Out nowNew book brings glorious colour to LFC's rich tapestry

Old Liverpool FC In Colour, released today in celebration of the club’s 130th anniversary year, features a unique selection of photographs that have only previously been seen in black and white or, in some cases, not at all.

Each has gone through a comprehensive and transformative colourisation process that shines fresh light on many of the crucial and glorious moments on the Reds’ timeline.

Beginning with the club’s foundation in 1892, Old Liverpool FC In Colour carries readers on a thrilling, century-long journey through the people, places and moments that have made LFC.

Every picture is accompanied by a text entry that provides deeper context to its significance and reveals the back story behind the moment in time.

The book has been a labour of love for colouriser George Chilvers and writer and researcher Mark Platt, whose work in tandem has added a new dimension to the tapestry of Liverpool FC’s history.

“Until someone invents a way to travel back in time, this is the closest we will ever get to seeing the rise of Liverpool as it would have been viewed by our ancestors, who were lucky enough to experience it first-hand all those years ago,” says Platt.

“Trawling through old photographs has seemingly never been more popular. They reconnect us with the past in a way no other medium allows and bring precious memories flooding back and generate fresh discussion about that particular subject matter.

“Hopefully, this book will serve the exact same purpose and, with every picture having been revitalised in full colour, provide an even more immersive experience.”

Chilvers took the first steps towards becoming a colourisation expert as a child, using pencils to make his treasured black and white football annuals more vivid.

The progress of technology and the arrival of Photoshop and home computing allowed him to explore new possibilities, digitally adding colour to images in his spare time.

Following Chilvers’ retirement in 2011, he was able to dive even more deeply into the process, leading the former Kop season ticket holder to this passion project.

Explaining his methods, he says: “I carefully select areas. I select the grass areas and tint them green, I select Liverpool shirts and tint them red (if it’s the home shirt of course), I select skin areas and tint them a flesh colour. Slowly, layer after layer of different colours build up until we have the whole image in colour.

“There are huge subtleties. Foregrounds are bright and sharp, backgrounds are muted. Close-up crowds have a variety of faces and colours, a distant crowd has a certain familiar look.

“I have learned better ways of doing things over the last 10 years and have even improved techniques while working on this project. You’re never too old to learn.

“A very basic portrait can take just a couple of hours. Bigger and more complex pictures take much longer, spread over days, and some cases weeks.”

You might be wondering, how exactly does Chilvers know which colours to use?

“Obviously skies are blue and grass is green. But depending on when in the year that picture is taken, what the weather was like, whether it was muddy or rainy, or whether the picture is in daylight or floodlit, the tones alter,” he says.

“There are great websites around that can confirm shirt colours, and newspaper articles can help, and sometimes provide surprises.

“Crowd scenes, or players in ordinary suits, provide their own challenges. Obviously, I can’t say definitely that a particular suit is brown or black, but I can give a good, best guess. I shamelessly use the research done by the producers of Peaky Blinders or Downton Abbey to see what colours were en vogue at a particular time.

“I even try to hunt out adverts to get them right, and Mark and I have had great discussions about seat colours and paintwork around the stadium.

“[It’s] seeing as near as we can what the photographer saw at the time. The colour brings out personalities and gives character, not just to the players, but to the crowds. And, quite possibly, one person in that crowd could be your great-grandad!

“I hope I have done justice to their memory.”

Old Liverpool FC In Colour is available to buy now at our online store.