FMTTM history?

fmttmadmin said:
History in 100 words or so - Fly Me To The Moon fanzine was set up by friends Gillandi, Robbie B and Tony in 1988 as part of a fan movement sweeping the country involing fan magazines at every club and fans finding their own voice.
Pretty soon brothers Endy was editing helped by brother Miniature G. I edited from early 90s and took over 1994. In about 1998 Alex Wilson built a snall interactive website where amongst other things yiu could punch Rav in the eye and hear the Addams Family theme when Festa popped up.
Around 2000 Rivals owned by Chrysalis asked me to run a website. I didnt want to. The fanzine was full on, every home game. They asked me for six months, I said yes but did nothing... I hadn't a clue. A friend called Sal (from the late, great Tim Lloyd's mailing list) helped us start up.
Rivals had sites for club all over the leagues. It was contenf over message board and there was lots of support staff. But after one year they had sold no adverts and it was sold off by Chrysalis. Rivals had gone bust.
Eventually the succeeding companies got adverts but I never knew who I was working for and how the pay was worked out. But we got really popular and a thriving community. And it was so separate from the fanzine.
I have gone miles over 100 words. In about 2010 we got wind SKY were taking over and got out. A guy from.Bristol took over but his technology failed and his web builder went underground. Block 17 started. A nice gang. Steve Goldby took over Boro Rivals but then Sky came down as predicted and their new vision didnt include message boards. Steve invited me back to run fmttm site which a guy called Jez mocked up from Rivals in a day. In 3 days we had a new network out of the debris of Rivals.
The fanzine nearly stopped but went monthly
Steve went away to London to concentrate on his horse racing and metal stuff. And so I continued with lots of helpers at fmttm working for fansonline. Who were an enigma in a c/o postal address.
The fanzine survived covid because of the generosity of the subscribers.And the jolly online community continued to enjoy Boro chatter. And the rest. During covid we changed to xenforo leaving Rivals style behind forever. I was dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
This year for the very first time ever fmttm online finally became an independent fan site as well as fanzine. What a relief. We might even launch another site with our friends from Blackpool - watch this space.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. Much appreciated.
 
Good history lesson that, I posted on B17 for a while and didn’t get involved in any of the behind the scenes politics.. you seem to have glossed over all those shenanigans tho thankfully 😉
 
I was going to add a number of posters have sadly passed away, even sent to prison in a couple of cases.

Quite a few have been chased away in recent years by aggressive and negative posters, who don't have the word empathy is their vocabulary and don't care they don't. Also chased away by the over political posters with zero flexibility agendas who appear to use the board for political propaganda.
 
Redwurzel said:
I was going to add a number of posters have sadly passed away, even sent to prison in a couple of cases.

Quite a few have been chased away in recent years by aggressive and negative posters, who don't have the word empathy is their vocabulary and don't care they don't. Also chased away by the over political posters with zero flexibility agendas who appear to use the board for political propaganda.
Click to expand...
Let’s be honest though, there’s a few of them that needed running out of FMTTM Town by the posse…
 
Unravel_Morrison said:
Did he used to sit between SD and BF in the North?
Click to expand...

I used to sit on the same row and I sat next door but one to him, BF sat further down the row from memory. I was sat with a different group though, completely unconnected to the fmttm lot. Great seats, although it was a pain having to stand up every week after 5 minutes of the game to let Rob past with his bag of fanzines. 😜
 
fmttmadmin said:
No. Ayresome Angel was the first Boro fanzine.
Later the same season Fly Me To The Moon appeared for Boro v Sheff Wed - we lost!! And it was all downhill from there in Bruce Rioch's side top flight season.
Click to expand...

Anyone else remember a fanzine, probably late nineties, called Riverside Roar, something like that? I think they sold it at one match, then the next home game all the unsold copies were piled up under the bridge to help yourself to.
 
atomicloonybin aka ALB said:
Anyone else remember a fanzine, probably late nineties, called Riverside Roar, something like that? I think they sold it at one match, then the next home game all the unsold copies were piled up under the bridge to help yourself to.
Click to expand...
Shiverside Views? I have a copy and mentioned it on here once and Rob (I think) explained it was a student project or something. Says it's the Winter 98/99 edition on the cover.
 
Subbuteo_171 said:
Sportspages on Caxton Walk in London had both FMTTM and Ayresome Angel, amongst hundreds of other fanzines. Spent many an hour in there, fantastic place.
Click to expand...

When I used to go in on work trips, Fly Me was about the only fanzine you couldn't buy there. I believe there was some issue about unpaid money from the shop? Gillandi would know more. It was a bit like the sports shirts shop that was near there - you couldn't get a Boro shirt, because there was some sort of rights issue at the time, or the club was demanding exclusivity on sales; it was the only shirt of the top four divisions they didn't stock.

Used to love Brian Moore's Head Looks Uncannily Like London Planetarium, the Gillingham one. Genuinely great and hilarious writing.
 
Capybara said:
Shiverside Views? I have a copy and mentioned it on here once and Rob (I think) explained it was a student project or something. Says it's the Winter 98/99 edition on the cover.
Click to expand...
Yes they were journalism students from a college near Barnsley. That is right they sold it at one match and at Boro programmes and then left copies in a box for fans to take at the next game. That one issue got them recorded as a Boro fanzine in lots of lists like When Saturday Comes and hopefully got them good grades on their course. I wonder if they became journalists?
 
atomicloonybin aka ALB said:
When I used to go in on work trips, Fly Me was about the only fanzine you couldn't buy there. I believe there was some issue about unpaid money from the shop? Gillandi would know more. It was a bit like the sports shirts shop that was near there - you couldn't get a Boro shirt, because there was some sort of rights issue at the time, or the club was demanding exclusivity on sales; it was the only shirt of the top four divisions they didn't stock.

Used to love Brian Moore's Head Looks Uncannily Like London Planetarium, the Gillingham one. Genuinely great and hilarious writing.
Click to expand...
Oh yes Brian Moore's Head was wondrous. I did send some fanzines down to the shop from time to time and also one in Nottingham and Piccadilly Manchester. But yes there may have been issues in the early days. One of our problems was we were just about the only fanzine, except The Oatcake, Stoke City to be producing an issue every game. City Gent (Bradford City), Terrace Talk (York City) The Leyton Orienteer or Kick Up The Rs (QPR) would have about 4 a season so they could send their copies down to London and they would sell gradually through the season. We could send ours down on a Monday and the next issue would almost be ready to be printed before they went on sale at Sports Pages.
Loved the shop and it is much missed.
 
There was one my Dad bought for me when I was away at University called I think Bread and Boro, got it instead of FMTTM as he didn’t realise there was more than one fanzine. Don’t think it lasted long?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top