10 May, 1997
John Peel had tears in his eyes as he hosted the Hillsborough Justice Concert – unsurprisingly, for a man whose children were named William Anfield, Alexandra Anfield, Thomas Dalglish and Florence Shankly. The day following the Hillsborough disaster, he’d broken down completely. Writer Jimmy McGovern too felt the despair. Like Princess Diana, he contributed a note to the Justice Concert programme. “For eight years, the Hillsborough Families have struggled against overwhelming odds to establish the truth about what happened on April 15th, 1989. They had to confront lies, vicious propaganda and a hopelessly inadequate judicial system and still they have battled for their loved ones.”
The concert was part of that battle, a reminder of the day when 96 people went to a football match in Sheffield and never came home.
Rock The Kop
Subtitled Rock The Kop, the gates to the 1997 concert opened at 2 pm, allowing some 34,000 believers access to Anfield, Liverpool’s traditional field of dreams.
It was pouring, a few hailstones even. The Bootleg Beatles providing the anthem that is Hey Jude, attempted to rouse spirits with some success. Dodgy played an acoustic set and joked that Robbie Fowler would be singing harmonies for them. Local heroes Smaller made Peel smile when they covered Teenage Kicks. Then, a minor miracle.
One young fan named Ally recalls: “It had been raining on and off all afternoon and the sky was overcast. But when Space reached the chorus of Dark Clouds – “Dark clouds drift away to reveal the sunshine” – the clouds parted and the sun shone, causing the crowd to road and applaud.”
At 7.35 pm The Manics took the stage and contributed one of their finest performances, eventually making way for The Beautiful South and headline act, The Lightning Seeds. The latter’s mainman Ian Broudie says it was an unforgettable day.
“At the time of Hillsborough, I was in America,” he remembers, “I remember driving down Fairfax in L.A. on the way to the studio. I looked over at the newsstands and saw the horror depicted in various papers – it was really weird seeing those pictures of the pitch draped in scarves. It was so strange seeing it for all those miles away - I was devastated. “
For years afterwards, Broudie, in common with every other Liverpool fan, retained a sense of injustice, as cover-up followed cover-up. When the call came to take part in the 1997 charity concert – the first rock concert to be held at Anfield – he became instantly involved.
“At the time, I was managed by a guy who also managed Terrorvision and others. “I went to him and said ‘Can we try this?’ and he did a lot to bring the whole thing together. The Beautiful South had a tour arranged, so they didn’t want to be advertised at first (even by May 3 their name had failed to appear on the full-page ads), as they felt it might have an adverse effect on their tour dates. Even so, they said they definitely would play, and it was much the same with the Manics. I had to agree to headline with the Lightning Seeds and then the Manics would play. We obviously knew the Manics and knew that Sean was a lifelong Liverpool supporter, we also knew Dodgy, so things quickly got together. Richard Branson then announced he would underwrite the event. He had V2 at the time and said that if his new group, The Stereophonics, could appear, he would finance the concert.”
“Being a Liverpool fan, I found the concert really daunting, highly charged and emotional.” he continues, “(as was) meeting the families of those who died. I felt Simon Moran’s SJM, the event’s promoters, did a great job but it was all too overwhelming for me. I can’t explain it but everyone knew what they were there for and it was easily the most memorable gig of my career.”
Certainly he was overjoyed when linking with Frank Skinner to reprise their Three Lions anthem. Emotions rose high too when Holly Johnson appeared to turn the stadium into one huge Karaoke ensemble via Ferry Cross The Mersey. But it was the grand finale, when members of every band, backed by a gospel choir, merged vocally with the crowd to deliver a defiant You’ll Never Walk Alone, that provided the most memorable moment of all.
“I’ll never forget it,” says Broudie, “When you look at the film footage of the time and it pans to people in the crowd, so many of them are in tears.”