It hardly needs to be said that this is a tough season to be a Town fan: perhaps one of the toughest since 1954-55. That was the last time Ipswich sank to the third tier, then Division 3 South. Yet undeterred by managerial instability and the threat of relegation, Max Helm and Rich Townend founded Blue Action. Blue Action describes itself as an ‘Active Ipswich Town Supporters Group. North Stand, Section 6.’ They can be found on Twitter as @BlueAction1878 and on Facebook as the Blue Action community group. In an article which was first published in issue 19 of Turnstile Blues, Grant Bage interviewed Max Helm about becoming a fan, making a difference, toeing and crossing the line of ‘good taste’ and much else besides.
Grant. So Max - when did you first get involved as a fan?
Max. I have always loved football. I moved to Ipswich from America when I was 6. My dad is American. It was 1990. I very quickly got into football although at the time I did not have much connection with the area. My mum was from Suffolk but she wasn’t into football, so I developed an interest in Aston Villa. I have to confess - I loved their kit! When you are 6 years old and don’t know anything that’s the sort of thing that matters. But I grew out of that … luckily my mates supported Ipswich and I went to ‘live’ football and loved it. I just gradually started getting into feeling more about where I was from. Seeing like - Alex Mathie in town - I remember having the Gregory boys come to my school when I was a kid. You start to realise “hang on a second, these are real footballers who play for my local side”. It was the late nineties, about 1998/99. I was starting to feel much more of a connection with Ipswich, and I think it tied in with Burley starting to turn us into a decent side. I remember being caught up with all of that. And I also remember bumping into a mate of mine on a paper round who used to go loads. He was a big Town fan and went to lots of away games. And he started to tell me stories about these ramshackle grounds and, to be honest, it was a bit of the edgier side of football. Which when you are 15 starts to become quite exciting. The idea of being part of this tribe, sort of “these are my people”. That really cemented me and I was a Town fan 100%. Then when I went to university it defined me a bit more about where I was from, made it even more “I am from Ipswich and I support Ipswich”. So certainly by the age of 14 or 15 I was smitten from that point on.
Grant. And was it July or August of this year [2018] that you started Blue Action?
Max. In earnest, yes. It’s funny because Rich and I talked about it a couple of years ago … the idea of Blue Action has floated around for a while and gradually it has crystallised. I wrote a blog back then which got a smattering of patronising replies and comments like “good idea … but”. Rich was the only one who replied directly and said “I have done loads of banners and stuff if you want any help with that”. We had a bit of an exchange and then it just fizzled out. Then at the beginning of this season, I think it was after the Blackburn game, I saw something written on social media. It was really annoying - saying that as soon as they equalised it all went flat. Rich responded to it and said “what we really need is a bunch of lads who are just there at every game, making noise”. So I messaged him saying “mate I have been banging on about this sort of stuff for ages”. And it was only then I realised that this was the same bloke who I had spoken to a couple of years before. So we just did it, and got to the point where we said “we’re not going to stop now”. I set up a Facebook group and that seemed to spark things. Both of us went for it - it was after the season started. From then on it has been relentless with us both - every game getting stuff sorted out and organised. It is great, it has really started to get some momentum.
Grant. I have been standing in the North Stand for years - I understand where you are coming from. The increasingly negative atmosphere, the booing, even though I might understand criticism of managers, I totally get where you are coming from. It has been worsening for years. But was there anything in particular that sparked it this time, for you?
Max. I don’t think so, there was no Damascene conversion moment. It was more … times when I thought “bloody hell I go to games and I have not heard a single chant” that blew my mind. There would be games that were a bit dull - but there would always be flashes here and there. Then there were a couple of games where literally nobody had sung a single song. It was getting to the point where, I remember that Rotherham game, where there was an equaliser in the last minute. It was abject, it was awful, and I remember getting really pissed off and I started chanting and then other people started booing. I thought “you have got no right to do that, if you have not been cheering”. I actually don’t think you’ve got a right to do that at all: but certainly if all you do is stand there in silence and the only thing you do, the only contribution you make as a supporter is to boo and jeer. Then I think it is a disgrace frankly. After that it was the first game where I actually started leaving 2 or 3 minutes before the end, if we had played crap: because I could not stand it when people started booing. I wasn’t leaving to beat the traffic, or because I had some other engagement. It was because I would have stopped going altogether as the atmosphere was so crap. But I think you reach a certain point in your life where, perhaps you are getting a little bit more active if there is something that you don’t like. You start to do something about it - rather than moaning about it. Put your money where your mouth is, sort of thing. That is where we are now.
