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Book tribute to SAFC fans
Sunderland AFC's fabulous fans are the cornerstone of a new book about the club.
But it is not just the passion and pain of following The Lads which exiled supporter Jeff Scott has captured in Banter & Bustle.
The 46-year-old has featured essential but overlooked parts of any fans' match day experience – routines, rituals and the journey to the game.
Banter & Bustle covers the 2006/7 Championship season and includes a sequence of 201 unusual but revealing photographs, coupled with overheard comments by players, managers and supporters, to create a tapestry of a victorious campaign.
They include gems such as one fan yelling "Sort it out Quinny," just five minutes into the opening game of the season, and the "You put wine in your lager" taunt from Sunderland to Luton fans.
Jeff, whose first SAFC match was a 2-1 win over West Ham in 1967, said his book is an authentic view of supporters' experiences and provides an insight into the wider, communal pleasures of the game.
"Now that football has become so commercial, we are losing sight of what causes us to be fans and what it is to be a fan."
He said the book is a realistic representation of the game, rather than the polished image usually presented.
"Football reporting is a very standard thing," he said.
"But if you listen to the crowd you get a much more unvarnished view of the whole thing."
Reviewing Banter & Bustle, The Big Issue magazine said: "The players, the pitch and the ball itself are studiously ignored over the far more interesting culture of the fans themselves.
"Interspersed with overheard snatches of conversation, this book captures the romance of one of the great British institutions – match day."
Jeff is a Black Cats season ticket holder despite living in Brighton, which involves a 780-mile round trip to SAFC home games.
Banter & Bustle is published by Cork Street Press, named after the East End road where Jeff spent many of his childhood holidays with his grandparents Alexander and Isabella Mollison.
They were the first family to move into what was then George Street, although Alexander died when Wear tug The Stag sank eight miles off Sunderland in February 1950.
Banter & Bustle is dedicated to them and Jeff's other grandparents Walter and Nancy Scott, who lived in Palmstead Road, Pennywell.
Jeff thanked Louise Wanless at SAFC for support in getting permission to use photographs taken at the Stadium of Light.
A donation for every copy sold will go to the SAFC Foundation.
The book costs 9.99 and will be available from the supporters club, A Love Supreme and Waterstones, but in the meantime can be obtained from.corkstreetpress.co.uk.
Jeff will be signing copes at Waterstones, in The Bridges, from 10.30am to 1.30pm on April 12, the day of the Manchester City game.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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