This weeks blog starts with some pissed up mates in the pub making a list of all the things they’re fed up about. This sounds like a great idea for a sitcom, the start of Men Behaving Badly perhaps? Maybe, but if you’re like me you’ll instantly recognise that this is in fact how many fanzines started, The (Leyton) Orientear being one and a very important one at that.

Last weekend I was very grateful to be invited down to an exhibition in the old changing room under the stand at Brisbane Road, home of Leyton (more on this later) Orient and what a brilliant thing it was. For 2 hours this evocative space was full of people gawking at history literally writ large, a brilliant collection of print, pictures and relics from a nearly bygone age. Nearly because Leyton Orient still have two fanzines, the Leyton Orientear and Pandamonium a feat only surpassed by Manchester United, Celtic and Nottingham Forest. The room was also filled with happiness, old friends reconnecting, old friends remembered, old memories resurfacing. It was truly joyful.

I was there as an imposter, no history for me in this tremendous part of London, I was there to listen, to burrow away at the riches held within this hive mind. Before we get to that lets consider why the Orientear is so important: We’ve traced about 57 fanzines produced in the wider East London area over the years. Quite a number and that 4 fanzines of the 74 fanzine still produced today hail from in this small area of England is quite remarkable. That 2 of them are Orient fanzines, Pandamonium and Leyton Orientear means you have 2 of the top 2 Premier League of longest running fanzines of all time, 75 years and counting between them, that is quite incredible.

A life of between 2 and 5 years was about average for a fanzine (and we’ve found 11 so far that were one offs, 1 edition only)  And the fact that Orient had so few is mirrored commonly with clubs that have big famous, high quality zines; competitors are scared and scarce.

So let’s look back at just a few of the brilliant things that have appeared in the ‘Ear.

Cover Story

I do love the 300 not out cover but in terms of classics issue 204 does it for me. A weak joke, based around a pun which was also the name of a long since gone O’s fanzine…and it almost certainly infringes copy AND trademark law. A fanzine classic!

Angry From Tunbridge Wells

The letters pages in fanzines were always great, and the Orientear doesn’t let us down. The Leyton Orientear issue 165 from April 2005 carries this letter claiming that diminutive popster Moby was “chucked down the stairs” by a female steward at Cambridge and raises important questions about ground safety and the provision of vegan food in grounds

History

History features frequently in fanzines and in the same issue of The Orientear we get this tremendous piece about the club on a preseason tour of Spain…A jolly boys outing from the 80s? No, it’s Clapton Orient on the road in May 1914!

The picture of “a pub team from Bilbao” is quite brilliant and when I researched this a bit (the internet is good for some things, take fanzine blogs for example) I found out that the tour of 6 matches in the Basque region had been preceded by 2 matches in Denmark and was followed by a match against Huddersfield in Paris! Cider at three and a half old pence for 19 glasses seems like a bit of a bargain.

I checked and don’t worry, it was definitely Gavrilo Princip who started the war, nothing to do with Orient’s tactics.

The fanzine was also responsible for preserving valuable club history. Told to clear out an old office one day the founders found all sorts of memorabilia in there, photos, documents and even a cup inscribed for Clapton Orient as the club had originally been known. These riches were carted off and still lie in lofts waiting for an appropriate space.

Poetry and Pseuds Corner

Like a majority of fanzines, poetry featured. In some cases you have to wonder if this was just to fill up some space. This example from issue 43 being a classic of that genre.

Issue 42 carries what was an ongoing feature, Sid The Surrealist. I have no idea but I love it.

Q&A

Creator Dave Knight unfortunately passed away a while ago and was commemorated on the cover of issue 267.

He was part of a trio there right from the beginning so imagine my joy then when I met 2 of the three original musketeers, Stefan Pitcher and Gary James who created the Orientear fanzine all those years ago. One of the three was insider, working as a groundsman at the club so he provided both some juicy stories but also a modicum of control, knowing his cover being blown would mean the end of his employment. (In the true spirit of journalism after all these years we will keep protecting our sources!)

