It’s amazing to think what a social networking site like Twitter can lead to these days. Usually I just use my Twitter account to spout useless and pointless shite and qoute some lines from crappy movies that I enjoy, but over the last few months I’ve been getting in contact with many different people from all over the globe with one particular thing in common as myself. Everton Football Club. It’s amazing to see how many people I have been in contact with of late discussing all things Everton and where these people are actually based in the world.
One of those particular Evertonians I regularly speak to is a Blue by the name Eric Howell (@Eric_Howell on Twitter) who is an Evertonian living in Kansas City in the States. He and another fellow Blue Peter “Ped” McPartland (@PED7 on Twitter) (A regular face amongst readers of Everton fansite Bluekipper.com) from Old Swan, Liverpool got together and decided to create a unique podcast all about Everton despite being separated by over 4000 miles of land and sea. The show first took place in June this year and was named THE FOLLOWTONIANS PODCAST, a name derived from a Twitter hashtag grouping of Evertonians on Twitter and despite only being 6 Episodes old has received instant recognition amongst fellow Followtonians and has become an instant success.
The show mixes in serious views of the club with comedy Scouse banter courtesy of Ped, a view from Australia courtesy of Jimmy the Convict (@conynejp on Twitter), a monthly taste from “The Reserves Barrel” courtesy of myself, Ped’s rant and the occasional interview with a Everton supporting celebrity or ex Player and is all an all an hour or so of just great Evertonian fueled entertainment.
Seeming as the Followtonians guys gave me a chance at chipping in with a segment on the show I felt it was only right to get them promoted on the blog and try and help get the name out there and maybe introduce a few new Blues who may not tweet or be aware of it all to the podcast. So I recently sat down with Eric via Facebook Chat and did a 4am Caffeine fueled interview with him about everything Followtonian. Here it is -
Hi Eric, Thanks for taking the time out. The Followtonians Podcast has been going for a few months now, but for those who may not have heard the podcast yet or be aware of it what exactly is “Followtonians” and how did it all come about?
ERIC: The podcast is derived from a hashtag created by Tony Watson (works for Everton’s parter Sodexo at Goodison). It is a way to mark tweets so that other Followtonians out there can find you that’s how Ped and I met on twitter. I have done a couple of correspondent pieces for other USA based footy podcasts and wanted to start one of my own about Everton. It was originally just going to be me and I approached Ped about helping out. So we decided to do it together and asked Tony if we could use his hashtag as the name of the show
As listeners will know by now your based in Kansas and Ped is based in Old Swan, so the only way to do a podcast like this is through Skype, How do you find doing the cast like that, is it easy/hard/pain in the arse?
ERIC: Yeah the technology wasn’t too bad once we figured out how we were going to record. We use skype and Audacity with is open source the first episode was ROUGH lots of noise and static, but we worked most of that out by the second episode, the hardest part about the podcast is time zone differences, I am 6 hours behind Ped and we usually record during the week after I get home from work and I put my 14 month old son, Britton, to bed, so it is usually 7:00pm my time which is 1:00am GMT
For First Time Listeners, run through what goes on in the Podcast and what are the different regular segments
ERIC: Well during the season it will be a weekly show. We will start out with any club wide news and a breakdown by Ped and myself about the previous match. Then we will have a report from a correspondent about the upcoming match, Ped and I will get into what we think will happen and give our predictions, The last part of the show we like to get some additional info about other aspects of the club. We have correspondents working on pieces like yourself covering the reserves, the everton ladies, a general observation piece called “WTF: What The Fellaini?” by James “Jimbo The Convict” Coyne from Australia. And we like to end the show with a couple of fun features. There is my Followtonian of the week where I give props to a member of twitter that has helped advance the visibility of the podcast. Then there is Ped’s Rant where we like Ped just say whatever is on his mind and we end with familiar tune that I hear still gives listeners goosebumps when they hair it (Z-Cars)
Oh too right it does, and of course your favourite segment is “Taste from the Reserves Barrell right” haha
?
ERIC: *Eerie facebook silence* Erm yeh….of course
Despite only being a fairly new podcast you’ve already gained a bit of celebrity status in regards to special guests, care to explain how that’s all come about?
ERIC: Yeah I don’t know about celebrity status or anything like that but the great thing about twitter is it is easy to gain access to people on a personal direct level, so we have been introduced to people who support Everton like Andy Burnham (Labour MP), Mike Lewis (guitarist for Lostprophets) and many journos who have access to ex-players, Ped is really working it hard and as long as we are professional and treat people with respect hopefully it will just grow. We are doing it because it is fun and we enjoy it.
