20 Years Bringing Toon Fans The News!

Last updated : 13 November 2008 By Footy Mad - Editor
We first sold the first of many Newcastle United fanzines we have been involved in (including Black & White And Read Alover, Boarbuster, Talk Of The Toon, Talk Of The Tyne, ect) outside of St James' Park for the first time on November 12th 1988 for the home game with Arsenal.

23,807 turned up for the 1-0 defeat by the Gunners, and we sold the 1,000 copies of the fanzine we had printed.

That spurred us on, and after the fanzine bubble burst ten years later when the internet replaced the written word, fanzines fell out of fashion and the worldwide web brought us to a new audience.

Life before computers ... what did we do?

"Memory" was something you lost with age.

An "application" was for a job.

A "programme" was a TV show.

A "curser" was someone who swore a lot.

A "keyboard" was a piano.

A "web" was how spiders caught flies.

A "virus" was the flu.

A "hard drive" was tackling yer girlfriend from behind.

A "mouse pad" was where a mouse lived.

And if you had a "three inch floppy" you just hoped nobody found out!

Our thanks to all those Toon fans who have followed us along the road from fanzine to website.

Gone are the days of selling 1,000 fanzines in the pissing rain, hail and snow at places like Swindon, Luton, Mansfield and Oxford. Or even exotic venues like Monaco, Zurich, Barcelona, Rome, Halmstads and Eindhoven (23 countries in all).

Now we click a button and we reach 300,000 daily around the world.

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU ALL ... AND IF YOU'RE IN THE TOON TONIGHT ... AND BUMP INTO A DOZEN OR SO PISSED GEORDIES ON THE HOY ... COME AND JOIN OUR PARTY!


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