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welcome to the give 'em beans Blog
Saucy, tasty and your mother loves them on toast, but that's enough about the writers. Beans is back to tickle your Barrow (Barra) bones for the first time since the early naughties. An all new team of bright young upstarts is joined by a few dusty relics of Give ' Em Beans past to bring you a brand new but old fanzine, by the fans for the fans. So join us on journey though Barradise with whatever we can cobble together to brighten an otherwise dull hour of non Barrow related existence.
latest posts
There's no such thing as a free lunch
"Hello, yes, do come in. Mind the step. Just grab a seat on the couch. Or take the chair if you'd prefer a more upright experience, only the springs have gone a bit on the left side, so forewarned is forearmed."
1 hour ago
Limbs 'n' Lifelines
Is it the hope that kills you or the knowledge that it’s the hope that kills you, that kills you? As I sit here trying to compose my thoughts, the nicotine of football coursing through my veins, I’m trying to make sense of it all. How? How can a team that has been so rank for so long this season pull out a result like that against the prototype League 2 juggernaut of team in Oldham? How can a team that’s had bugger all luck all season score a goal like Gordon’s? How can we st
4 days ago
Another Bad Hair Day in Barnet
The Hive London is a football centre near Edgware, London, offering football pitches for hire, conference and banqueting facilities, an on-site gym, cafe, bar and more. It was built on the former site of the municipal Prince Edward Playing Fields in Canons Park in the London Borough of Harrow.
7 days ago
Beans Live - Spillin' the Beans
What's it like to record an episode of Spillin' the Beans? Well now you can watch events unfold before your eyes. Spillin' the Beans went live for the first time on X and Facebook but we had a few issues with YouTube.
Apr 11
Kick it in the Rezza
When you watch BBC Breakfast long enough, you start to see patterns. Not in a conspiracy theorist off their cholpromazine type of way, a formula. War, death and destruction, cut to a man raising money for gout survivors by climbing Blencathra 86 times with Paul Chuckle on his back whilst eating hard-boiled eggs, cut to Heston Blumenthal
Apr 7
The Beginning of the Resurrection
I was a bit sceptical re-entering the world of match reports with Beans following my last foray into the Beans-O-Sphere after the calamitous capitulation at Fleetwood. However, I was buoyed with a newfound optimism following our dominating win over top of the table Bromley.
Apr 4
Bleak. Bromley? Blimey!
A distinct lack of takers in Beans Cyber HQ for this assignment. After all, how many times can you lament, castigate, bleakly chuckle, rail against, pick over the carcass or primally scream?
There are limits to the times you can ‘craft’ some darkness. A hundred different ways to say… ‘we were shite’. Grimsby away hadn’t so much plumbed the depths as embarked on Journey to the Centre of the Earth. So low that even Jules Verne had got the bends.
Mar 29
THE BEANS BUS 2! MK Dons Edition
I once had a friend who lived and worked in Milton Keynes for around two years. He said it was one of the most soul-crushing periods of his life. Much like the 25/26 season, if you support the soccer.
Mar 23
Cod Woe
A slightly surprising playlist from a driver who clearly felt he was at the controls of an interstellar spacecraft as the power rock trundled up the A590.
I was attempting productivity on the bus, so while writing an Easter Service and applying to go to Berlin, various nonsense swirled.
Subjects covered: Sam Foley's role as a Centrist Dad, Kool and the Gang, lavender and urine smells and the unacceptability of Roy Orbison.
Mar 21
How Soon Is Now!
I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour. Really happy, in fact. Sat in the Friendship, which is stretching the term 'local' somewhat for me, given that although Prestwich was once my stomping ground, I now reside on the other, less yuppiefied side of Heaton Park.
Mar 18
THE BEANS BUS!
Much like the number 3 from Duttons to the Town Hall, or the former Prince Andrew, the Trust soccer bus to Salford was cancelled.
Mar 14
A pair of Bristols sinks Maamria
I had already written an intro for this game, long since rage-deleted after the postponement. I have no recollection of what I wrote; maybe something about Steve Evans managing the ‘gas’tric bypass
Mar 11
To Gill a Shocking Bluebird
I'm sat at the dinner table, St James's, late 1980s. My little group of friends is talking football, or rather, we're trying to outdo each other in one-downmanship, which we're finding absolutely hilarious in that way you only can when you've yet to reach double digits. I support Coventry, says Peter. I support Luton, says Kurt. I support Gillingham, say I. The laughter subsides. The conversation turns, probably, to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles or Dogtanian.
Mar 1
It'll All Come Out in the Pugwash
I believe this report truly started on Thursday for me, during a relatively new exercise at work where my fellow colleagues and I are asked about our well-being. "Yeah, I'm alright," I replied as we went round the room. "You sure? You looked miserable when you walked in this morning," a colleague replied. This was two days on from Harrogate, another occasion on which that horrible, smarmy pillock Weaver and his merry band of shithouses had got one over on us…AGAIN. Realistica
Feb 22
Love Will Tear Us Apart — Again
First, I was going to write this in the form of complaint to the Local Trading Standards Office, citing that we had as a football club support have been mis-sold faulty goods who were unable to perform the basic functions of football and were therefore in breach of the Sale of Goods Act.
Feb 18
Dino, oh Dino. Vibes are back
Three boxes of Give 'em Beans have arrived. I've had the notification. I return from work Friday evening and there they are in the hallway. It's always an exciting moment, sliding a knife through the brown tape, ripping off the plastic wrap and seeing people's hard work and dedication in physical form. They've arrived early this time, so Saturday's plans change. And already a lot has changed since the thing went to the printers. Such is life producing a Barrow AFC-focused fan
Feb 15
Schooled in Shrewsbury
Hope, like the burgeoning waters of the Severn, rises and flows through football supporters with each turn of the fixture calendar. Despite all evidence laid in front of us, this could be the one. THIS could be it. Our ramshackle collection of knock-kneed pea hearts may be galvanised into a 90 minute performance that hints in the direction of competency. You never know. So after trips to Swindon and Notts County, once again I was heading south to raise a cheer for those Blueb
Feb 11
Turmoil on the Trent
Standards are slippery bastards. A simple-looking word on the face of it, often reached for and beloved of leaders. The right way of building or making; quality specifications, so we work safely, competently and efficiently to a chosen goal.
Feb 8
Wiltshire Woe
I wasn’t going to bother with Swindon, truth be told. I’d bought a ticket a few weeks ago but the Crawley defeat coupled with the 7 hour round trip made the trip less appealing. However, as the week wore on the old instincts kicked in. The instincts that told me I needed to be there to either witness the proper start of the Gallagher era or to earn another stripe on the arm dedicated to dismal failure.
Feb 1
A Nobber's View: Gallagher and Welsh at Barrow
Beans has reached out to our friend at esteemed Preston North End fanzine and former star of Fanzine of the Week, The Nose Bag, as he gives us his thoughts on Paul Gallagher and John Welsh. Take it away TNB..
Jan 17
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