George Sephton is a stadium announcer, matchday DJ, and after dinner speaker, known primarily for his work at Anfield for home fixtures of Liverpool Football Club. He is popularly known as The Voice of Anfield, and is England's second longest-serving stadium announcer, behind Peter Gilham of Brentford.[1]
Sephton's relationship with Liverpool Football Club began in 1971, when he wrote to club secretary, Peter Robinson, applying to be the stadium announcer.[2] His first match was against Nottingham Forest on 14 August, 1971, which also marked the debut of Kevin Keegan.[3] Since then, Sephton has occupied the room above the scoreboard on the Kop side of the Kenny Dalglish stand, for all but a handful of home fixtures. His duties include DJing for almost two hours before kick off, operating the scoreboard, announcing goalscorers and substitutions, and making commercial announcements. However, his most important role is playing You'll Never Walk Alone over the PA system just before kickoff; a tradition at Anfield that dates back to October 1963. He has played You'll Never Walk Alone at the end of special Liverpool victories as well, notably the second leg of the 2005 Champions League semifinal against Chelsea that saw Liverpool qualify for the final in Istanbul.[4][5] Sephton plays a major role in the Anfield matchday experience.
Sephton is known for championing new music from local bands while DJing.[6] His musical selections are well-liked, and there is even a thread on the popular Red and White Kop message board dedicated to his halftime choices. He is known to play the original songs from which player or manager songs, sung by supporters, are adapted. Examples include La Bamba by Ritchie Valens (adapted by fans for Rafael Benitez) and Sit Down by James (adapted by fans for Mohamed Salah).
Kenny Dalglish has said of George Sephton: "George is part of the history and tradition of this club and it would be more relevant if he left than if I left."[7] Currently, Sephton continues his duties at Anfield, and is also an after dinner speaker, sometimes in conjunction with other Liverpool legends. His charity events and contributions around the club and the city are well known,[8] and he engages with Liverpool supporters worldwide on his Twitter account.
Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish is a Scottish former football player and manager. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time as well as one of Celtic's, Liverpool's and Britain's greatest ever players. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic and 515 for Liverpool, playing as a forward, and earned a record 102 caps for the Scotland national team, scoring 30 goals, also a joint record. Dalglish won the Ballon d'Or Silver Award in 1983, the PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1983, and the FWA Footballer of the Year in 1979 and 1983. In 2009, FourFourTwo magazine named Dalglish the greatest striker in post-war British football, and he has been inducted into both the Scottish and English Football Halls of Fame. He is very highly regarded by Liverpool fans, who still affectionately refer to him as King Kenny, and in 2006 voted him top of the fans' poll "100 Players Who Shook the Kop".
Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has played its home games at Anfield since its formation. Liverpool is one of the most valuable and widely supported clubs in the world.
Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the fifth largest stadium in England. It was originally the home of Everton F.C. from 1884 to 1891, before they moved to Goodison Park after a dispute with the club president.
"You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel. In the second act of the musical, Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the protagonist Julie Jordan, sings "You'll Never Walk Alone" to comfort and encourage Julie when her husband, Billy Bigelow, the male lead, stabs himself with a knife whilst trying to run away after attempting a robbery with his mate Jigger and dies in her arms. The song is reprised as an epilogue in the final scene to encourage a graduation class of which Louise is a member as the Starkeeper is about to give them a graduation sermon. The now invisible Billy, who has been granted the chance to return to Earth for one day in order to redeem himself, watches the ceremony and at the end of the Starkeeper's homily is able to silently motivate Louise and Julie to join in with the song as the whole congregation unite in singing along with them urged on by the Starkeeper as he ascends to paradise.
Ian James Rush is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is regarded as one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best Welsh players in the history of the sport. At club level Rush played for Liverpool from 1980 to 1987 and 1988–1996. Additionally, he is the club's all-time leading goalscorer, having scored a total of 346 goals in all competitions at the club. He also holds the records for being the highest goalscorer in the history of the EFL Cup and the finals of the FA Cup. At international level, Rush made 73 appearances for the Wales national football team and remained the record goalscorer with 28 goals between 1980 and 1996, until the record was broken by Gareth Bale in 2018.
