Another update from the Liverpool FC website...
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N154557070102-1508.htm Some of you just may have heard, about the RTK
Then some of you may not have yet, so it's time to have our say
RTK, just 3 letters, but means a thousand things
From banners, flags and attitude, to all the songs we sing
It's all about the spirit, the spirit of the Kop
Reclaim our terrace culture, that put us at the top
Most knowledgeable fans throughout the world is how we once were known
But is that a reputation that we have now outgrown?
I'd like to think it wasn't, that we still show respect
Sing songs different to all the rest, that's how it should be kept
No Great Escape or Easy chants, that's not how we are seen
Leave all that stuff to the ones that follow the national team
Away fans stand and sing all game, ours sit there in a bore
Then as one the muppets rise, “You’re not singing anymore”
The irony is lost on them, new fans all seem the same
Mocking those that sing while they’ve sat silent through the game
If they sing anti-scouse songs, it’s rude to laugh along
Remember who you’re sitting with, it’s just another song
The same old tired insults, original ones are rare
Sing something sharp back at them, don’t just sit and stare
Our nation is called Liverpool, we belong in no other place
But the shrine we know as Anfield, and Liverpool is our race
Black or white, man or women, we all stand as one
To support our club the way we know, as fans we've always shone
We clap the other goalie, applaud the better side
We're not just bums on seats you know, not just here for the ride
We have a reputation, traditions we have earnt
But some fans turn a blind eye, it’s about time they learnt
What Liverpool fans all stand for, and why we're so concerned
We don't throw away the standing, that older Kopites earned
As our chairman once announced, the clubs exists in his hands
"Only to win trophies and be a source of pride for its fans"
The fans are the heartbeat, we all have our role
To maintain the spirit and keep Liverpool's soul
It's not just a game, or a day out with the wife
Supporting our club is part of our life
Respect the Reds that stood before, and passed the mantle on
It's up to us to make them proud, as Liverpool we're one
In '89 we lost our friends, it's time to sing out loud
Reclaim The Kop where they once stood and make our Anfield proud
And another update...
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N154563070103-1006.htmIn October 2006 an impassioned plea was posted on a Liverpool FC internet forum regarding our support and from it sprung the RTK. Here is our mission statement.
Reclaim The Kop banner
It was no coincidence this came the morning after the Bordeaux home game in the Champions League. At this match sections of the Anfield crowd taunted 3,000 partizan Frenchmen with chants of "who are ya?", "eas-eh" and "you're not singing anymore". Seasoned heads were
shook. It was embarrassing. These fans had welcomed travelling Reds for our away game, and here, at Anfield, we were ridiculing them. This is NOT the Liverpool Way.
This was the breaking point; an indication of the depths to which some
of our support has sunk. It was time to take a stand and speak out.
Liverpool Football Club, and it's supporters, have been firmly at the
forefront of football culture over the past 50 years. Anfield was the
home of the world's most famous football terrace. The Spion Kop is a
name known the world over.
It was a terrace that had tv documentaries made about it over 40 years ago. A terrace captured on vinyl to become as hit album. A terrace 'sampled' on 60's rock albums. A terrace known all over Europe - inspiring supporters to imitate them; AC Milan fans directly acknowledge the influence of The Kop and brought out an album celebrating the fact. It was a terrace that created chants and songs
that were copied across the land, and was famed for its biting sarcasm, wit and devotion.
The Kop has long been a mighty vocal force for Liverpool FC. Players in the 30s and 40s have spoken about the noise the supporters could make. Bill Shankly brought his Huddersfield team to Anfield in 50s and told his own directors to "wait and hear the noise this crowd makes." The potential for something amazing was always there.
This masse of humanity ultimately exploded into creativity in the early 1960s, and The Kop became more than just 28,000 souls packed onto a terrace, it became a living thing of its own. At the precise moment that 4 Liverpool boys became the most famous faces and voices on the planet, The Kop burst onto the national - and international - consciousness. The world quickly realised that this crowd was different; it had wit, it was creative, it had its own personality ... it had its own soul.
"Brian Glanville claimed that prior to the 1966 World Cup in England the English crowds at Wembley had been notorious for the cool, quiet indifference. But the World Cup had galvanized them, and they employed the hand-clapping chants which had come to Britain from Brazil via Chile in the 62 world cup, to be reworked on the Spion Kop terrace of the Liverpool ground.
"This mention of Liverpool introduces another major influence. During the 1960s when the chanting rituals first grew to epic proportions, the world of pop music was exploding in the cellars and clubs of Liverpool.
"The epoch of the Beatles has arrived and Merseyside awoke to find itself a centre of popular culture. The young fans of the Liverpool soccer terraces proudly took their new songs with them to the matches and gave mass renditions of them before the games, as a way of saying 'We are the focus of today's music'. ... The scene was set for the merging of the different influences: the Victorian hymn singing, the Italian chanting, the South American clapping and shouting, and finally Beatlemania. They all came together on the sloping terraces of Liverpool's Spion Kop, and there a new tribal ritual was born, one which was to spread like wildfire from club to club across the land."
