Soul Crew

The story of one young mans life growing up as part of one of Britains most notorious football hooligan groups, Cardiff City's Soul Crew.

The Cardiff Soul Crew are recognised by police intelligence officers as the most violent football hooligan gang currently active in Britain. Their 400-plus members have been involved in mass disorder at matches for more than twenty-five years. Yet they have largely escaped the notoriety of their English counterparts - until now. Two men closely involved with the gang tell its history from its origins through to the present day: their leaders, their fashions, how they organise and who they fight. Soul Crew relates how an infamous clash with Manchester United's Red Army in the mid-Seventies was the impetus for the formation of the mob. A core group of hardcases from the tough Docks area of Cardiff was joined by alienated, unemployed youths from the valleys and former pit villages of South Wales. They took their name from their love of soul music and adopted the casual fashion of designer-label clothes. In time they would fight fierce battles with rivals like the Frontline Crew, the Bushwhackers, the Gooners and the Central Element. Soul Crew also reveals for the first time the network of alliances and communications between the leading hooligans around the country: the so-called "Category C" thugs who organise much of the violence. And it tells of their cat-and-mouse relationship with the police spotters who now follow them everywhere Soul Crew is the best evocation yet of life running with a soccer mob.

A frank & honest account of British football hooliganism charting a quarter of a century of running with the Cardiff City Soul Crew as well as the more violent Inter Valley Firm describing every major battle in vivid detail. Unlike most books of this genre the author is only to happy to put his hands up when he comes unstuck.

For forty years, the scourge of hooliganism has blighted Britain's national game. Organised gangs from almost every town and city in the nation have used football as the arena for violent clashes in an unofficial contest for supremacy. They have rioted, wrecked, maimed and even killed. Yet they have remained largely anonymous, a reviled yet intriguing sub-sect of society. · Who are the hooligan gangs of Great Britain? · Where do they come from and how do they organise? · Who are the principal players - past and present? These questions and many more are answered in Hooligans, the first volume of a unique and comprehensive two-part reference guide to the most ingrained and active soccer yob network in the world. Packed with photos and informative profiles of the gangs both large and small, Hooligans also documents the myths, the nicknames, the victims, the localities, the battles and the police operations. Combining hard fact with occasional touches of black humour, and intense research with first-person recollections, Hooligans covers the whole spectrum of the gangs from Aberdeen to Luton ... the Barnsley Five-O and their vicious slashing at the hands of Middlesbrough ... Paul Dodd, England's self-styled "Number One" hooligan ... the combined force of the Dundee Utility ... the riots of the Leeds Service Crew ... Benny's Mob, the Main Firm, the Lunatic Fringe, the Bastard Squad - they're all here, together with numerous photos of mobs, fights and riots. "Packed to the brim with scrupulous research, hard-hitting interviews and black humour, this is the final word on terrace yobbery." FRONT magazine "The real history of soccer violence." LOADED "A comprehensive look at some of Britain's most notorious hooligan factions." THE LADS MAG

In Football and Accelerated Culture, Steve Redhead offers a new and challenging theorisation of global football culture, exploring the relationship between sport and culture in a rapidly shifting world. Incorporating cutting-edge concepts, from accelerated culture and claustropolitanism to non-postmodernity, he reflects on the demise of working class football cultures and the rapid media globalisation of ‘the people’s game’. Drawing on international empirical research and a unique and ground-breaking study of football hooligan memoirs, the book delves into a wide array of disciplines, examining fascinating topics such as the relationship between music and football; hooligans and ultras; the rise of social media and anti-modern football movements; and ultra-realist criminology. Football and Accelerated Culture offers a new way of thinking about sporting cultures that expands the boundaries of physical cultural studies. As such, it is important reading for anybody with an interest in the culture of sport and leisure, social theory, communication studies, criminology or socio-legal studies.

This explosive book is the eagerly awaited paperback of the bestseller. It is the follow up to "Terrace Legends", the groundbreaking blockbuster that built bridges between Cass Pennant and Martin King, who came together in a no holds barred book about experiences on the terraces. The result was a hard-hitting, unflinchingly honest testament to life with some of the biggest firms in football history. This sequel packs an even harder punch, bringing together the frontline faces, the top boys who ran the legendary firms from all over the country. From genuine hard men who have literally fought for their clubs to other eccentric football fans who have gone to great lengths to support their side, the cross-section of well known faces is very broad, and all of them give honest answers to the sort of questions even a plain clothes football intelligence officer wouldn't dare to ask.

In 1985, forty hooligan followers of Stoke City FC experienced a riotous trip to Portsmouth - and the Naughty Forty was born. It became one of the most notorious soccer gangs in Britain.Mark Chester was a founder member of the N40. Already a hardened fighter, he had been expelled from school after an unsettled childhood and joined the Staffordshire Regiment, only to be discharged for misconduct. Stoke City's emerging 'casual' mob became his family. 'Right or wrong, I was ready to be a committed football hooligan,' he says.He recounts tales of raucous coach trips from the Glebe pub and the pivotal clashes with the likes of Everton, Manchester United and West Ham that defined the new firm. Formidable characters came to the forefront, men like the giant Mark Bentley, Philler the Beast and the legendary Miffer, while hair-raising clashes with the likes of Millwall, Spurs, Aston Villa and Manchester City saw the gang's reputation spread.The N40 code was simple: whatever the odds, they would always make a stand. Many times they fought when heavily outnumbered yet often came out on top. They developed a closeness and cohesion rare among the football gangs. Loyalty was their watchword.Soon they were joined by the Under-Fives, a younger element determined to win acceptance from the terrace legends they admired and who carved out their own niche as well as fighting side by side with the old-school heads.Police operations, bans from the ground and the introduction of ID schemes have prevented many from attending games, but the author, long 'retired' from the scene, argues that in the new millennium the gangs are back - and as ferocious as ever. NAUGHTY is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the illicit but seductive lure of terrace combat, the emotional ties of a gang and the addictive buzz of Saturday afternoons.

Focusing on a number of contemporary research themes and placing them within the context of palpable changes that have occurred within football in recent years, this timely collection brings together essays about football, crime and fan behaviour from leading experts in the fields of criminology, law, sociology, psychology and cultural studies.