Grant. Section 6 have been trying to improve the atmosphere for years. How does what you do relate to section 6?
Max. After university when my wife and I moved back in 2012, really from then on I thought “I just cannot wait to get myself a season-ticket. I am going to be at Ipswich every Saturday until the day I die”. I remember hearing about section 6 then, and thinking that I wanted to be part of a supporters group. I thought it was going to be an organised thing but it was more diffused. Section 6 was just a sparsely populated part of the ground - and that became the area where the more vociferous, kind of up-for-it lads began to congregate.
For Rich and me, ultimately we want to end up in the centre of the stand. But we realise that there is a ready-made group in section 6. That is the area with a higher number of those kinds of fans we want to make Portman Road a great place to be … Some of this is down to the vagaries of all-seater stadiums - you have little clusters, and everybody is split up. But you need a focal point. That is an issue we have in the North Stand. There are quite a few people who you wonder “what are you really doing here?” It is one thing not getting involved, I don’t begrudge that. But it is another thing being negative and almost looking down at people, because you want to sing and make a bit of a racket. And even now with this Blue Action thing some people are saying “why are you even trying - because we are still playing so crap?” And stuff like “I ain’t waving that flag, don’t you try and make me” sort of thing. That’s when I think “what are you even doing here?” We are trying to rally against that, which has really got set in. Come on you huddled masses - learn to chant free! That is what we want to do. It is getting there. A real kick on was the QPR home game when we lost two-nil. But in the last 15 minutes we chanted non-stop. That was a turning point. It is positivity, it is non-stop noise, and ultimately we want to start adding a little bit of imagination to it. A lot of what we do now is derivative. I guess it’s always been like that to an extent but …
Grant. I was going to ask you about the chants and the songs. Starting with a difficult question: the Delia chants. I hate it when people won’t sing and are negative, and don’t support the team. But there’s a few chants that I also really hate - and most of the other Turnstile Blues do too. Why do we have to sing about Delia dying, or being a whore? She’s a good woman - and might even have been a better owner for us. She probably tried to be because we all know - she used to be an Ipswich supporter! So what do you feel, about some of those Delia songs?
Max. That’s an interesting point. I think I’m gonna’I have to be honest with you and say we would join in just to keep things going. We might differ on this front. I think you have to accept that although there is an argument against it, you have to dance with the devil a little bit. And to have an atmosphere, that less savoury element is never going to be far away. Personally the chants that we come up with are more just in support of Ipswich. However if somebody was to start singing that Delia stuff - then we would join in just to keep things going. I’m not going to apologise about it - I think it is not great. But if we try to make football too pleasant or nice we will lose a bit of that kind of edge, that makes a football crowd exciting. This is an uncomfortable issue for a lot of people. I think it was Russell Brand (of all people) who was talking about football. He said that what makes football grounds and football crowds so exciting is the threat, that at any moment it could all kick off. Not that it actually kicks off - but that threat that it could, you kind of have to keep that. And if it does mean singing some choice songs - well you need that. Others might argue that you can still be raucous without them. But I would say there are far worse songs. That horrendous Justin Fashanu one: we would not sing and we would crack down on that. But it has died out organically anyway, I have not heard a person sing that in years.
Grant. I think the last time I heard it was about probably about 18 months or 2 years ago? It was isolated, but I heard it.
