FeatureFive tales of flags, banners and more from new book 'The Art of Liverpool FC'

Well, now you can, thanks to a fantastic new book, The Art of Liverpool FC, which across nearly 300 pages celebrates the talent, devotion and originality of the creative culture surrounding the Reds.

Released just in time for Christmas, the hardcover book – written by LFC programme editor David Cottrell – takes you on a tour of Anfield, its surrounding areas and beyond, revealing the history and inspiration behind some of sport’s most famous artwork, possessions and statues.

• Get your copy of The Art of Liverpool FC at our online store here

Here’s a peek at five stories from the book…

Munchin’ Gladbach

It was a pair of Reds supporters, Phil Downey and Jimmy Cummings, who in 1977 created one of the best-loved and most iconic banners in Liverpool history.

The Reds were on their way to their first European Cup final, with left-back Joey Jones a key part of Bob Paisley’s great side.

Ahead of the second leg of the quarter-final against Saint-Etienne at Anfield, Downey and Cummings created a 6ft x 4ft banner with the words ‘JOEY EATS FROGS LEGS’.

When FC Zurich were swept aside in the semis, they added that Jones had ‘MADE THE SWISS ROLL’.

And then, ahead of the final against Borussia Monchengladbach in Rome, Phil’s mum produced the iconic, final line: ‘NOW HE’S MUNCHING GLADBACH’. A new 24ft x 8ft banner was born and the rest is history.

Having spent years in Jones’ house, the banner now resides in the LFC Museum at Anfield.

“It’s nice to be reminded about it because they could have made that banner about any player in that team, not one of the lesser-known ones like myself,” he says. “So I have always appreciated that and I feel honoured that they made it in my name – I think as much of that banner as I do of my medal.”

The Shankly Gates

The famous Shankly Gates were officially opened in 1982, but the man who designed and built them has only ever returned to Anfield twice since!

Ken Hall was just 25 years old when, across 10 hectic weeks, he created the iconic three-ton gates from his foundry in Somerset.

“I’d been a Liverpool fan for years, since the Keegan and Toshack era of the early 1970s,” Hall later recalled. “It was my father who originally saw the advert in the paper for a Shankly memorial. We rang up and eventually got through to [club secretary] Peter Robinson, who gave us the number of the architects [Mather & Nutter].

“They gave us the brief and our design was one of 10 which were submitted. The story goes that they were all laid out on a table in front of the selection committee which included Mrs Shankly, who chose ours. There was nothing to touch it, she said.

“I remember when we got the phone call my dad said I went as white as a sheet – we were in shock!”

Today you can still make out, at waist height next to the central deadlock, a small brass panel engraved with the words ‘SHANKLY GATES DESIGNED & MANUFACTURED BY COUNTY FORGE 1982’, followed by an old telephone number with an obsolete area code.

“I’ve only been back to Anfield twice since,” Ken said. “The last time, we were in a taxi heading for the ground and when we told the driver he wouldn’t charge us for the fare.”

The Kop Super Flag

If you’ve ever sat or stood on the Kop, the chances are you’ve touched Frank Graceffa’s ‘Super Flag’ at some point.

The epic, 130ft x 80ft masterpiece began life as a modest 30ft x 30ft club crest in the early 2000s, but has since grown to become one of Anfield’s most famous flags, one which is passed across the Kop by supporters prior to each game.

It was also the centrepiece of the Kop backdrop when the Reds returned to action for behind-closed-doors matches at Anfield during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Frank was born in Sicily but is very much a Scouser, and has also created flags for Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson, as well as a Hillsborough flame and a ‘Ring of Fire’ tribute.

“It’s a sacrifice you have to make,” he says. “You have to do these things for the love of the club.

“If it’s a headache, then I love having headaches because for me that means success for Liverpool Football Club. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Peter Carney’s perfect tributes

Matchgoers will have seen Peter Carney’s many flags and banners at Anfield, even if they weren’t aware who was behind them.

Peter’s most famous creations are his Hillsborough banners. The original version has been described by one cultural historian as ‘unique and irreplaceable’. A second changes the words from ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ to ‘We Never Walk Alone’ and includes the names of some of the survivors as well as those who were lost. At its centre is a white Liver bird in padded material and there are eternal flames in silk and even pockets to hold bouquets of flowers.

Peter also made a flag for Seán Cox, the supporter who suffered life-changing injuries outside Anfield before the Champions League semi-final first leg against AS Roma in April 2018, which Liverpool’s players then unfurled after the second leg in Italy, while at the funeral of Tommy Lawrence that same year, the former Reds goalkeeper’s coffin was draped with one of Peter’s flags.

“He’s recording history in a way,” says lifelong supporter Peter Hooton. “It’s the Scouse Bayeux Tapestry. Peter will go down in posterity.

“If I wanted someone to make a banner for my funeral, it’d be Peter Carney.”

The Era of the Mural

The modern era has brought an explosion of spectacular street art celebrating all things LFC, with a host of murals appearing around Anfield.

The likes of Salah, Ian Rush, Roberto Firmino, Missy Bo Kearns, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ray Clemence and Jordan Henderson have all been celebrated; as, naturally, has Reds boss Jürgen Klopp.

John Culshaw, the man behind the murals of Salah on Anfield Road, Alisson Becker on Walton Breck Road, and Steven Gerrard, Luis Diaz and Sir Kenny Dalglish on the walls of the famous Sandon Hotel in Anfield, told Liverpoolfc.com: “People don’t necessarily realise that they actually enjoy art [because] they don’t go to museums and art galleries.

“But with street art, they don’t realise that they’re going to see it until they do – and then they realise that they enjoyed it.

“When I’m in Anfield, I just knock on houses and ask if they’d be interested in having something on the wall, and most people say ‘yeah’. Everybody in that whole Anfield area loves football and, like I say, they may not realise that they love art too, but they do.”

• Get your copy of The Art of Liverpool FC at our online store here