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While Jurgen Klopp's Reds have made incredible progress on the pitch in recent seasons, something as impressive is happening …
The man on the guitar took a deep breath, taking a second to compose himself.
Outside, it was chaos, with more than 50,000 Liverpudlians waiting in the hot Spanish sun. Plaza Felipe II, one of the largest and most famous squares in Madrid, was a sea of red.
For Jamie Webster, it was one of those moments of "personal pinch". Another.
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The Champions League final was hours, quite important in itself for a red for life, but first, the West Derby electrician, 25, was about to make the biggest concert of his life.
"Madness!" He said Goal, reflecting on his one hour play. "But I knew it would be like that. It's Liverpool for you.
The course of Liverpool in recent seasons has naturally been defined by events on the ground. The goals of Mohamed Salah, the backups of Alison Becker, the smiles of Jurgen Klopp.
Liverpool has a team – and a manager – that is the envy of Europe, but something as impressive is happening on the pitch.
Rarely has the best time been to be a Kopite.
Webster, Scouse at the base, has become one of the faces (and voices) of modern Liverpool. He is the one to launch the party, whether in Merseyside, Munich or Madrid.
"People have relationships with Jamie because he's genuine," says Daniel Nicolson, whose BOSS Night events gave Webster a platform to reach thousands of Liverpool fans around the world.
"First of all, he's a fan of Liverpool and everyone knows it. He goes everywhere, he is in the coaches and he is on the outside ends.
"And when he's on stage, I think people see themselves in him."
BOSS Night started as BOSS Mag, a fanzine published by Nicolson and launched in October 2007.
"The idea, in fact, was just to record some of the stories you meet as fans, especially during an outside day," Nicolson said. Goal. "It would be old school, in black and white, would cost only one pound, parts per game.
"But the goal was to tell the story of what was really about being a fan at the time – football, yes, but also music, fashion, culture, l & # 39; humor. "
Originally, the idea was to cover both Liverpool and Everton, but conversations with blue friends were unsuccessful. "They made fun of me!" Nicolson said. "They called it" kopite behavior "."
BOSS Mag has run for nine years – although only a dozen editions have ever been produced – but in 2012, Nicolson and his friends made the decision to diversify into live events.
BOSS Night was born.
"Looking back, I would have thought more about the name," Nicolson laughed. "But for us, BOSS Mag was as much about music as football, so it was a natural progression."
The first concert took place at the Static Gallery in Liverpool, attracting around 400 people. "It was a good group night, not a Liverpool FC night," says Nicolson.
It would soon begin to change, while BOSS had the idea of organizing post-match nights, a great venue for fans of Liverpool after a match on a Saturday or a Sunday.
The nights, initially held in a bar called OSQA near Lime Street Station, would quickly snowball. And in the next year they will have a young boy named Jamie Webster.
"I played the guitar for years," he recalls. "But, to be honest, I never talked to the guys with whom I would go to the game. I kept this side separated from the game. "
A child's face, a leaning skin and a head cut to the feet, perhaps rightly, at Hugo Boss, it was an immediate success. When BOSS moved to a new location in District, in the Baltic district of Liverpool, Webster's performances began to take on a football feel.
"I remember one game in the 2013-14 season," he said. "I was playing 'Mrs Robinson' by Simon and Garfunkel. And the next thing the crowd, especially my comrades of the game, sings "Jordan, it's up to you, Jordan Henderson," that's how that song started. "
Others would follow. It was a Webster / BOSS Night session that highlighted Mohamed Salah's song – on the air of James 'Sit Down'.
"I always sing James's song," says Webster. "I think the lyrics reflect what it's like to support Liverpool.
"That night, there were about 15 of my friends on the front, and when I finished, they just sang," Mo Salah, Mo Salah, coming down the wing. "
"I had the guitar and it just disappeared. The video went everywhere. It was everywhere in social media. That's where it all began.
The same can be said for the piece of Divock Origi, an adapted version of Whigfield's "Saturday Night," concocted by Webster's intoxicated friend during a draw at Burton and his first performance after a Merseyside derby win against Everton in 2017. Naturally, this has had some broadcasts in recent months.
But if a song came to define Webster's performance, it's "Go Go Go". It was the soundtrack of the Liverpool season, the song that every player seems to know.
When Alisson visited District for a documentary on LFCTV in February, for example, he and Webster interpreted it together. The video was viewed almost 750,000 times on YouTube.
"Alisson is our goalkeeper, the best around …" ?
Jamie Webster x @Alissonbecker pic.twitter.com/VEHrWVHnqr
– Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 17, 2019
"The song started in Porto last season (2017-18)," said Webster. "After the next home game, I played it in the Halfway House, near Anfield, and the match was mbadive.I sang it for about 15 minutes in a row. !
"The next game was at Old Trafford and as I was walking on the terrace, the whole ending was singing this song! It was a pandemonium, a madness. They beat us 2-1 and we continued to sing. It was one of those times when you got stuffed, you know?
This season, of course, would end in Kiev, Webster playing the biggest BOSS party of his life (so far anyway) at Shevchenko Park. Liverpool lost the Champions League final against Real Madrid, but all present players will forget what they felt this weekend. "A turning point," says Nicolson.
It's not just music, of course. The advent of local brands such as Lost Soles, founded by longtime fan, John Sutton, and Transalpino, named after the student travel agency that will take Reds fans on trips abroad in 1980s means days.
