Despite Anfield being on his doorstep growing up, it’s somewhat fitting that Dave Hewitson’s first ever Liverpool match was actually an away fixture. A proud Liverpudlian who was among the first generations to follow The Reds’ into Europe en masse, his introduction to watching The Reds’ was a family affair that set up a lifetime of following his team everywhere and beyond.
Taking a casual stroll around a sunny Stanley Park in the shadow of the ground, Dave lights up recalling his formative memories. “In the sixties a lot of guys around my dad’s age went to both Liverpool and Everton on alternating weekends but I was lucky because my dad swayed towards The Reds. One of my uncles would go to the away games and they took me to Burnley away in 1969 which was my first ever game and we won 5-1.”
Needless to say, that icy cold December night in 1969 at Turf Moor which featured Shankly-era legends Emlyn Hughes and Ian St. John lit a spark that’s still burning just as bright today. “I always wanted to go to the match from then on,” he explains as we round the Anfield Road end. “My dad used to go in the Kop and it would be swaying backwards and forwards so it wasn’t an ideal place for a ten year old - so he’d get tickets for the main stand for the European games.”
Although the overriding emotion is one of excitement, Dave paints a more intimidating picture of going to the match than you’d expect today. “I asked my dad to take me to more league games but there were bits of trouble in the seventies so he was a bit wary of it. Whenever you got the Liverpool Echo the first thing on the front page was about violence at the match but he eventually gave in and we used to stand in the Anfield Road end.”
“At first we used to take a stool from the house and I used to stand on that, I got a bit taller, I still needed something to stand on so we’d tape two blocks of wood together. When I got to the age of fifteen I wanted to go with my mates and I actually look back at my season tickets with my name and address on and they’re from 1978-1979 in The Anfield Road end. That was my first season ticket and I’ve got five or six in a row since the mid-eighties.”
Though his childhood and teenage years are riddled with enough memories to make the most casual of fans go starry-eyed - there’s one pinnacle that Dave wouldn’t trade for the world. “I was desperate to go to the European Cup final in Rome, I just remember pestering my dad endlessly. He says, ‘I’ll tell you what, sell your bike and do a paper round and get some money together.’ So I sold my Raleigh Chopper and on Monday we’re going to Rome by train.”
Seeing Liverpool lift their first European cup might have proved a night never to be forgotten, but having gone to every European cup final since, to take his own son the infamous night in Istanbul felt like something of a full circle moment. “I took him because my dad took me and that was the greatest memory you could create together. I wanted him to witness what I had as well. Imagine not taking him though and getting home, you’d be the worst parent ever wouldn’t you?”
Much more than just the match, for Dave and his friends, football culture was about the adventures shared, the memories made and in those days - what pair of trainers you could bring back to Liverpool. He explains, “In the early eighties, the fashion in Liverpool had totally changed, it was all training shoes, narrow jeans and wedge haircuts. Britain was in recession at the time so shop owners wouldn’t import the more expensive trainers. When we were going to an away game everyone would be dressed the same from Liverpool so you stood out.”
He explains there was a bit of rebellion at play in the fashion evolution - all of a sudden people didn’t want to look like their parents when they went to the match. “The trends for us were changing, you had punk coming in in the late seventies and that changed the landscape totally. After the fifties and sixties youth culture started and younger people had more of a say in what they wanted to wear. The shops were owned by younger people rather than these old outfitters.”
During a particularly bleak time back then, the match was all about escapism from the everyday - and that’s not changed much today. Dave explains how football can easily define your week. “You go to work, get home, have a bit of tea, but when the weekend comes we live for Liverpool FC. It makes up for a dull week especially if they win. It’s a part of going out, meeting the mates, having a few pints and sometimes the match even gets in the way of having a few drinks!”
As a much needed antidote to the masses of hooligan books that were hitting the shelves at the time, Dave wanted to shine a light on his own memories growing up and watching the match and penned his own book ‘The Liverpool Boys Are In Town’ in the early two-thousands. “I wanted to tell the story of Liverpool fans going to Europe and bringing back clothes that weren’t available here. You didn’t have to be a hooligan to be into the fashion.”
“You could go to the match, see what everyone was wearing and look for Sergio Tacchini or Fila. It was about belonging, it was your city and your club and you wanted to be a part of that. The response to the book was incredible, the older you get, nostalgia is amazing, it brings back so many memories.” More recently, Dave celebrated the casuals movement by putting on the Art Of The Terraces exhibition in the city’s Walker Art Gallery which was a roaring success, focussing on the fashion of the era and the art it’s since inspired.
“That was the pinnacle of everything really. It’s one thing putting words in a book but putting it into a major exhibition at a national gallery was unprecedented. People from all over the world resonated with the exhibition and it unearthed so many memories for people of all ages. I feel incredibly proud, we need to continue building on that culture and celebrating it.”
Dave runs the clothing label 80scasuals where you can also purchase his book 'The Liverpool Boys... The Birth Of Terrace Culture.'
DAVE HEWITSON. LIVERPOOL FC SPONSOR KODANSHA. 2024
Photographs by Marc Sumner
Text by Rhys Buchanan