Todays fanzine of the day is issue 20 of Heart’s fanzine Always The Bridesmaid from September 1996. The name of course refers to Hearts long run of Hampden heartbreaks which has continued up to the current day with a 2025 Scottish cup semi final loss to Aberdeen courtesy of some “frustrating” refereeing decisions. Anyway, a bridesmaid appeared on the cover of many issues of ATB

French of the cover, very fancy but commemorating a calamitous goalkeeping error in the most recent Hampden heartsbreaks. The editorial and comment here are perhaps influenced by the cup final defeat but hopeful for the season to come… Little did they know that a few months later they would lose again to Rangers in the 1996 league cup final otherwise goodness knows what the editorial would be like. I’ve left the details of the contributors up as there was healthy female representation here, not that this was totally unusual but because it is worth remembering that female contributors to fanzines were much more common than people assume.

There is something of a humblebrag piece about the cup final with the author listing all of the media appearances they had made in the run up. A great reminder of how influential and (almost) mainsstream fanzines were..

There is a lovely piece about another chance meeting with a footballer, this time one of Heart’s “legends”, Wayne Foster. Foster was at Partick by now but had appeared 160 times for the Jambos, scoring a somwhat meagre 12 goals in the process. However, he will always be remembered by Hearts fans for scoring a late winner in a 1994 cup tie vs Hibs, coming on as sub and extending Hearts undefeated run vs Hibs to 21 games. Nearly an interview.

Now no one in their right mind condones violence but the “Fantasy Violence League” is truly an inspired idea. The thought that Albion Rovers could suddenly be “competitive” vs the Old Firm is majestic and Brian Laudrup Vs Rod McDonald sounds great.

McDonald has an obscure claim to fame as in 1996, during his spell playing for Partick Thistle, McDonald received a yellow card for making the sign of the cross on leaving the field of play at half-time and also has not one but two sons who also made it in professional football.

Finally we have a spoof letter that is very close to the bone and a tremendous story about a dreadful telesales job attempting to sell double glazing to the Rangers Vice Chairman. I can imagine they might have landed themselves in trouble for some of this though Donald would land himself in enough trouble over the coming years with far worse comments and singing.

A tremendous fanzine with high quality and passionat writing throughout. Could do with more terrible photos perhaps but another issue of ATB will appear in a floodlight Friday post soon covering that base.