Excellent, now as for yourself personally, you hail from Kansas in the States, so I have to ask…Why Everton?
ERIC: I am a Toffee because I am a Kansas City Wizards Supporter. I started following casually because of players like Preki, Mo Johnston and Paul Rideout that played for Everton and then moved on to play for Kansas City in MLS but not until the past 4 or 5 years has information about EPL been readily available in the states which has made it easier to follow teams in England, and I would say that when Tim Howard signed that made it even easier to get info specifically about Everton
Cool, well your podcast partner Ped is known for being a regular face amongst the Bluekipper lot as well as representing Bluekipper FC and 5 a side team and contributing the odd article here and there (and taking over every other piece of media in the world right now haha) as well as his wife Sam who has been known to contribute towards Everton fanzine “When Skies Are Grey”. Outside of the podcast do you do anything similar that is Everton or just generall Football related?
ERIC: Yeah I am a season ticket holder for KC Wizards of MLS, I play in a sunday mens league outdoor and I play indoor once a week as well, I don’t have any blogs or anything other than twitter but I am a correspondent for CSRNusa.com’s Around The League which is a podcast for fans of MLS I am on there once a month or so talking about the Wizards, I have played soccer (yes I said soccer because it is an English term. Created by an Englishman) since I was 5 and it has always stuck with me, I love everything soccer and will even watch Bundeslega if I have to.
Ace, now getting back to the podcast, The Followtonians name/brand (if you will) is easily accessible to almost everyone, even outside of Twitter, where else can people get involved with the goings on of Followtonians?
ERIC: We are on Twitter of course (@Followtonians), we also have a website HERE, we are on facebook HERE, Ped and I have our individual twitter accounts and are constantly talking footy. You can listen to the podcast in a couple of ways, we are on iTunes just search for Followtonians, and subscribe and leave feedback, you can listen directly through the website and you can subscribe to our rss feed.
And there’s the Blackberry Messenger Group too…
ERIC: Yeah that’s right there is a BBM group. There is a barcode on the website where you can scan it with your phone to join. Sorry iFans
just for BB owners.
The Podcast and Followtonians name has really taken off quite well and quite fast too, which is great, and it’s looking like the only way is up so what does the future hold for it all?
ERIC:
Well I really don’t know. Ped and I don’t really have goals or anything like that set.
I personally just want to create something where I can get access to as much Everton information as possible.
So it is a little selfish, in a sense. I want to give Americans and Everton supporters around the world and mostly outside of England a voice, while at the same time allowing those fans within england to realize that there are a lot of supporters of the club outside of Merseyside, So many of Everton’s supporters are lucky enough to sit in Lower Gwladys every home match and experience what a proper match day is like
and I think there are some fans that take that for granted. I wanted to show them what an American or an Aussie goes through to support Everton (i.e 5am alarms on SATURDAY MORNINGS just to get on the internet and watch everton online) who is more hardcore? i would argue that it is pretty even! haha
Ok so what are your predictions for the season? And when will Goodison be graced with the presence of yourself?
ERIC: I won’t be making it to Goodison this campaign, as I said earlier I have a 14 month old son, money is tight (oh did i mention we have paypal donate buttons on the site and we are working on merch as well) so unless I hit the lottery it will be a couple of years until Britton is older and we can enjoy England as a family which I am sure will include a pilgrimage to Goodison. Now as for my prediction of how the Toffees will do during the 10/11 season….. Listen to the next episode, you think I am going to scoop my own story?
HAHA Ok mate will do, before I wrap it all up mate, any special mentions or shoutouts you’d like to do?
ERIC: Yeah definitely, big love to my wife who is so far putting up with all of the extra time I am putting in with the podcast, And Ped for his sacrifice of recording in the middle of the night so that I can get some time with Britton, and of course all of the listeners. We havn’t been doing this very long but it has potential of being really cool. We need all the input we can. The slogan of the podcast is Same Club. Different Accents. We know that Evertonia spans the globe. We would love to hear from everyone.
Awesome, thanks for taking the time out to let me rack/wreck your brain haha
ERIC: haha No Probs
So there it is. The Followtonians podcast in a nutshell. I will be regularly updating the blog when the new Episodes come out but for now you should head to THE FOLLOWTONIANS WEBSITE and listen to the old episodes of download them via Itunes, and get adding these guys on Twitter etc. It really is a great podcast and it really is a hell of a team to follow.
Peace
B
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