[h=1]Fundraising event in London set to raise money for the Hillsborough memorial[/h]An event taking place London is aiming to raise money to build a memorial to the Hillsborough disaster in Liverpool City Centre. The event features four bands, a raffle, auction and speakers including Liverpudlian author and Football Editor of the Times, Tony Evans and impressionist Darren Farley. HJC London Rock will take place on 15 September in The 500 capacity William Blake pub in London. The event is supported by the likes of Hollywood actor and former footballer Vinnie Jones and Kevin Sampson who wrote the film Awaydays – who have both donated items for the auction. Other supporters include Walton MP Steve Rotheram – who won the Politics Home MP Speech of the Year 2011 for his speech preceding the Hillsborough debate in the House of Commons – and Scot Williams, who starred in Jimmy McGovern’s dramatization of the disaster, as well as the film Backbeat. A large contingent of Liverpool fans in the capital and it is hoped that this event will give many an opportunity to come together and raise money for a worthwhile cause. The evening starts with a screening of the 5.00pm kick-off Sunderland vs Liverpool match, followed by food, bands, speakers (including the impressionist Darren Farley) and a raffle and an auction of memorabilia, finishing around midnight. Organiser, Kris Wyatt, said: “Many Liverpool fans in London who were lured by the team’s success on the pitch or perhaps are expats working down in London rarely get the opportunity to get together en-masse. This event is about bringing fans together to raise money for a great cause.” “I find it amazing that 23 years on from that tragic day, we still do not have a memorial to Hillsborough in Liverpool city centre. Hopefully, through the kindness of those who have donated their time or items to auction, and through people buying tickets, we will raise enough money to help make that a reality.\” The event comes just days after the Hillsborough Panel is due to report back after spending the last two and a half years studying official papers relating to the 1989 disaster. Tickets for the event are priced at £15 (£10 for unemployed/OAP/students) with every penny raised going to the fund for the memorial. Items available for raffle and auction include a signed pictures, balls and shirts, a day shadowing Tony Evans at the Times newspaper and Vinnie Jones’ Hollywood Allstars football shirt, which he has written “JFT96, Be Good, Vinnie Jones”. To buy tickets or find out more information, please visit www.HJCLondonRock.com INFORMATION ABOUT THE EVENT: The event features four bands; • The Troubadors – an award winning band that previously featured in Q magazine’s ‘10 best new acts’, have appeared at V Festival and supported Paul Weller. • The Verdict – a band from Liverpool and winners of the ‘Rock the House’ award hosted by the House of Commons. They have also recently appeared on the BBC. • Contra – a rock covers band playing a selection of classic rock favourites. • Billy the Kid – acoustic duo from King\’s Lynn in Norfolk playing cover versions of popular songs. Food is incorporated in the ticket price and will be prepared by chef Christian ‘Crunch’ Jarvis. Fullers brewery will be donating £1 from every bottle/pint sold at the event to the fund for the memorial. Confirmed speakers at the event include: • Darren Farley – an impressionist who has featured on Soccer AM, Channel 5, Setanta sports, BBC MOTD Kickabout Granada reports and LFC TV as well as making appearances on numerous other football related TV and radio shows. • Neil Ruddock – Former LFC defender and after-dinner speaker. • Tony Evans – Liverpool FC fan, Football Editor of The Times Newspaper and author of “Far Foreign Land”: Pride and passion the Liverpool way. Tony is also the former leader of the brass section in “The Farm”. FACTS ABOUT THE MEMORIAL Despite having a memorial at Anfield, there is no memorial to those killed or affected by Hillsborough in Liverpool city centre. Local sculptor, Tom Murphy, has designed a monument in clay – soon to be cast in bronze, which will honour those tragically killed on 15 April 1989. Measuring seven feet tall and taking over six months to create, the finished work will cost over £152,000 to be made. The Hillsborough Justice Campaign are behind the project and have contributed £37,000 but are welcoming donations to help reach the target. AUCTION ITEMS: For the latest auction items, please visit: http://www.hjclondonrock.com/auction/ Current items include: • Vinnie Jones’ Personal Hollywood Allstars shirt signed “JFT96” by him • A signed copy of the script for the film Flight Redirected that both Vinnie Jones and Scot Williams are starring in • Liverpool themed artwork by graphic artist Wizywig • Rome 1977 – European Cup Winning squad photo – hand signed by all 20 playersand backroom staff in the picture • Bill Shankly Bronze created by Tom Murphy • Hand signed mounted photograph of Kevin Keegan • Autographs of Liverpool’s 2005 Champions League winning team • Signed books by the writer of the film Awaydays, Kevin Sampson • A ball signed by the 2012 Carling Cup winning squad • 80’s Casuals shirts, books and caps • Ball signed by players past and present including Rush, Fowler, Owen and Gerrard • Watch a Liverpool match from a hospitality box at Anfield.
Thanks for the link, Page. Really hope this goes some way to providing closure on a terrible period for everyone concerned. Nice to see people like Vinnie Jones making their contribution to the auction too.
Jesus H, this GK is having an absolute blinder, we have hit the post 3 times already and have 80 % possession........ and no I am not talking about Liverpool.
Just had some great news, my kids Academy have been chosen to play in tournament in Murcia to open Terry Venables new Academy. The lad will be playing against Real Zaragoza and Valencia in the tournament and going to the La Liga game on Saturday night. Of course I'll have to go to look after him.