Peter Andrew Beardsley is an English football coach and former footballer who played as a forward or midfielder.
Robert Paisley was an English professional football manager and player who played as a wing-half. He spent almost 50 years with Liverpool and is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. Reluctantly taking the job in 1974, he built on the foundations laid by his predecessor Bill Shankly. Paisley is the first of four managers to have won the European Cup three times. He is also one of five managers to have won the English top-flight championship as both a player and manager at the same club.
Terence McDermott is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Nicknamed "Terry Mac", he is best known as a member of the Liverpool team of the 1970s and early 1980s, where he won three European Cups and five First Division titles. Either side of his time at Anfield, he played for Newcastle United, with his second stint seeing him reunite with former Liverpool teammate Kevin Keegan. Internationally, he was capped 25 times for England, and was part of the of UEFA Euro 1980 and the 1982 FIFA World Cup squads.
David Fairclough is an English retired footballer, most famous for playing for Liverpool as a striker during the 1970s and 1980s.
Chris Lawler is a former footballer who enjoyed much of Liverpool's success of the mid 1960s to early 1970s.
Stanley Park was a proposed football stadium in Stanley Park, Liverpool. If built, it would have become home to the Liverpool Football Club. It would have replaced their current stadium at Anfield. The stadium had a planned capacity of 60,000 all-seated. It was also potentially expandable to 73,000 or more.
James Martin Beglin is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a defender, and a current co-commentator for RTÉ, CBS Sports, TNT Sports, and Premier League Productions.
Ronald Moran was an English footballer who played as a left-back for Liverpool, also captaining the side. He later served as caretaker manager for Liverpool in the early 1990s.
Daniel Munthe Agger is a Danish professional football coach and former player who is the assistant manager of the Danish national football team. As a player, he played as a centre-back for Brøndby and Liverpool and captained the Denmark national team. Agger was described as "a fine reader of the game, comfortable on the ball and blessed with a ferocious shot". He was the 2007 and 2012 Danish Football Player of the Year.
Tom Watson was an English football manager who managed Sunderland and Liverpool around the turn of the 20th century. In winning the league title with both clubs—the first title for both—he was the first manager to do so with two clubs. Watson remains Liverpool's longest-serving manager, spending a total of nineteen years at the club.
Steven Harkness is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender from 1989 to 2002.
Ephraim Longworth was an England international footballer for Liverpool in the early part of the twentieth century. He was one of Liverpool's all-time greats, and was Liverpool's first ever England captain.
The Boot Room was a famous room at Anfield, the home of Liverpool F.C.
Stephen F. Kelly is an English author and broadcaster, born in Liverpool, England in June 1946 and educated at Park High Grammar School for Boys Birkenhead. He is the author of many books, mostly on football and in particular on Liverpool Football Club. He has written a number of biographies of football managers including Bill Shankly, Sir Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalglish and Gerard Houllier as well as an oral history of Liverpool Football Club. He was one of the first writers in Britain to explore sport through oral history, not only with The Kop but also with his oral history of Manchester United Football Club, Red Voices, and a further book on Liverpool, The Bootroom Boys. His other books include a novel, Mr Shankly's Photograph, which tells the story of a young boy growing up in Liverpool during the 1960s with a fascination for Liverpool Football Club, the Cavern and The Beatles. His study of life in Britain during the 1950s, You've Never Had It So Good, was published in April 2012. His most recent book, British Soldiers of the Korean War: In Their Own Words, is an oral history of the Korean War between 1950–53 and is published by the History Press. He was appointed Honorary Visiting professor at the University of Chester in 2012.
Phil Easton was an English radio presenter and football announcer, best known for his work at Liverpool's Radio City from 1974 to 2009.
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