Max. Yes because most people just don’t, it is not something that people want to do. I think that is the healthiest way to deal with a lot of these things. Because it just shows a fundamental cultural change. If people come in legislating against it - legislation doesn’t really convert people, they just follow a rule. So it might get to a point where those sort of songs die out naturally anyway. Does that make sense? It is not to everyone’s taste but…
Grant. I understand where you’re coming from - the point about the excitement of the crowd is that it is always unpredictable - unpredictability gives it something. The witticisms, the repartee - sometimes those push the edges of taste. But might people also be different in a crowd than they are individually, and not in a good way?
Max. Yes … but if we have a totalitarianism of how we think and act - I mean all human beings have a dark side and a light side. People do not need to try to clean everything up all the time, within reason. Obviously people mustn’t go too far but … sometimes I like to go both barrels and call the ref everything under the sun. I will not apologise for that. We have different personas and different masks that we wear. Ultimately if we try to cleanse everything that will be self-destructive.
Grant. If you get too prissy or authoritarian about it then you can also play into the hands of people like the Football Lads Alliance - the sort of nasty Right who have always tried to use football. I remember the National front doing it in the 1970s, trying to infiltrate football. Not just trying to infiltrate they actually did. And now we have got the Football Lads Alliance who are trying to do some of that…
Max. Yes. Different names and different acronyms but you will always get some of that. Because a football crowd is still, despite the best efforts of the authorities, a working class environment. You have a lot of vulnerable kids in there who are going to be perhaps susceptible to that sort of thing. So you have to bend a little rather than trying to become too zealous, because you will create another problem. If you let a football crowd behave in slightly unsavoury ways sometimes, they may then be less likely to go to the extremes.
Grant. Have you ever seen the Football Lads Alliance trying to influence?
Max. No, never at home games. Perhaps the only time I have seen anything like it was at Brentford last season when I think there were some ‘free Tommy Robinson leaflets’. But not at Ipswich anyway. Though at Birmingham last season I did also see some bloke handing out flyers.
Grant. So what about new songs Max? Where do you get your songs from?
Max. The one that has really got going is ‘every Saturday we follow’. That has really taken off. That was Rich. We were just singing it over and over again until section 6 joined in. And then we posted the lyrics on Twitter. Me and Rich are steeped in the terrace culture. Sad as it is, I love watching YouTube clips and films of fans at various grounds. And we think: that’s cool, that’s a funny little chant, let’s try and get that going. I think we are in a position now where people know who we are. And if we start getting chants going then they get involved. We hear chants that other clubs sing and we will put our own words to it, to the melody. We are trying to come up with some of our own but number one at the moment, rather than trying to come up with something different, is to get everybody singing. But it would be cool to come up with something and then hear other clubs singing it and think “we started that one”.
Grant. That is what can be great about football culture. It just spreads: there is no control over it.
Max. Yeah it’s democratic - a bit like hip-hop culture back in the day, sampling and bootlegging. It has that community feel. But ultimately we would like to start coming up with some of our own. Now we all know each other by name and are adding to the What’sApp Group. Eventually when we have about 30 people who are committed and up for it every game, then we hope to relocate to the middle of the North Stand. Then we can say “right let’s get this chant going, all of us go” and the rest of the stand might start joining in.
Grant. Yes - at the Wigan game there was a group of lads behind me and they really sang, then it did spread. It doesn’t take many people to start it.
Max. Exactly. ‘Every Saturday we follow’ was literally me and Rich who steamrollered it through. It just takes a few of you. I remember that Wigan game and it was much more noticeable. But that is something else that we need to tackle, the discordant singing from different sides of the stand. We don’t want competing songs. If somebody comes up with a song we want to carry it because at the moment there can be 2 or 3 different groups singing.
Grant. I try to listen and get the timing right to join in … but you have to listen very carefully and then you can spread it. We have to get the timing right - which is quite difficult.
Max. Yes, that’s quite an art form that is. There’s no doubt that some of what we are trying to do is modelled on that European’ ultra’ tradition …
Grant. I was going to ask you about that. Do you think that that continental and South American ‘ultra’ model - can that term really apply in England?
