www.casspennant.com
Media Articles
THE RECORDER
8th May 2002
LOOK AT TERRACE HARD
MEN IS AN 'INSIDE JOB'
Notorious
Football Hooligans Are Brought To Book
|
A new book that
lifts the lid on the most notorious gang of football hooligans this
country has ever seen is an ‘inside job’ in more ways than
one. Author Cass Pennant
was one of the best-known figures in the West Ham United-following InterCity
Firm and he has used his unique position as an insider to bring together
accounts from the men who were at the height of the violence on and
off the terraces. It is also a book
that first took shape in 1978 when Cass was banged up inside Wormwood
Scrubs where it was the cons who queued at his cell door for the next
chapter who convinced him he was on to a winner. Congratulations
You Have Just Met The ICF charts the story of the rail-travelling
hooligans during the seventies and eighties when they were considered
hard, organised, feared and fashionable. Cass, 44, spent
a year interviewing the pals who were at the forefront of the battles
with other supporters and run-ins with the authorities. He said: ‘I
was spurred on by inaccuracies in accounts of our exploits in other
publications so I decided to set the record straight before it became
a fast fading memory. ‘The ambition
to write a book has always been inside me. I have always been a deep
thinker and good at writing but the real opportunity came when I first
gained notoriety as a football hooligan by being banged up for three
years for affray by a judge at the Old Bailey. ‘It was a show
trial. Football violence then was a Government problem and the publicity
reached a crescendo. People demanded someone be made an example of and
that someone was me. ‘Every football
club at the time had a hooligan element but I was the one they singled
out. Cass Pennant was not on trial as a person. It was hooliganism that
was on trial and the nation was watching. The sentence was a huge injustice. ‘When I went off to Wormwood Scrubs and they slammed the door behind me I felt very much the angry young man. |
‘I was a football
hooligan banged up for 23 hours a day with real criminals. I was a victim
of the sociologists, the probation officers, the judges and the enraged
members of the public. Not one of them knew us and certainly didn’t
understand us. The only way I could take my anger out was by writing.’ Cass began putting his thoughts down as a mixture of fact and fiction called War on the Terraces. As word got round he had a queue of cons at his cell door daily awaiting the next chapter. Said Cass: ‘Cons
are experts – learned people in the book world. Banged up for so
long they read so much so I knew their opinions must count for something.’ Once outside, getting
his book published was another matter. Cass was a convicted ringleader
of a soccer mob and the manuscript proved something of a hot potato
for a long time. However a television
documentary called Hooligan in 1985 focused on the InterCity
Firm. It was watched by seven million people and attracted worldwide
interest. Said Cass: ‘I
had hoped this programme would give me a leg up into the book world.
Publishers said I had a raw talent and a raw energy. They gave me lots
of encouragement but no one was prepared to take the gamble. ‘The manuscript
remained rolled up in my loft but I never gave up on it. Then ten years
later the first books written by hooligans about hooligans began to
come out and I was sad because I thought I had missed the boat. I had
been there ten years before but the door would not open.’ It was the success
people like Kate Kray – ex-wife of gangster Ronnie – were
having with books on real East End tough guys that proved the turning
point. She asked Cass to be a subject in her Hard Bastards book.
He agreed and she in turn agreed to speak up for his book. Said Cass: ‘I met with her publishers but all they knew about me was from newspaper cuttings – the hooligan. I knew I had only one shot to sell myself. At the end of it they said they weren’t interested in a West Ham book. They said I was the story.’ |
Father-of-two Cass
was a Barnardo’s boy brought up by foster parents. He never knew
he had a family until he was 35. He said: ‘Because
of my childhood I have always had difficulty talking about me. Why should
anyone be interested? I was not a famous showbiz celebrity or a gangster
– the complete opposite. ‘It was not
the book I wanted to write. I would have to tell things, personal things
I had not even told my wife Elaine. I had to bare my soul. One night
I saw her creeping down into the kitchen and go through the chapters
because she was genuinely interested. That is when I knew it would be
fine.’ The autobiography,
called Cass, published two years ago became an instant best seller.
Not only did it tell of his ICF days, it revealed how he was shot three
times while working as a bouncer and how he once saved boxer Frank Bruno
from a gang of Nazi skinheads at Stratford station. It also paved the
way for his follow-up book. Added Cass: ‘People have had a bellyful
of soap stars writing and now have a fascination with real people and
their lives. Real East End characters have become interesting. Everybody
wants a dose of reality.’ One of the biggest
hurdles Cass had was to get other members of the ICF to share their
memories. He said: ‘As long as I treated them with the same amount
of respect I have for myself as an author I knew they would come round.
They are all walking stories. At the time we had a laugh and a buzz.
What we had was something special but we were more than just a mob. ‘We had character
of the highest quality, old-fashioned values and a loyalty no longer
prevalent in today’s world. We had the brains and determination
to go to the top in whatever fields we chose. We had exceptional talent.
Many of us today have got where we are through enterprise and hard graft. ‘Our reputation was built on the respect given to us for coming out on top against all the odds. We stood together and stuck together no matter what. We were not just a mindless mob army, we were a thinking army organised in a rational manner. |
‘We were not
just moronic thugs who had nothing better to do than fight each other
on a Saturday afternoon. We were a highly organised group from different
backgrounds and jobs. ‘We were not
guilty of major crimes but anti-social behaviour. We knew other clubs
had their firms and we only targeted like-minded people. ‘Things now
have moved on. As one of the quotes in the book says: ‘It’s
different times now. People have moved on and if you ain’t you’re
a dinosaur.’ It can never go back to the way it was. Our time was
as bad as it could ever get. ‘Look at those
who cause trouble now mainly at England games abroad. During the seventies
and eighties it was the 15 to 25 age group that made up football gangs.
Look at the TV pictures today and you will see most of those involved
are in their late 30s and 40s – those left over from my day. The
generation who would have taken over from them are just not interested
in hooliganism.’ Stories in the book
illustrate the inflamed East End rivalry with Millwall, Shed-end battles
with Chelsea, aggravation on Anfield’s Kop, flare-ups on the streets
of Newham and the first time full details of the violent battle between
West Ham and Manchester United fans on a cross-Channel ferry in 1986. The tales unfold
against a backdrop of fashion and music such as The Cockney Rejects
and Sham 9 that became the hallmark of the ‘hoolifans’. Yet despite the
violence Cass is proud to point out what being a Hammers fan means.
He said: ‘Supporting West Ham isn’t just about winning. It
is loyalty to a team, to the area and its people and sharing that dream
that one day we will win something.’ He is also quick to salute those who stood with him on the terraces. He said: ‘We all had talent and how we have channelled it is what’s important. That is the message of the book. Never cut people off for what they have done. Find out who they are first.’ |