T-shirts, hoodies and hats are as iconic as the Liver Bird. Transalpino's "Madrid lineup", produced for the Champions League final in May, was exhausted in a matter of hours, while another local company, Hat Scarf or a badge, exploded.
"The videos and photos are sent to me every time Liverpool plays," said Sutton, who has seen Lost Soles evolve from a unique ephemeral store into one of the city's busiest shops, at heart of the Albert Dock.
"In Kiev, last year, our t-shirts were everywhere you looked. My head fell when I saw them all!
"I think the Scousers, and especially the Liverpool fans, have always wanted to be at the forefront of fashion, and I'm very proud to see our logo traveling across Europe with the Reds. That he continues a long time!
Nicolson's suggestion that Kiev would mark a turning point in Liverpool's relationship with his supporters is interesting.
Of course, fans still have problems with their club. The box office is naturally the most important and will continue to be. Recent debates around the club's auto-cup program and allocations for the Champions League final have allowed the subject to remain in the limelight. The Liverpool sources are aware that such a big problem can affect the work done elsewhere in the club and wish to maintain a strong dialogue with their supporters in the search for solutions.
However, there are signs that members of power in Anfield are starting to see the benefits of a collaborative relationship, that they both appreciate and understand their audience and their culture and culture. ;identity. "They were scared of the fans, I think," said Nicolson. "But they did not need it."
The work of the local charity players – Trent Alexander-Arnold with One Hour for Others, for example, Andy Robertson with Foodbanks fans or Virgil van Dijk with the Owen McVeigh Foundation – is important, which keeps them in touch with their supporters and encourages them to belong to both the club and the city.
Liverpool liaises with fan groups such as Spirit of Shankly or Spion Kop 1906, which provide many of the iconic flags seen around Anfield and during their travels. The club played an important role in the success of these flags, for example, in the final of the Champions League.
"Bring Anfield to Madrid," Mohamed Salah tweeted. The Egyptian has fulfilled his wish. Liverpool rejected UEFA's proposal inviting supporters to participate in a choreographed mosaic ceremony and waving a flag before the match.
"This is not what our fans are," said a club source. "We wanted it to look like Liverpool, and that was the case."
Crucially, there are club members who have the experience of supporting Liverpool and who understand the importance of maintaining and encouraging the distinct identity of the fans.
"You look now in the club," says Webster. "People like Tony Barrett [the head of club and supporter liaison]Tom Cbadidy and Jane Phillips at the Department of Tourism, the LFCTV guys like Mark Platt, Mark Volante and Phil Reade – these are real fans, who have what it takes to follow Liverpool. It's important. "
Nicolson agrees.
"If you think back to Athens in 2007, at the end of this match, you had fans who fought each other," he says. "And I think it started years of a feeling of 'us against them', between Scousers and 'out of the towers'.
"Thinking back, I think the" locals "were afraid that their culture would be eroded, diluted. And now, in 12 years, see how united everyone is. We lose a Champions League final and everyone sings "Go Go Go!
"Wherever you are, you want to be part of it, you want to sing the songs, wear the t-shirts and wave the flags.
"There is a solidarity among supporters that did not exist there is not so long ago."
Liverpool is using this union more and more intelligently. Their marketing slogan "This Means More", for example, plays on the idea that there is something unique to support the club. This attracts a certain level of derision, but for many, it sounds like an exact statement.
Outside the club, the rise of independent media such as The Anfield Wrap, Redmen TV, Anfield Index and This is Anfield is available to all. Anfield Wrap, which produces daily podcasts on all kinds of topics, has nearly 13,000 subscribers, while the club has encouraged its players – and Klopp – to engage in such sites. This means that fans have access that in the past was reserved for mainstream media or clubs.
Club media, of course, can often be seen as clean and uncritical, but the Liverpool internal television channel has made great progress and is increasingly willing to appeal to what it means to be a supporter, that it is good or bad. Features such as the single along with Webster of course become viral, but LFCTV has also attempted to tackle more serious problems.
The documentary "Through the Storm", published last October, examined the impact of mental health problems on football and society in general. It featured the story of former player Jason McAteer and his fight against depressioon. It was a difficult but essential watch.
"It's important that the club can do things like that," said Nicolson. "The reach of Liverpool FC is huge and sometimes it's easy to forget the impact it can have on people's lives and the difference it can make."
Finally, a story that summarizes the rise of Webster.
June 2, at the time of the UEFA Champions League party, in Liverpool, at the Eurostars Hotel in Madrid. Jurgen Klopp, a few beers down but showing no sign of fatigue, poses for photos with fans and sponsors.
"I'm not used to that kind of thing," says Webster. "But it was a special night, so I had to talk to him!
"I was with my girlfriend and I just tapped her on the shoulder saying," Jurgen, I do not know what to say, other than to thank you. "
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"He watched me, gritted my teeth and then slapped me in the face! "No Jamie, thank you!" He said, and then just a big hug, which made me lift my feet.
"I introduced her to my girlfriend – she was probably wondering what was going on – and he was" Hello, Jamie's girlfriend! "And another mbadive hug, no slap this time, thankfully!
"For me, that sums up the last years. I've always been a fan of Liverpool and I will always be. But for now, we feel like club members. "
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