Max. Well we don’t use that term. We never say that we are an ‘ultra’ group. We see ourselves as a supporters group. Perhaps in time a better, snappier name may evolve but you can’t force it. What we are keen to do is to take the good stuff about that ‘ultra’ tradition, like the colour. One thing we are doing that is genuinely different is the displays. So at the West Brom game, the banner and the flags. We have another one planned in the future that we will say more about in time. But what we really want to do is to maintain those things that are so cool about English crowds, that creativity. One thing we absolutely will not do, unequivocally, is to have a bloke standing with a megaphone. Because it sounds shit frankly, and it just gets boring. It is just one person telling everybody else what to do. What we want is to be in the crowd and pick up the chants that someone else comes up with. Perhaps try to get one going, but if somebody comes up with a chant on the other side then to support that. We want to keep that spontaneity. As we talked about before if something funny happens, if somebody comes up with a chant about a player or something that happened, we want to pick up on that. We want to try and get the best of both worlds. So it is different.
Grant. Have you seen what the Holmesdale fanatics at Crystal Palace have done?
Max. Yes of course. That’s is your precedent in England. But again that is sometimes perhaps a little cheesy? Actually not cheesy, that’s a bit harsh. But some of the artwork in that hip-hop style is not quite my own personal taste. In our case if there was a really big group of people who wanted a particular style then I would go with it and say “fair enough”. But they have people who arrange the songs and matching black T-shirts and stuff. Those are a few things there that are not to my particular taste. But the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. Because when you look at it you think “I want to be in there. That looks mega that looks so cool”. And that is 100% the sort of thing that we want to create.
Grant. Yes - my mate is a Palace fan. They have made a big difference. I think they helped keep Palace up. And the stuff that the club (Palace) did earlier this season with the row about tickets for them - that didn’t help the team.
Max. Yes and at Ipswich earlier - when the whole section 6 thing fell a bit flat, I don’t think the club were really willing to accommodate it. I hope they perhaps now realise that the crowd is dwindling, and it has become such an unpleasant place, that they will be much more receptive and are trying to remove some of the obstacles. But that instance of the Palace fanatics – it just goes to show that there is still this very old school, draconian perception of organised fandom. We hope that will start to die out. We need to accept, especially with clubs like Ipswich and Palace that are pretty similar really, that our fortunes will always fluctuate on the pitch. We are not like the cartel at the top of the Premier league who have got it all rigged, so they are guaranteed trophies every year. Our fortunes will always fluctuate. But one area we can succeed in and guarantee something, is in the stands. On the terraces. We have complete control over that. And it is one thing I wanted to say at the AGM actually, about this idea that Evans has that “as soon as we start doing well the fans will come flocking back”. They will - but that could be a long way away, if at all. We need to start thinking about that. How can we make Portman Road an interesting and fun place to be? One answer is people like us, to facilitate people like us if possible, because that 14 or 15-year-old will look up (like I did) and think “that is really cool I want to be part of it”. They are playing shit on the pitch - but I can still have a lot of fun, and that will be the experience that I cannot get anywhere else. I cannot go to the cinema and get that. I cannot sit on my computer and get that. So if you want to look at it even in crass business terms - that will be the USP of the football club. Wash my mouth out with soap for using such terms, but ultimately that is something of what it is about.
Grant. I get that. You and I are really quite similar …
Max. Yes there are hundreds of us out there - we just need to get them together.
Grant. Looking ahead and thinking about trying to ensure that football still gets crowds - there’s a job to do with attracting more female fans and more culturally and ethnically varied and diverse support. How can fans singing be fun and raucous - but also attract as many women as men, and families as well as youths?
