That was about ’82. The big turning point was when we started getting the lads from Birmingham town, the Townies, going to Birmingham football games. Mickey Francis wrote about it in his book, Guvnors. Man City, who were called the Cool Cats at the time, came walking past McDonald’s in the centre. We’d already had word, because in those days there were no mobile phones so we always had spies out. Some of the lads have come along and said, ‘City are here and they’re walking through the shopping centre.’
Todd: In those days, it was individual firms on every corner; sometimes it would get a bit frisky and we’d interact with them and get shirty, ending up having a fight if one person had a problem with someone else from another firm. This was before the Zulus, when we were generally fighting with the Apex who were Birmingham’s City’s firm at the time, along with other local firms.
Rupert: A lot of the time when we’d come uptown, we brought a lot of attention to ourselves. We were young and we all came from different parts of Birmingham, so at the time some of us were Villa, some of us were West Brom, but we weren’t that interested in football.
Todd: At the time, I don’t think we really cared about the football; we were more into violence and raising money. We got into the football violence because the fans would have to come through New Street station and the first people they got to before they found the Apex were us – the Townies.
Rupert: When Man City came walking through, it was the first time I’d ever seen a black firm come into Birmingham. We just swamped ’em. Those that didn’t get away got slapped. They try to make out that they came back later and did us, but they didn’t because we were there till 11 o’clock at night on the ramp. They got smashed. A few weeks later, we played Everton; they came through and there was this Rasta on the floor, the police had him and pulled his locks out! Now Everton appeared from out of nowhere and chased a few lads around the corner: guess who was there? They were running into it so fast that they got it big-time, they got the worst beatings. Barrington was always there, he was always involved. After Man City and Everton, the other teams that came through were Tottenham and Millwall.
The last time I went to Man City was about five years ago, on the anniversary of the 1982 formation of the Zulus. A big firm of us went up there and took their main fucking pub.
We met up with a black guy called Fanny, originally from Birmingham but now living in Manchester, who supports Man City. There were no rows before the match but afterwards it kicked off quite a bit. We later heard from Fanny that Man City admitted no firm had ever gone there and taken them on like we did – not even Man United.
RUPERT & TODD
Todd: Even when we were still in small groups we would be chanting, ‘Zulus!’ when we were running into people. At that time, the football was still predominantly white.
Rupert: We were the first generation that went down there to St Andrew’s. I remember me and Barrington walking to the ground and suddenly realising we were surrounded by Villa. Barrington was at the front because at the time he was the most recognisable to the Villa fans; if he ever came into town he was always getting spotted by other firms. He had this almost mythical thing about him, so people were always wary of coming up to him because he would stand there toe-to-toe and have a row. So we’re walking up and Barrington’s gone, ‘There’s Lloydy,’ who was one of their top boys, and I’ve thought, Oh shit! Barrington looked round to me as if to say, ‘I’m going to swerve him – he’s my cousin!’
We would fight football fans on Saturdays and I always noticed the black skinhead. We got talking and started going down to the matches together. This was around the same time as black ska fans and white punks all started mixing together due to our common interests of fighting, music and football. Before then I’d had no interest in football. There were no black people down at the matches, apart from us Townies and the black skinhead. So we linked up, which was how the Zulus were formed.
I remember the first match I went to. I thought, Fucking hell, it’s just full of white people! You could count the black people on two bloody hands! But it was a good game and there was no trouble. We started going to watch football from then on and did so for years. The first game where I had a row was against Arsenal. I was outside the ground and I gave this guy a spinning hook kick. He just landed on his head and from that point all the fighting started.
The 82/83 season was when the Zulu thing started with Manchester City. We were all individuals. Even though I was from Handsworth, I came with the Townie lot; we had guys from Chelmsley Wood, which is a main place for skinheads. We had the little Acocks Green firm and the Sheldon firm. All different lads from different areas.
When people hear about the Zulus, they think it’s a black thing, but it’s always been a multiracial thing – a Birmingham City thing, and that’s how we’ll keep it. We used to just meet up at a couple of pubs via word of mouth. We’d go down to where Villa drank, give it to them down there and go back to our pub. Everybody always said that the city was divided between Blues and Villa, but it’s never been like that. It’s always been a Blues place. They used to come down to our manor and they’d get hammered and sent back out of town.
There are certain places in Birmingham that Villa won’t come, whereas Blues will go anywhere in town, like the Arcadia club. The same goes for the players: Blues players will go out anywhere in Birmingham but the Villa players won’t; they’ll probably go to places like Sutton Coldfield, but in Birmingham they’d get ‘clattered’.
RUPERT & TODD
Rupert: Remember Sutton Coldfield?
Todd: Yeah, we used to go down there when we started travelling out of town, getting a bit more adventurous!
Rupert: We used to go down there because they had a mob that ran with Villa and we needed Barrington down there. Because we were young, they could overpower us, but we’d keep going. If we had a fight and Barrington wasn’t there, we wished he was because he was like the strength in the firm.
Todd: We even went through periods where we used to have competitions to see who could knock the most people out. Barrington would say he’d done the most and I’d say, ‘No you haven’t, I have,’ and then Rupert would say he’d done the most but one of the others would say, ‘Yeah, but that geezer wasn’t completely unconscious!’ We were young and reckless.
Rupert: At West Ham v Birmingham 1984, I remember we were at the game and Barrington got kicked out. I also remember one night these Man Utd lads came walking past and started getting cocky. So we had words and they’ve gone, ‘See ya!’ Barrington and this other guy went and fucking wasted ’em! They gave it to ’em big-time just round the ramp on the entrance to the shopping centre. This was in 82/83. Boy, did they get beat!
I just love fighting! Anything for a fight! I was never interested in the game – I was just interested in a row before and after. I don’t really like football; pussies play football and roll around on the floor.
I remember my first game, in the 82/83 season, and thinking, There are no niggers here! My first away games came a season later and then I was going to any big game after that; I can remember going to Leeds and being ambushed. I remember some games where I absolutely shat myself.
Leeds at home, Leeds away, West Ham at home, Millwall away twice – fucking hell, out of all the matches, that is the one that stands out more than any other!