Unofficial Halesowen Town FC Forum

So for some reason that seemed a good idea earlier today, I decided to scan my copies of our ancient Follow Your Instinct fanzine and put them online.

For those newcomers (i.e. anyone who started supporting us after 1993!), several of us used to write a fanzine before this new fangled internet malarkey came along, so was only available in paper form for 50p from outside the ground on matchday. Madness!

The first one is available online at http://www.yeltzland.net/followyourinstinct/, and hopefully the other 11 issues will turn up there too at some point - although it's utterly tedious scanning them in, so it may take a while.

Some of the jokes stand the test of time, others less so - and I think we did improve as we went along so the later issues are definitely better.

The first one is from March/April 1991 (!), and the last one was made in October/November 1993 before we ran out of energy, ideas and lame jokes.

Still brilliant.

I used to buy them from the much-missed Sportspages on Charing Cross Road.

Precious times.

I've still got some of these amongst my loft of 1,500+ programmes......... Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Youngsters these days............

FYI – the Original and Best (incidentally, other fanzines were available later – namely Raising the Rafters and Bright Golden Haze). Well done Poll for starting to immortalise these. But there’s something subliminal going on as I was recently also looking at these FYI fanzines* and I reply with deeply troubling news for the authors.

Yeltzland folklore states that FYI ended its life after 12 publications. So I was surprised to discover an obviously rare and valuable Follow Your Instinct, Edition 13, dated Jan/Feb 1994 (with the co-author now resident in Kings Hedges Road, Cambridge rather than Edinburgh). Precious because Poll believes FYI reached the end of its life in 1993 at Edition 12. And he should know. Perhaps Edition 13 has been airbrushed out of history due to the front cover picture of a now disgraced broadcaster who shares the name of a former Yeltz coach/manager? So, in the absence of Antiques Roadshow in the local area, I reckon I can afford to just sit back and await a lucrative offer from the authors for this rare, previously missing item of Yeltz history.

(* like HH, I was clogged up with about 1500 programmes, so not wanting to succumb to hoarding I had a clear out, keeping just a few notable home and away programmes from each season. But the FYI fanzines survived the cull. As strangely did a set of HTFC shareholder accounts and fascinating Chairman/Secretary/Finance Reports from the 1990s & 2000s - perhaps one day someone will ask how much the club spent on Telephones & Postage in 1996 and I’ll instantly be able to say £1,246, down from a worrying £1,376 in 1995. Such details used to bother us then).

DJ wrote: ↑

11 Apr 2017, 14:13

As strangely did a set of HTFC shareholder accounts and fascinating Chairman/Secretary/Finance Reports from the 1990s & 2000s - perhaps one day someone will ask how much the club spent on Telephones & Postage in 1996 and I’ll instantly be able to say £1,246, down from a worrying £1,376 in 1995. Such details used to bother us then).

Ah the pride I had in announcing to the AGM that I had reduced the phone bill...turned out somebody had been using the press box phone as a private line, so the unit was removed between matches and a lock on the socket did the trick as Ron used to say at board meetings "£100 saved is a £100 we don't have to raise

Issue 13? That's very worrying as I was convinced I had a full set.

May need to negotiate something if I can't find it once I've scanned in the first 12 in about 2 years time!

Issue 2 now available at http://www.yeltzland.net/followyourinstinct/

Definitely better than the first one, as we roped in a few more people to write stuff.

Includes ValenciaYeltz's (or Frank as he was known back then) epic retelling of the story of Les Prosser's unforgettable goal at Gresley.

Poll wrote: ↑

12 Apr 2017, 11:34

Issue 2 now available at http://www.yeltzland.net/followyourinstinct/

Definitely better than the first one, as we roped in a few more people to write stuff.

Includes ValenciaYeltz's (or Frank as he was known back then) epic retelling of the story of Les Prosser's unforgettable goal at Gresley.

Gresley I have an important life or death question about it were those ladies there selling raffle tickets back in the day?

It was a LONG time ago Chris!

Can't say I remember any raffle sellers, others may remember differently

Wheels wrote: ↑

12 Apr 2017, 15:06

Gresley I have an important life or death question about it were those ladies there selling raffle tickets back in the day?

I don't live too far from Gresley Chris. If you send me your ticket I'll collect your prize for you