Founder and editor of Hammers fanzine ‘Over Land and Sea’ Gary Firminger is retiring at the end of this season to take part in a world tour as a reggae DJ he told the BBC.
Gary is a familiar site in Green Street outside the Boleyn Ground on match days perched on a step ladder selling his fanzine. Firminger tells a BBC4 radio interviwer that he started the fanzine in 1989 when there were around ten fanzines competing at that time. He explains “I looked around and though these were good but I can do better, twenty six years later this is the last season I will be doing it”
“I haven’t missed a game at Upton Park since 1980 and that has taken up a big chunk of my life, in recent times I have become one of the biggest reggae DJ’s in the country. That has given me a new impetus in life and I have got to the stage now where I have been offered a world tour next year, to do that I would need to break my record of coming every home game however the main reason is they are going to the Olympic Stadium and I am an old dinosaur and this is where I belong and I wish everyone well who
goes on but I am not going on with them. My heart will be with them, West Ham nowadays is a totally different environment, I don’t know, when the club gets knocked down and they build houses, that is probably more important for the people living around here then having West Ham come here on a match day. OK the little shops and the food outlets are going to take a kicking like the pie and mash shop and like that, 50% of their taking at least is down to the football matches, it is them I feel sorry for and all that but I do genuinely believe the locals will be happily when we are gone, when we don’t come in on mass and carve up their roads on a match day.” said Firminger
Good Luck for the Future Gary.
I heard the Radio 4 program on Friday morning about leaving Upton Park – it was interesting – you can probably get it on the IPlayer.
Great time to call it a day as we leave the ground,
Hope you enjoy your trip
Thanks for a great service over the years to us fans