Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently – or you’re one of those odd individuals who enjoy rugby – you’ve probably noticed that there’s a big change on the horizon for Everton FC. The historic club – Merseyside’s original football club – is set to leave their home, Goodison Park. It’s a tough time for Evertonians, bittersweet. On one hand, they’re moving into a new state-of-the-art stadium, but on the other, they’re leaving behind a hallowed ground that has seen over 130 years of memories. Some good, some bad. But all of them have made Everton what it is. The people’s club.
Everton is Goodison, and Goodison is Everton.
The move has been quietly bubbling away for some time now, sort of like something you know will eventually happen, but could never actually imagine. But as of this weekend, it’s all become very real – Everton’s 2-0 win against Southampton signified the last men’s game to grace Goodison’s grass, and just from the Sky Sports coverage alone, you could tell there were plenty of smiles, hugs and cheers… but above all else, there was tears.
Even if you’re not a Toffee, Everton’s departure from Goodison is an undeniably emotional affair. The Premier League is losing one of its most historic grounds, an eery indicator for the future of British football.
But, things have to move on – a notion that our spoken word artist and staunch Evertonian pal, PJ Smith has slowly been coming to terms with. His name has been popping up more and more as Everton has drawn closer and closer to reckoning day, and it only makes sense. He grew up two minutes away from Goodison Park and has experienced first-hand many of the memories that make the ground so special.
We actually worked with PJ on a spoken word one-take video to commemorate Goodison the other day, which he ended up reciting at the end of the Southampton game, which was quite exciting. But alas, this isn’t about us, it’s about PJ, Everton FC, Goodison Park… and SEVEN STORE.
While SEVEN has remained pretty elusive on which side of Stanley Park it aligns itself with, they’ve certainly done Evertonians proud with their most recent work, which has involved working alongside National Museums Liverpool to produce an editorial piece by PJ for their ‘Goodbye to Goodison’ project.
SEVEN STORE rounded up the man in question, took him to meet his music-obsessed Toffee mate, Macca, and set the pair loose for a final pensive stroll in the shadow of Goodison – which PJ reminisces on with his words below:
The Short Goodbye
We’ve known for ages that we were eventually going to leave. Yet is still seems to have crept up on us. Just a few more games left at Goodison Park. Seems a bit mad typing that out, never mind thinking about it.
We’ll come back to that.
Do you ever keep repeatedly hearing of someone, via other people? They seem surprised you don’t know the person in question, which only piques your interest even further? That happened to me. A few people asked me if I knew ‘Macca’. I didn’t. Why should I? Who is he? They told me he had a radio show. So I listened. I now understood why people asked.
Then I went for a game of footy one Sunday morning. Mid-game, ball down the other end of the pitch. An opposition player approaches me.
“Roy isn’t it?”
“Macca?”
I half thought he was going to tell me he was my Dad. Alas no, just another music obsessed Evertonian. A few Saturdays later, I’m in bed listening to his weekly radio show. He played our Christmas single ‘Loss Is Not Infinite’ twice in succession. It was winter time. The world outside my bedroom felt hushed, like it was holding its breath. I think the earth itself was listening. I was wondering whether my car would have a ticket on. It didn’t.
Your creative endeavours always seem so much better then they catch you by surprise. It just made so much sense. I had to contact this cat. So I did. He invited me on his show. It clashed with the Goodison derby though, so I couldn’t do it. Then the derby got called off and it was too late anyway. So we re-arranged. Long story short, I spent a spectacular morning in Dalston with Macca. We filled in the gaps around who we know and don’t know. Shared musical discoveries with each other but mostly just revelled in the sheer Evertonia of it all. Yes, revelled.
So it’s fitting that we’ve both been asked to take a stroll around L4 and pay homage to the greatest football ground in the history of football grounds. We will not, and never will be, referring to it as The Grand Old Lady. I lived two minutes from Goodison for the first twenty five years of my life, regularly went the match and have never heard anyone call it that. Must be an internet/social media/podcast thing. It’s Goodison. Just so we’re straight, right?
