Rangers and the Famous ICF: My Life With Scotland's Most-Feared Football Hooligan Gang Read Online Free PDF Page A

fuck and back if the rest of the boys hadn’t steamed in and rescued me. When I got home Mum had one look at my bloodied face and took me straight to hospital, where I got ten stitches inside my mouth and fourteen on the outside.
    My reputation as someone who could handle himself must have reached the right ears because just a year after I had been told to stay away from the main mob I was invited to join. I had also done some work for them as a spotter and I think they came to realise I was a handy guy to have around. Fourteen years old and a member of the best mob in Britain.
    I had won my spurs.

MEET THE MOB
     
    Fast forward to 2 January 2011.
    A hundred ICF are ensconced in the Swallow hotel, a stone’s throw from Ibrox. We had just watched the traditional New Year’s Day Old Firm derby and had arranged to meet after the game. It wasn’t just for sentimental reasons, although it was as always great to see the boys. We were there to lay a wreath marking the fortieth anniversary of the Ibrox disaster in 1971, when sixty-six Rangers fans tragically lost their lives on Stairway 13 after that year’s traditional Old Firm fixture. Our floral tributes, placed carefully next to the John Greig statue outside Ibrox, were featured heavily on the television news that night. It was the right thing to do. We may be hooligans but first and foremost we are Rangers fans. We love the club as much as anyone.
    We also wanted to remember our fallen comrade, Andy Curran, who had been murdered a few months earlier. What a waste of a life that was. There was a collection in Andy’s memory, which raised £1,200 for his family. I hope it helped.
    As I looked around the bar that afternoon the memories came flooding back. The shared dangers, the dashes, the broken bones and burst lips, above all the laughs we had. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. There were so many great boys there, boys you could rely on when the going got tough. But as my eyes panned round the room I also realised that many of my old friends had passed away, far too many, in fact. That saddened me. I miss every one of them.
    Although Strathclyde police might disagree, I am no longer involved in football violence. The torch has been passed to a new generation, the Rangers Youth. Many of the Youth were in the Swallow and I was chatting happily to them. I think they are well capable of carrying on the good work we did. Mind you they will have to go some to match the boys ofthe ICF. Just have a read of the eight profiles below and you will see what I mean.
    I could have written about so many more people because we have had dozens of outstanding boys over the years, including Bomber, Rab Anderson, the Pedros (K and McL), Deak, Swedgers, Jeff, Scott N and Craw. I have listed them and many more besides in the Hall of Fame at the end of this book.
Barry Johnstone
    Anyone who was ever a member of the ICF will put Barry Johnstone in the top three Rangers boys of all time. He was outstanding in every way: a real leader, a great organiser and possessed of bottle you wouldn’t believe. Barry hailed from the Anderston area of Glasgow but he later moved to Duke Street, the epicentre of everything ICF during our heyday of the mid-to-late Eighties. He was already considered an older lad when I started going and I think he was about four years older than me.
    It was easy to see why he was so respected and why people followed him. He was a big, good-looking man, very popular with the ladies and he had the personality to match. Loud and brash, you always heard Barry before you saw him. But that wouldn’t have mattered one jot if he couldn’t handle himself. And boy could he handle himself. He was as game as anyone I have ever seen in the UK or Europe and believe me I have seen my fair share.
    Barry lived and breathed the ICF and FV. He was one of the first to have ‘ICF’ tattooed inside his lower lip and he would proudly display the tattoo to visiting mobs. Like most of the