Open The East End Campaign (Fan History 2006 – 2014) Much has been said & done and socially-posted in recent weeks about the end of the East End. For many, many a year, the natural Home End of the City (with a doth of the cap to the Parkenders of yesteryear, up tight against the fence [and the little no-man’s-land section] giving it what-for to the away contingent), the East End had always been 100% City even when some cocknees tried to run it in the 70s. When Lord Justice Taylor enforced clubs in the top two divisions to make their grounds all-seater in the early 90s, there was a bit of a protest in the East End at the last ever terraced game (04 May 1991, 1-1 [Rennie] v Port Vale; 11,555) with a banner that read, KEEP THE EAST END STANDING. This was swimming in vain against the tide, however, reflecting the dislike fans had for the thought of losing their terracing. Interesting that it was the East End, though, that remonstrated this one last time (I may well be wrong but I don’t remember there being similar KEEP THE ENCLOSURE STANDING or KEEP THE OPEN END STANDING banners. Not that their residents cared less, you understand). Soon, what had forever been a noisy, boisterous home end, with fantastic acoustics if you were inside (not so good, given the shape of the roof front, if you were anywhere else in Ashton Gate) became the away end, for visiting fans who now couldn’t believe their luck that they could make some noise and really be heard. The advantage, one could possibly say, was given to the visitors in terms of potential noise made. How, then, did City fans make it back in to the bosom of the old girl, asking the away fans to budge up and make room? Over a bottle of Natch in The Three Lions pub in West Street, The Natch Wall hooked up with the boys from When The Moon Shines, the driving force behind all that has been good in the East End these past seven years, and they explained how they and a few other like-minded, determined souls gave us back our East End. “In reality there was no real organised campaign - those really involved didn’t plan much at all but just came up with a series of ideas with the common goal of reopening the East End to pay-on-the-day supporters. As far back as 2003 there had been a few fan-led attempts to reopen the stand, a brief couple of games with a few City fans back within Ashton Gate Stands inspired by others and seemingly thousands of posts on forums about the topic. “After a particularly awful performance at home v Chesterfield (2-4, [Wilkshire, Cotterill]; 9,752) by the team and fans in 2005, the idea of another attempt at getting the atmosphere reverberating around the old Cow Shed was discussed in the Three Lions Public House. “This time we said a petition would be used to show the support for a reopening, but it was to be another eleven months before this took off, at least outside of a bar and just half-cut waffling blokes nursing pints of cider!
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Open The East End Campaign (Fan History 2006 – 2014)
Much has been said & done and socially-posted in recent weeks about the end of the East End. For many, many a
year, the natural Home End of the City (with a doth of the cap to the Parkenders of yesteryear, up tight against the
fence [and the little no-man’s-land section] giving it what-for to the away contingent), the East End had always been
100% City even when some cocknees tried to run it in the 70s. When Lord Justice Taylor enforced clubs in the top
two divisions to make their grounds all-seater in the early 90s, there was a bit of a protest in the East End at the last
ever terraced game (04 May 1991, 1-1 [Rennie] v Port Vale; 11,555) with a banner that read, KEEP THE EAST END
STANDING. This was swimming in vain against the tide, however, reflecting the dislike fans had for the thought of
losing their terracing. Interesting that it was the East End, though, that remonstrated this one last time (I may well be
wrong but I don’t remember there being similar KEEP THE ENCLOSURE STANDING or KEEP THE OPEN END STANDING
banners. Not that their residents cared less, you understand).
Soon, what had forever been a noisy, boisterous home end, with fantastic acoustics if you were inside (not so good,
given the shape of the roof front, if you were anywhere else in Ashton Gate) became the away end, for visiting fans
who now couldn’t believe their luck that they could make some noise and really be heard. The advantage, one could
possibly say, was given to the visitors in terms of potential noise made.
How, then, did City fans make it back in to the bosom of the old girl, asking the away fans to budge up and make
room?
Over a bottle of Natch in The Three Lions pub in West Street, The Natch Wall hooked up with the boys from When
The Moon Shines, the driving force behind all that has been good in the East End these past seven years, and they
explained how they and a few other like-minded, determined souls gave us back our East End.
“In reality there was no real organised campaign - those really involved didn’t plan much at all but just came up with
a series of ideas with the common goal of reopening the East End to pay-on-the-day supporters. As far back as 2003
there had been a few fan-led attempts to reopen the stand, a brief couple of games with a few City fans back within
Ashton Gate Stands inspired by others and seemingly thousands of posts on forums about the topic.
“After a particularly awful performance at home v Chesterfield (2-4, [Wilkshire, Cotterill]; 9,752) by the team and
fans in 2005, the idea of another attempt at getting the atmosphere reverberating around the old Cow Shed was
discussed in the Three Lions Public House.
“This time we said a petition would be used to show the support for a reopening, but it was to be another eleven
months before this took off, at least outside of a bar and just half-cut waffling blokes nursing pints of cider!
“A year later, September 2006 finally saw The East End petition
appearing via the Subcider site (a fledgling BCFC fans forum) and it was
pushed along by a few ex-Subbers and Three Lions’ regulars (this forum
has now morphed into Ziderheads).
“The petition now stemmed from fans sounding out the newly formed
Bristol City Supporters Trust as a means of reopening our spiritual
home end and we got the not unreasonable response of "Where are
the petitions or some form of peaceful demonstration in support?"
Petition time it was to be then!
“Initially the petition was located in various known City pubs - here in
The Lions, the Three Tuns & Jasper's - and in the hands of the same
small group of City fans on match days . A couple of early amusing faux
pas occurred at this point with flyers comparing AG’s atmosphere to the
moon. In keeping with the East End’s irreverence and off-the-wall