THE CITY GENT | est. 1984

BRADFORD CITY

thecitygent. co. uk • @ thecitygent

MIKE HARRISON

FAVOURITE COVER The City Gent enjoys a proud history as the longest- surviving printed football fanzine in the UK. For many years, our front cover featured a photograph with a topical caption ( my favourite mixed the topicality of the first Gulf War with the unpopularity of manager John Docherty in December 1990). When I took over as editor in 2004, I wanted to continue with the humorous style, but managed to track down Dave Robinson, whose work I had long admired in When Saturday Comes. Since 2006- 07, we’ve gone with a topical cartoon. I send him a kernel of an idea, and Dave’s imagination runs with it. One idea ( above) gained so much appreciation from our loyal readership that we sold T- shirts as Bradford went into meltdown and had a manager for every season!

STANDOUT MOMENT Winning the FSF’S Fanzine of the Year prize in December 2015, and being congratulated afterwards by the esteemed journalist Brian Glanville. MEMORABLE PLAYER/ MANAGER INCIDENT

Ahead of the 2010- 11 season, I contributed to a pre- season article in the Yorkshire Post about my thoughts on City’s prospects for the season. I honestly thought we’d do well to finish 17th in League Two. A day later, I went to interview manager Peter Taylor for the fanzine and got collared by our former joint- chairman, who said I “wasn’t very positive” about the Bantams’ chances. But I ended up being almost right – we finished 18th and Taylor resigned in February 2011.

MOST IMPORTANT STORY Prior to the 30th anniversary of the Valley Parade fire, we produced a whole issue ( our 200th) telling the story of that tragic day from various perspectives. Many stories were written by Bradford fans who had been unable to put their thoughts, emotions and personal experiences into words for three decades about that fateful day on May 11, 1985.