standing area of the Sheffield stadium. Liverpool was playing Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semifinals.

Current Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard lost his 10-year-old cousin Jon-Paul Gilhooley at Hillsborough.

"The memory of Hillsborough is very central and very important to this club and the 96 will never be forgotten, as well as the people that got hurt," Gerrard said. "It is important these people get remembered individually and not just as a number of 96. This club has fought for justice ever since and will continue to do so."

Relatives of the victims and fans' groups have argued that police caused the disaster by herding spectators who arrived late for the match into overcrowded pens in a fenced-off area behind one of the goals. Most victims were crushed to death.

A memorial service will be held on Wednesday's anniversary inside Anfield.

"We have stuck together since that day like we always do at this club and that shows what kind of football club we are, sticking by each other when times are tough," said Gerrard, who was nine at the time of the disaster. "Time has gone by, but the scars will never ever be healed and the fans will never ever forget."

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I posted these links a while back, but I will repost them again, and if it flips over to another page this week I will repost them there too.

Liverpool Echo's Hillsborough Section (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/hillsborough/)

LFC.tv's Hillsborough Section (http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/lfc_story/memorial/)

Both of these sections are filled with good video clips and articles. The Echo has a lot of good articles on Hillsborough. It's a great resource.

Also...

The Hillsborough Justice Campaign (http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough/home.shtm)

The Definitive History Of The Hillsborough Football Disaster (http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough/history/index.htm)

Finally, in case there are some people that don't think what that awful rag did to the people of Liverpool and don't think that the boycott of the rag that shall not be named is hurting it. Here are some other links...

Why Is The Sun Cutting It's Price Again? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2006/oct/29/whyisthesuncuttingitspri) - The effect of the boycott.

Ex-Shit Editor - I Was Right About Hillsborough (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=ex-sun-editor--i-was-right-on-hillsborough&method=full&objectid=18190784&siteid=50061-name_page.html) - Cold-hearted bastard, he should be hanged, drawn, and quartered! :mad:
"I was not sorry then and I'm not sorry now" for the paper's infamous coverage of the Hillsborough disaster.

"He said: 'All I did wrong there was tell the truth. There was a surge of Liverpool fans who had been drinking and that is what caused the disaster.

'The only thing different we did was put it under the headline 'The Truth'.

'I went on the World at One the next day and apologised. I only did that because Rupert Murdoch told me to. I wasn't sorry then and I'm not sorry now because we told the truth.' "

The source added: "He then compared people in the city to animal rights protesters and told an anecdote about a time when he visited the city and got in a taxi.

"He said the driver was talking about The Sun and said if he ever had Kelvin McKenzie in his taxi he would kill him.

"Then he said if the things he had said today got out he was sure the whole thing would blow up again."

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apparently some good videos today on the British coverage - Match of the Day, BBC. and Sky all had tributes.