Manchester United provided evidence of Liverpool fans' "exemplary" behaviour to the public inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster in a letter, written four months before the tragedy, which thanked the Anfield club for supporters' conduct when the clubs met on New Year's Day 1989. As Sir Alex Ferguson offered an eloquent plea to his own club's fans yesterday to put aside old enmities, end Hillsborough chants and take the opportunity "to show your greatness" when the clubs meet at Anfield a week tomorrow, the letter from United chairman Martin Edwards to Liverpool general secretary Peter Robinson delivered more grounds for reconciliation. In it, Edwards held out the prospect that the conduct of fans at the game might "herald a new beginning between supporters of both our clubs and create the same goodwill which exists between Manchester United and Liverpool at all other levels." Edwards' letter, made public in the Hillsborough Independent Panel archive, would have been used at the Taylor Inquiry to counter the idea, propagated by South Yorkshire Police, local MP Irvine Patnick and others, that Liverpool supporters were somehow to blame for the disaster. Edwards told Robinson that United "appreciated the good atmosphere and general contribution" to a match that Liverpool lost 3-1. The rivalry between the two clubs will always be rabid – laced as it is with unique historical and geographical dimensions, as Ferguson always points out. But the United manager yesterday recollected how he had feared for his own fans' safety in the crudely fenced football stadia of the 1980s. "The thing that sticks out in my mind at that time was those fences around the stadiums," said Ferguson, one of the first people to call the then Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish after the tragedy at Sheffield Wednesday's ground. "That turned out to be catastrophic really. I remember us going to Derby [in August 1989] in the time of Michael Knighton [whose £10m attempt to buy United eventually came to nothing]. It was before they started limiting away fans [and] we took a massive support of about 10,000. Michael Knighton was walking round, shaking hands with the fans, and they were trying to climb over those fences. It was frightening. You think back to those fences; they were put up to avoid fans going onto the pitch if you remember. In that period, there was some bad fan behaviour around the country. But it turned out it cost people lives, I think. It contributed to what happened at Hillsborough." The most partisan of Liverpool fans will afford Ferguson a nod today, for the way he encapsulated the need to put away for good the "Hillsborough" and "Munich" chants which have polluted the fixture. "There are always opportunities to show your greatness and I think this is another one," the Glaswegian said. "I think it's a moment for those two great clubs to show why they're two great clubs." It remains to be seen whether United will seek to publish any messages to fans urging better conduct, though Ferguson does not seem to consider that necessary. Dalglish tells how Ferguson also sent a group of United fans across to Anfield to pay respects in Hillsborough's aftermath – a "wonderful gesture" as he described it many years later, though his own hopes that this might re-establish the bonds that Edwards had spoken of in his letter to Robinson were to be short-lived. "They soon went back to their self-same ways. The hating continued," Dalglish has since reflected. For this weekend. Ferguson has the prospect of Roberto Martinez's seemingly resurgent Wigan Athletic at Old Trafford and though Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa both trained yesterday despite international break injuries, it is a defence that have conceded two goals in each of their last two Premier League games that concerns him. "Do we have to score three every game to win? I don't want to got down that road," Ferguson said. He will draw Darren Fletcher into his squad, as he continues his slow emergence from a debilitating bowel condition, though the Scotsman seems unlikely to feature on the bench. The League Cup tie with Newcastle United on Wednesday is a more probable target for him. This will probably be another weekend of landmarks – potentially Ryan Giggs' 600th league fixture for United, Paul Scholes 700th game and Rio Ferdinand's 400th. Though Ferguson suggested Giggs would endure for the longest – another two years – Scholes' display in turning a struggle at Southampton into a 3-2 win makes his current contribution the extraordinary one. "It was like opening the door to another room," Ferguson said yesterday of the 37-year-old's transformation of that fixture. Ferguson insisted Wayne Rooney was making progress. The scar on his gashed thigh is healing though he is not back in full training yet and doing all his work "with the physics" and minus the ball, as Ferguson put it. As he spoke, the Carrington training complex outside was continuing its overhaul with a garish new sign proclaiming the name of the club. The new £13m medical facility, scheduled for November, is needed. The knee injury which Phil Jones sustained in training last weekend will keep him out for eight to 10 weeks, while Chris Smalling's ongoing recovery from a metatarsal fracture will see him back in training by the end of the month.
No big fuss made of Anton swerving the handshakes of Terry and Cole(and rightly so), but we all remember Suarez-Evera when Suarez was castigated by everyone. . Even a Manchester magistrate. A judge has launched an amazing attack on footballer Luis Suarez after a Manchester United fan hit his partner with a TV remote control following the infamous handshake bust-up with Patrice Evra. Judge Jonathan Taaffe said the Liverpool striker – who refused to shake hands with United's Patrice Evra after a racism row – had been 'petulant' and acted like a 'spoilt child' He spoke out after hearing how United fan Graham Trelfa claimed to be so enraged by Suarez's behaviour that he hurled the TV remote in his partner's face. Sentencing him, Judge Taaffe made it clear Suarez was partly responsible for Trelfa's 'bullying' behaviour. But he added: “The actions of Mr Suarez were at best ill-considered and at worst the actions of a petulant individual who behaved like a spoilt child and brought contempt on both his club and the many professional footballers who conduct themselves properly week-in, week-out. “It's undoubtedly the case that the actions of a so-called role model can affect the behaviour of many and the need to act responsibly both on and off the field as they hold privileged position and are idolised by many.” Still tickles me.
I can't find the 'woodwork' thread (plus I'm on my phone so can't search) so I'm putting it here in the hope it gets picked up... Two more in today's game: Gerrard - RHP Johnson - Bar Edit: Found it now I'm on PC...
The woodwork thread will have alot of work done on it this season.. By the way, turning 18 on Wednesday
Well its not the ideal day for a birthday and my mates are all skint. So pretty much nothing, didn't even think about my birthday even though I had begun to make plans a few months ago, so yeah, probably just go out with my mates on the weekend, nothing special.
