Brian Moore's Head Looks Uncannily Like London Planetarium was a fanzine devoted to Gillingham F.C.
It began life in 1988, and remarkably for a fanzine, which tend to have short publishing histories, ran for 18 years, with the final issue being published in April 2006. Stephen Foster ranked it top amongst football fanzines in his 2006 book The Book of Lists Football.[1][2] In the mid-1990s the fanzine began to insert celebrity pictures sent in by readers in order to break up the text. Images of Rolf Harris and Clare Grogan recurred the most.[3]
Some fans believed the "BMH" could generally be relied upon to take the most pessimistic and cynical view possible, although this became increasingly difficult during the early years of the tenure of Paul Scally as chairman, as the club recovered from receivership and near losing of its League place to ascend to previously undreamed of heights: by season 2005–06, after relegation and financial difficulties in the club, the chairman has ceased to be considered beyond criticism.
The fanzine gained a reputation as "one of the best and most popular fanzines ever made",[4] with the name attracting comment for its quirky nature.[5][6]
It took its title from a line in the Half Man Half Biscuit song "Dickie Davies Eyes". Brian Moore was formerly a director of the club, and in the absence of any other notable supporters it was decided to honour him in the title.[7][8][9]
After the final physical issue, the fanzine was relaunched online and ran in this format until 2008.
References
edit- ^ Foster, Stephen. The Book of Lists Football (2006), Canongate Books. ISBN 1-84195-761-5
- ^ Aspden, Peter. "Fifa pitch Publishers began preparations for the World Cup long before the teams,stacking bookshop shelves with memoirs, histories and geeky lists. Which are the winners?", Financial Times (London), 3 June 2006. p. 26.
- ^ Winter, Henry. "Football Diary: Bees are stung into action". The Independent (London), 12 February 1994.
- ^ www.FootballFanzines.com
- ^ Horne, Richard and Shaw, Phil. "Football: The Sweeper: Samways spat splits squad in Las Palmas", The Independent (London), 30 September 2000. p. 26.
- ^ Symons, Michael (9 May 2004). "Things You Didn't Know you didn't know!". The Express on Sunday.
- ^ Glanville, Brian. "Brian Moore". The Guardian, 4 September 2001. Archived on 2008-10-05.
- ^ "Brian Moore". The Telegraph, 22 November 2001. Archived on 2008-10-05.
- ^ Goodbody, John. "Moore takes his final bow with controlled emotion", The Times (London), 9 June 1998. p. 50