Where to start? “Well yes, the name is a pun on “orient ear” listening to the fans and guiding them out from under the darkness of club silence.” I know that the name of the other long running Orient zine is also a pun. Someone bought a bottle of panda pop at a service station on the way home from a game, dropped the bottle and well, Pandamonium ensued.

No music in the name for a change but the fanzine did eventually release a flex disc single, proudly on display in the exhibition. Cooperman (super) Cooperman was released with a magnificent b side called Leyton Orient scored more goals. It didn’t trouble the charts but it did get played by John Peel.

Basically the Orientear started because fans were just fed up with lack of info coming out of club and decided to get on with it themselves. Issue 1’s editorial bemoans the fact that fans were “Not being given a voice, let alone any part of the decision-making process…what the hell is going on?”

A socialist ethos was also part of this, Thatchernomics were sweeping the country and the hurt was being felt in the less well off communities like Leyton with the loadsamoney ethos and the dreaming spires of Canary Wharf leaching money away from poor communities. Trickle down money would never arrive and, because the good people of Leyton aren’t stupid, they already saw this. Frank Clark, born in a depressed north east mining village recognised this all too well. I’m very proud of my Frank Clark Top Trump card.

Were things always great with the club? “No, there was always suspicion and the fanzine sellers were often moved off their pitches by club officials or the police” Skirmishes really, never a war and finally Frank Clark, manager of the time sought out the names of the three musketeer and they were called to a meeting. With the aims and frustrations of the fanzine clarified a full truce was called and they were allowed to sell inside the ground.The first run was 100 copies soon they were selling 500 but still only had the two sellers!

The fanzine was also active and responsible for getting racists banned from the club when a long campaign finally cut through. Manager Frank Clark called the zine in for another meeting as he had heard enough after one particularly bad game away from home so called the fanzine trio in and asked if they knew who the protagonists were. They didn’t but names were soon supplied from the fanzine fan base and that was that, bans were issued. The fanzine didn’t rest on their laurels though and the fight continues to this day. Here is just one of the many great articles to have appeared down the years, this one from issue 204 in 2010

Many people were proud to tell me that women featured in the fanzine from the early days, not unknown but rare at the time. Take this article from Issue 17 which appears to have been the first from Sarah Tabor, a great article it is as well, March 1988..

This support continued through the years through articles and coverage of the Orient Women’s team right from the get go. The fight for inclusion continues, this from issue 300 in 2025

What about the famous kicking footballer logo? Where did that come from? Is it an old Orient player? is it part of club history? errrr. “Well no, we saw it on the cover from a 1950’s Doncaster Rovers programme I think, anyway we liked it so nabbed it for the fanzine, been there ever since!”

See the name there without the Leyton? “Perhaps best thing the fanzine we did was get Leyton back in the club name” Oh, was that a big campaign? “Well not really, it was something we suggested to the chairman of the time, Tony Wood, he was a lovely fella and he just said yes, bloody good idea. So the next season the name was changed with the Football League!! ” Wikipedia adds ” FYI the choice of the name Orient came about at the behest of a player, Jack R Dearing, who was an employee of the Orient Steam Navigation Company later part of P&O It was suggested that the name would bring an air of mystique to the club, while also referencing their location in the ‘east’ end of London

I met many other people, old fans still bristling at the loss of the working man’s place in the game, the fact that racist goons still occasionally drag their knuckles around grounds despite direct action in fanzines (and West Ham fans once overturning and setting fire to a NF stand outside the Boleyn) plus a young music fan wanting to start his own fanzine and wondering what might inspire him. He couldn’t believe the Pete Doherty chronicles as told in these pages. https://footballfanzineculture.blog/2025/08/14/when-will-i-will-i-be-famous-a-side/

A great time was had by all. I’ll leave you with a few more images from the day. My thanks to everyone at the club and the Leyton Orientear for putting this on and making me so welcome on the day. Long may you continue to thrive and fight the good fight.