We met up on the corner of Gwladys and Bullens (a potential unreleased Arthur Lee song? Did I ever tell you about the time I spent with Loves main man? Another time…) and discussed ‘the new ground’. We don’t know what we’re calling it yet. It certainly won’t be by the name of whoever sponsors it, although ‘The Rene Lacoste stadium’ has quite the ring to it, don’t you think? Sort it out Bill, I mean Farhad, or, er, the Americans.
Macca had mentioned that he’d passed the new ground whilst on the train the other day and marvelled at the splendour of it, while his sister made some comment about it looking like a supermarket. He put her straight. We’re protective like that. We can skit anything Everton related, but if a non-Evertonian tries it, we’re not having it.
Out first port of call was Goodison Road. The holy trinity statue is there now, but it used to be known as The Island, where I’d buy the influential EFC fanzine ‘When Skies Are Grey. For many a year, reading that was the highlight of my Saturday, such was the state of on-pitch affairs.
Between us we’d seen it all. League titles, FA Cups, relegation scraps, mid table nothingness, managers, players and owners came and went, attendances were up and down (mostly up, but let’s not deny the pre-95 FA cup win attendances of under twenty thousand).
This was where we gathered every other week. Meeting people we didn’t really know much about, other than a few hours every home game. We didn’t need to. We had our routines and rituals. Macca used to make his way over from Rice Lane, as his Dad had the barbers there. I mostly came via the pubs of County Rd. He was from the other side of the flyover, so practically a wool to me.
That’s all going to change now. Nobody knows what their new routine will be yet. Suppose it’ll just happen organically. I’m up for a bit of change, which is ironic as I still haven’t got over The Netley shutting. We’ll just have to see what happens.
We make our way down Goodison Road, looking at the timeline the club have displayed over the dated corrugated iron, stopping to take in some of the historic players and moments in our history, before our time. Big Joe Royle a living legend. Little curly Alan Ball, he’s the greatest of them all. Latchfords thirty goals. Then we move to the all conquering 80s team. I was only five but I was there! We eventually get to 2013 and what could’ve been. Martinez first season. The solidity and organisation of a David Moyes team, with the craft and guile of Lukaku, Barkley, Stones, Barry etc. Ah well.
We make our way over to Rice Lane, taking in some choice graffiti in Walton subbies en route. I tell Macca about Peppers nightclub. He was born in 89, so would’ve missed out on it. Lucky him. He lives in London now, so reckons he’s been to his last game at Goodison. Everton 3 Tottenham 2. Quite fitting really. A dominant, attacking performance. Going three nil up but being convinced we would struggle to win. I was a bit more confident that day, as I sat next to my Spurs mate, Mr Jah Wobble. I’d told him about our recent struggle, in detail. He’d replied “Don’t worry, Dr Spurs will see you now”.
After a pit stop at The Black Horse for a pub lunch, we made our way over to The Abbey. This was the first pub I’d been to of a match day, back in 2007, after I’d stopped drinking (stop the clock! We’re like cross fit heads, we just can’t help it), so feels significant for me. It would for you aswell, if it signified that, as far fetched as it sounds, you can actually watch Everton sober. Myself and Macca chatted about a few unplanned years where we never went to the match. Other things took priority. Life happened. A combination of work, lack of work, geography, over indulgence or maybe a bit of apathy?
As a young kid, Goodison was the heartbeat of L4. It still is. The area came to life as 40,000 people poured in. I absolutely loved it. The noise, the energy, even the smells. It’s the only thing left that has me revisiting my roots regularly. When we move, I need to find another excuse to visit L4. The area, the ground and the club have obviously played a huge part in me being who I am today. Who am I though? Well, I’m an old romantic, I’d rather stay. We have to go though. We’ve got the best location we could’ve possibly got. It’s perfect. It might take time to make it a home. As Arthur Lee said though, a house is not a hotel. Here’s to the future at ‘the new ground’. Wherever and whatever, all that really matters is that we’re there.
This too shall pass. The good times. The not so good times. Our day will come again. And when it does, we’ll be there. God knows we’ve earned it. One day at a time, we are Everton. And we wouldn’t have it any other way x
You know that thing we said about Everton leaving Goodison is an undeniably emotional affair? Yeah.
A limited run of zines featuring imagery from MINT Collective and words from PJ Smith will be available at SEVEN STORE from Wednesday, 21st May.
