Talk:Leeds United Service Crew/Archive 1

LSC racists or not?

Interesting that this article makes no mention of Leeds Service Crew being well know racists often attacking blacks and asians after Leeds games in the city centre. Strange that all there is on this article is nonsense about tracksuits and shirts rather than the reality that they were a bunch of racist thugs who never fought unless they outnumbered their opponents 10-1.

When they were not attacking away fans getting on buses to go home they were knifing Asian families in Leeds city centre.

I am sure the new book of course will make no mention of all this. Just another worthless bunch of scum getting a book published to re-write history. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.204.191.128 (talk • contribs) 18:09, 28 September 2007

You are just as entitled to edit the article as anyone else. If you have a source for anything then rather than just using this talk page to complain about how they are portrayed in the article and a book (which has nothing to do with this article) then add it into the article.♦Tangerines♦·Talk 01:58, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Get your facts straight (rm uncalled for profanity). Alot of the LSC are black, so they are far from racist. Have YOU ever witnessed the LSC beating up asians in the city centre, because I haven't. You are basing your comments on hear-say, and need to learn the facts before commenting. 79.69.232.227 16:10, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Interesting you say that as according to the book Black White and Blue about the Birmingham Zulus they confirm that the LSC were a racist firm. Micky Francis in his book Guvnors confirms they were a racist firm, Cass Pennant confirms they were a racist firm so I would hardly call that hearsay"! In all of the above books it is confirmed that LSC were a racist firm and in all of them it is confirmed that there were NONE and I repeat NONE who were black in the LSC (Think you overdosed on a little too much "The real football factories" I'm afraid) Oh and yes, I (Large capital I for this one) I have and have had it confirmed by non white residents of Leeds that during the 80s and early 90s if you were black or asian after a Leeds home game you got out of the city center. Think it is maybe yourself who needs to get his facts straight. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.204.191.108 (talk) 23:36, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Interesting all these articles that have suddenly appeared gloryfing "firms" talking about blinding people and slashing people with knives and how Leeds were a "Top firm" Yet this is the self same Leeds who were crying on about Turkish hooligans when 2 Leeds supporters were stabbed to death in Istanbul. Pot calling the kettle black or what! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.204.191.108 (talk) 23:40, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Please note that as a general rule, talk pages are for discussion related to improving the article, not general discussion about the topic. Discussion in this talk page should be about how to improve the article and not about arguing between each other.♦Tangerines♦·Talk 23:56, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Lead section

The lead section includes the line, "In 1985 when football hooliganism was rife in England, the BBC Six O'Clock News had a special report in which they listed the worst football hooligan gangs creating mayhem across England and Leeds United were listed amongst the worst five clubs." That is exactly what was reported on the programme and it is sourced content. Each of the five clubs were individually named (They were by the way - Millwall, Chelsea, Leeds United, Bristol City and Blackpool). At no point did the BBC in that report mention any firm name connected with each club. Changing that line to delete the clubs name and inserting LSC instead is changing what was actually reported to something else, and is not how this article nor wikipedia itself should be edited, no matter how unpaltable that might be. I can understand why users would want to do so, however, changing it to read LSC is both inaccurate and incorrect as the LSC were not mentioned, whereas Leeds United, along with the other four clubs, were mentioned. ♦Tangerines♦·Talk 17:25, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Status

I have made several improvements to the page and have thus upgraded it to Start class.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Mtaylor848 (talk • contribs) 20:40, 11 April 2009(UTC)

LSC

I am of a mixed race myself and was a part of the Service Crew nad all i have read on here about Leeds attacking blacks and asians only is a load of rubbish, it didnt matter who they were or the colour of their skin if you were up for a pop then the Service Crew would obilige - my adventures with the Service Crew lads was an amazing experience, and would like to thank all who participated from 1980 - 1985. It was all good fun and were not carrying guns like the youth of today. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.197.124.109 (talk) 14:05, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Shite, and I thought I was middle aged before my time. Having been a Leeds United fan for a long time, inadvertently I have got into a few nasty scrapes in Holbeck, however I would in no way claim that the LUSC were in anyway nicer than the delinquent youth of today. On the contrary, I would say the youth of today are the same as we were (it was hardly like they invented sex and cider). I would agree however that the LUSC were not a racialist organisation (inevitably such a band of low-lifes attracts a certain NF contingency, but these were the minority). To indicate so in the article would be potentially libelous. Mtaylor848 (talk) 17:35, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Service Crew

If my memory serves me correctly after all these years, the LUSC came about around 1977 and not 1974 as stated here. It was a group of lads predominantly from South Yorkshire, and mostly miners. Most of us saw each other at every game, and with United being banned from Europe following the 1975 European cup final, we would go to the pre season friendlies in Europe. The lads were from Doncaster Barnsley Mexborough Thurnscoe with a couple of lads from London and only TWO actually from Leeds. It is true that the group would use service trains instead of the football specials, but not because we wanted to go off for a fight, more that we wanted to get off for a pint. It was far more important to find a pub than find someone to fight with. That was pretty much how it stayed for a few years until the days of the fashion conscious football fan started, or flickheads as we used to call them back then. It was only after this point did it become more of a fighting firm than a drinking firm with more flickhead lads from Leeds, mainly mates of the original two Leeds lads, Lee & Ricky, replacing us non flickhead beer heads. Us drinkers hadn't the need for the service crew any more as football specials were also becoming a thing of the past and getting a pint pre & post match was no longer an issue. ANY original members from that era will know what I have written here to be basically true. This is before the LUSC days of Para Dave the cook, and Flynny. As for the racist issue? I would say that at that time, we were no more racist than any other people in society at that time. Though what passed as acceptable in the late 70s would be illegal now. I'd cite the TV programme 'Love Thy Neighbour' as an example of the times.

European Football

In the article it says that after being banned in 1975 that "Due to their [Leeds United's] on-the-field decline, however, it would be another 17 years before they tasted European action again.". Leeds played in the UEFA Cup in 1979/80.

Bazza.

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Leeds United Service Crew/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

The first paragraph states that the LUSC was among the 'most successful' of the crews. I think this needs to either be qualified, (successful how?), or, if success is measured in terms of damage done, restated. I'm not sure it's appropriate - or even intelligent - to equate success with violence in this context.

Last edited at 15:41, 1 June 2009 (UTC). Substituted at 21:49, 29 April 2016 (UTC)