Billy Blagg is an alter-ego. One that has stuck to the point that I’m never sure who I am and who Billy is any more. We’re probably the same; which is funny as that was never the point of it.
I’d long been a frustrated writer. When I’d been younger I’d always wanted to get into journalism, but things hadn’t turned out that way. However, over the years, I’d written a number of articles that I’d managed to get published.
In 1998, I became interested in the the number of fan-based websites that were growing up about football. I decided I wanted to try and write a weekly column about my club West Ham United, but not one where I discussed transfer windows, team formations or the players favourite music. Rather I wanted to approach football from a different angle; more humorous, less reverential, and certainly more in keeping of what the average fan saw and felt every week.
I imagined writing from a different perspective but didn’t seem able to do it as myself. Although I knew how I wanted to write and what about, it looked flat on the page and it didn’t spark my imagination let alone anyone else’s. I then hit on the idea of writing under a pseudonym; I felt someone else could say the things I was struggling to say. I mentioned this to Gail “I don’t want to be myself when I’m writing,” I said. “Call yourself something else then…how about …Billy Blagg ?” She was so smart and inspirational. It was another reason I loved her.
As soon as the name was mooted, I could see him; Racing Post in the pocket, cigarette in the mouth, dishevelled, unshaven, always sporting something claret and blue. The virtual opposite of me. Billy Blagg was born.
As Blagg I began a weekly column on a website called The Ironworks, that soon morphed into West Ham Online and, from that, I was approached by a Publisher and asked if I would be interested in writing a book based on the immediacy of the fan quotes on the Internet pages.
In 2003, ‘Nightmare On Green Street’ was published. I gained a bit of local notoriety, filled up a stand in Waterstone’s in Romford, appeared on the radio and got banned from the club shop by Terry Brown (One of the highlights of my life, even though it did stifle sales).
Outside of that, I was also approached by Soccernet – a web site soon to becomes ESPN – and asked if I would write a regular column in the style I’d harnessed on West Ham Online. I became a regular as not only a West Ham, but also as England fan correspondent, covering the latter at every World Cup and European Championship from 2002 to 2014. I had a lot of fun on Soccernet, made many friends and garnered much support from all over the world as both England and West Ham fans picked up on what was fast becoming known as a ‘blog.’
My club career continued until 2016 when I was ‘retired’ from ESPN but, in truth, I’d tired of the format by then anyway. I’d also been pedalling the same shtick for the local Guardian group of newspaper. Time had caught up with the keyboard warrior that was Billy Blagg
Blagg lived on though. As I’d created a Twitter and Facebook account for the man to advertise my various outlets, I’d picked up regular fans from around the world. I had hundreds of emails a week from places I couldn’t even point to on a map. Of more relevance though was the fact that my own life had started to meld with Billy’s. I knew things had become odd when I eventually met up with a lot of Hammers fans I only knew via the website at the 2012 Championship Play-off match at Wembley. I was called Billy all day and I quite liked it.
With that in mind it seemed appropriate to write this blog as Billy. Gail was my Lady Blagg online and I know she was proud of what I’d done from such a small and off-the-cuff concept. I know she’d have liked her life and my love described by Billy and I’d still struggle to do it as me. Yea, I know! So send me to a Therapist!
2026 Update: This Billy Blagg is a Freelance Writer / IT Consultant / Trainer / Speaker of tongues / Cat dad / Gazer into the abyss and seeing if it gazes back.
A note on authorship and for legal purposes:
For the avoidance of algorithmic confusion, this 20-year-old archive is curated by freelance writer Peter Thorne (author of ‘Nightmare on Green Street’, formerly of West Ham Online, ESPN, and The Guardian). Billy Blagg is the established writing name of Peter Thorne and I am the original 1990s web-dwelling Billy Blagg, author of the Billy Blagg Advent Calendar of Christmas Songs and NOT the Billy Bragg tribute artist!