(Desmond Morris - The Soccer Tribe)
These early days were ultimately the most creative, but even well into
the late 1970s The Kop was still a mighty original force; a source of
inspiration. It became the melting pot for the assimilation of popular
culture into football. Be it pop music, terrace chanting, fashions; we
were pioneers in the British game. We borrowed ideas from crowds abroad and adapted them into our own culture, only to find the continentals then borrowing them back. We led from the front. We never followed.
Kopite RTKTake a look now. The Kop is a sad shadow of it's former self. From such a unique position of grandeur it could be argued we are now merely a clone of any other English league team. Seating hasn't helped - but that's not the true cause. As recent magnificent European nights have shown us, The Kop can still be one of a handful of truly amazing football crowds in the world. However, there can be no denying that seating, and the subsequent break-up and dispersal of the hardcore who congregated between the 2 great roof stanchions, has helped to destroy the breeding ground of The Kop's distinct character.
Of course it wasn't just the Bordeaux match that made us realise this.
The majority of match goers have known this for a long time. And the
"Reclaim The Kop" slogan wasn't created just on the basis of this
original internet post. Some sort of campaign to rekindle the soul of
The Kop had been discussed in various circles for a long time. The
weekend following the Bordeaux game, after a public invitation was
posted on the internet and in other circles, a group of disenchanted
Reds met up in a city centre pub to discuss the current parlous state of affairs. Some of us knew each other, others didn't. Some were young, some slightly older; but all shared the same passion for The Kop, and of Anfield as a bastion of support. We had all come to the conclusion that something had to be done - the time for talking was over.
The 'RTK' slogan seemed to suggest itself immediately - Reclaim the
spirit of The Kop. Rekindle its energy and wit. Re-ignite its soul. Now a group of marketing experts might tell us differently, but we see it as the ideal clarion call for what are trying to achieve. At the time we had no manifesto, and 'RTK' was used as a teaser to get people talking and to make them aware that something was in the offing. We hope it is taken on board by people in the spirit in which it is offered.
In the past supporters really did 'Get their education from The Kop'. We stood and smugly sang as much to fans from Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and London. The Kop itself was a huge academy, wherein younger fans learnt songs and absorbed the culture; learning what was - and what wasn't - acceptable. On a terrace you had to arrive early to get the best 'spec'. And what better way to pass the hours to kick-off than learning the Kop's extensive repertoire of songs. New songs had to pass a rigorous and brutal audition. If your effort didn't pass muster it would be derided, you learned to bide your time and perfect your offering. Only when it was honed to perfection and you were confident in its quality would you dare offer it for consideration to your peers on The Kop.
But times have changed. Most fans arrive inside the ground now 20
minutes before kick-off. The old Kop academy is no more. New fans now get their education from the internet and from television. The creeping commercialisation of the game has seen a deliberate attempt to move it away from its roots, and market it as wacky family entertainment. But football isn't entertainment. It's not a night at the multiplex or a theme park. Football is at the very heart of who we are. It's not a commercial choice which team you support - at least it should never be with Liverpool. Glib tv shows like Sky's 'Soccer AM' portray fans as performing seals, dressed like Christmas trees and willing to be humiliated for a cheap laugh. You should never debase yourself by helping Sky to sell its sanitised version of the game to more and more subscribers. This is our game - not Rupert Murdochs. Football is better than that. Football has passion and football has soul. And unless we act soon that soul will be slowly eroded until we become mere spectators rather than supporters.
But The Kop is now fighting back.
With The Kop's traditional academy gone - our main priority must be the issue of 'education'. To try and counter the 'Soccer AM' effect, we are committed to providing an alternative source of influence. The 'Soccer AM' effect homogenises the game as it makes for a more manipulative market. Why try and deal with local issues, with specific differences when they can pretend that all football fans want the same things and will act the same way? The more they tell people "this is how it is", the more it seems to happen. Some would call it brainwashing. It's a marketing man's dream to have an audience thinking and behaving in an exactly similar and predictable manner:
* Away fans chant their team's name? You bellow "Who are Yer? Who are
Yer?".
* Opposition shot goes wide? Stand up with your arms outstretched.
* Your team scores? Chant "Eas-eh! Eas-eh!" and "You're not singing
anymore"
It's all so predictable; it's all so derivative; it's all so sad.
The Kop became special because it was different. We can make it special again.
The RTK aims are to promote The Kop's traditional values, its behaviour and it's songs. It aims to encourage fair play and respect towards the opposition; to promote The Kop's traditional songs and chants; to encourage wit and creativity; and it aims to rebuild the camaraderie and individuality of football's greatest terrace.
For more songs, wit, wisdom and advice on suitable headgear stay logged on to liverpoolfc.tv or visit reclaimthekop.co.uk and raotl.co.uk
The views of the RTK, including the Kop Charter, are just that and do not necessarily represent those of Liverpool Football Club.
