In honour of today’s Tyne-Wear derby we take a trip back to October 1989 and issue 4 of the venerable old gentleman that still is A Love Supreme from Sunderland..though it was actually based in Newcastle back then. Tremendous cover,

The editorial reports an inability to beat Newcastle (both teams in Division 2 or the championship at this time), something of a voodoo now banished. There is a “call to arms” to the Fullwell end, despite some good football, the Roker end is the noise maker. This was to be a succesful season for Sunlun’, gaining promotion via the playoffs despite losing to Swindon in the final. Swindon were “disqualified” from promotion due to some financial shenanigans, Chelsea take note.

The Batman news might just have been a spoof and for sure could have appeared in this week’s blog about copyright. https://footballfanzineculture.blog/2026/03/19/fanzines-and-the-menace-of-copyright/

An early theme for the fanzine was a strident anti racist stance. There was little fear of calling out knuckleheaded morons despite being a new kid in the block. It’s really horrific reading this article and even sadder that 37 years on at today’s game had to be halted after horrific racism again but bravo to ALS for being so outspoken from the start. Grow up indeed. (I have left the article unedited because, well dear god it is awful thinking back to this sort of thing in football stadia)

There is support later in the fanzine for the Roker against Racism campaingn by the Tyne and Wear anti fascist association one of many associations up and down the country that were linked with or supported to fanzines. The sort of association that Thatcher and her minions probably called commies. They continue their work today joined with Unison and you can get in touch here https://www.twafa.org.uk/

More positive creativity is seen in some poetry, describing a dream team from a dream. It recalls past glories of course and isn’t half bad as a line up, even at this distance. As we’ve said before there was a lot more poetry in fanzines than people realise, right from the very start. https://footballfanzineculture.blog/2026/02/19/the-spontaneous-overflow-of-powerful-feelings-poetry-in-fanzines/

There is a tremendous little piece about local non league. I suspect one of the contributors was also a secret Darlo fan. A small number of fanzines did this and quite honestly I think many fanzines should have done more with some local non league news. Darlo did bounce back immediately and bounced right up to the 3rd division after that before the dreadful decline precipitated by the Reynolds Arena era and oblivion in 2012. Thankfully Darlington 1883 came along and with the name FC now restored they are in National league north, one division below Hartlepool.

There are fantastic features about Bovril rankings and an almost deranged letter about Len Ashurst, a transistor radio and a boat in Norway but I’m saving them for upcoming blogs on food and correspondence in fanzines.

We will finish with a bang however by including the advert on the back cover for the Riverside…not the smoggies home, that wasn’t build until 1995. The Riverside was a legendary venue in Newcastle, set up as a left wing co-operative ironically using funding from Thatcher’s government. (Each member had a share and a vote on how the venue was run)

Look at the names on that list!!! Mudhoney, Fugazi, Del Amitri, Brendan Croker, The Young Gods!! Obviously, along with the prices, the gig that stands out is Nirvana as support for a band called TAD. I did some research and apparently this was Nirvana’s first ever gig outside of North America.

I also found a superb article from Bruce Pavitt about this tour which has a quite sublime opening paragraph “In mid-October of 1989, Kurt Cobain was in Europe holding a plastic basin full of vomit. The puke belonged to Tad Doyle, the 300-pound former butcher from Idaho who, at the time, had found mild success with his grunge band, Tad. Nirvana and Tad were out on a 42-day, 37-show European tour together, and dealing with Doyle’s gastrointestinal malfunctions had somehow become one of Kurt’s daily responsibilities—he would go on to name the song ‘Imodium,’ later retitled ‘Breed’ on Nevermind, after Doyle’s antidiarrhea medicine.” You can read the whole article here https://www.vice.com/en/article/on-tour-with-nirvana/

Football, Bovril, anti fascists, left wing co-operatives, Batman, Norway, music and music history…POW! BIFF! SPLAT!!, Now that is a fanzine and thank goodness it still plies its trade today.