Max. I think we may underestimate how much girls like to get stuck in. We have this idea that girls are demure: no. There are a lot of girls out there who want to make a row and jump about. In section 6 there are girls in there and they sing and get involved. Maybe we just need to say to girls “you are welcome, come over”. Don’t feel that it is boys only. It’s not like that at all. The one pre-requisite is that you are positive and will make a noise for 90 minutes. Whether you are male or female, gay or straight, old school Suffolk or fresh off the boat - we are one. I would love to see the Club really get behind getting migrants into the ground more. I don’t think we do enough. I would like to see the club actually target the Bulgarian, Romanian, Polish communities. These are football countries and they love their football. The kids I teach from Romania love it, love it, they love their football. If I worked in the marketing department I would be sticking posters up in Polish or other languages saying stuff like “support your local team - you are from Ipswich now get over here”. Although the fact of the matter is that lots of these people are working zero hours’ contracts and there is not much money. Local people struggle and that is an issue. If you are a seasonal picker or a car washer, you can’t really afford to come. So that’s actually perhaps more of a barrier.
Grant. As we saw with the charity ticket initiative, a lot of people took advantage of that and supported it. There are lots of people who cannot afford football. I agree that the Club could be so much more imaginative in how we present ourselves. Turnstile Blues have long argued for that, ever since we began. One reason we started as a one-off fanzine in 2012 was because the Club was being run by managers who did not know how to appeal to the community, to the crowds, to get things moving and keep attendances up. That all came (I think) from the ownership and the people the owner appointed as business leaders. They were not really football fans. They had a crude, ineffectual model of how to communicate with the community. So why has it changed a bit in the last few months? Is it Paul Lambert, or is Marcus Evans having a rethink?
Max. Well for us – it is not that we were inspired by Paul Lambert, or the appointment of Hurst. Maybe after a long period of aloofness, maybe Marcus Evans has woken up and thought “hang on a second I need to get football people in here, I need to do something that is going to work”. I don’t know - you would have to ask him! Though of course you cannot get anywhere near him. A penny for his thoughts mate. Certainly for us - the timing was incidental. I think actually the fact that we are not doing too well, this could be a lot better. Because we might have had a lot of flakes or insincere people if we were sitting pretty in the Premier league. But now we know that if we can get something going in what potentially will be the worst season in the modern history of the club ... Well? And to be perfectly honest, it feels like it will be…
Grant. That was going to be my last question. Will we stay up?
Max. I sincerely hope so, but that should be secondary. Blue Square South or the Premier league, we are a constant. I think we will struggle to stay up, but in some ways I also don’t care. I do care - but it is not going to stop what we are doing. If anything it is going to make us work harder.
Grant. Perhaps that is what football is actually about? The relationships as fans that we have with the Club and with each other? And with this idea of who we are. For me that is an inspiring and motivating thing - and that is what Turnstile Blues try to bring out. That this relationship between the club and its fans makes football special. Or at least, it can do.
Max. The analogy I use when I am teaching, and trying to battle against glory hunters, is that is that what you feel watching Liverpool on TV is nothing - compared to what you will feel if your local side does well. The kids might say “oh they are rubbish Sir” but it’s not about that. I say to them, think about it as your best mate. Imagine he or she is going through something, perhaps the parents have split up or there is some problem going on. They’re not much fun to be around. What are you going to do, just bin them off? And then in a couple of years’ phone up and say “oh do you want to be mates again?” We need to stand by the things we love. What does that say about you if you just flit in and out when there is glory to be had?
Grant. Perhaps Paul Lambert is the right kind of manager to change things? I loved Mick McCarthy - but he has never had a straightforward relationship with fans, where ever he has been.
Max. No. And the Paul Hurst thing, I really don’t know what went wrong there. Nobody envisaged that. But now may be it is the time and things may click into place.
Grant. Now I have to ask you - and this is the only question to which you can lie. How much do you love Turnstile Blues?
Max. I genuinely love it. I have always bought copies. Honestly that’s not a complete lie! I love the fanzine movement. For me any DIY activism is good, and there’s been some articles in there … like last season there was one from an insider about when Evans first took over. And it was a depressing read actually, but it was very well written. I remember reading that and thinking “oh that’s good”. That is what fanzines are all about. A proper story. Love it and 100% behind it. I need to read Turnstile Blues a lot more to be perfectly honest… And our mission is similar. We want to change the narrative and change the culture. That is 100% what we are doing…