You would expect a podcast born from two forum members from the sublime Football Ramble to be a thoroughly decent listen and 3For3 certainly doesn’t disappoint.
The Cutter found our way to it through the equally excellent fanzine the lads behind 3For3 also produce and though we’re latecomers to the party we’ve enjoyed many an hour trawling through the back catalogue available on iTunes. Jamie and Dan – who to all extents and purposes are 3For3 although they’d modestly claim it was a communal affair – provide knowledgeable, witty and interesting takes on anything from magical F.A Cup moments to club rivalries, all of it structured around that greatest man-invention ever…lists! If you’ve got an hour to spare we heartily recommend you check out the latest episode here – http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/3for3/id466011930?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
You can also follow them here on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/3for3_ where you can sign up for their new feature the Non-League Lottery, send in your top 3s on anything you like, or simply take part in the banter.
If you haven’t already guessed from this shameless plugging the Cutter and 3For3 are now creative partners as we strive to put out quality content to readers and listeners who know their stuff and love the game. If you don’t know your stuff (that would be you reader of Goal.com) or only watch the odd game when the rugby isn’t on (cough…cockney reds) why not come along for the ride anyway? It’s like Disney merging with Pixar only none of us can draw.
The Cutter met up with the lads recently to find out all about one of the best football podcasts around and asked, if someone sought out 3For3 for the first time, who would they be listening to?
Dan Shoesmith – They’re listening to Jamie Whitehead – he’s the Brummie one – and me Dan Shoesmith – I’m the Cockney one. He’s a Villa fan and I support West Ham so we share a similar lack of success.
Jamie Whitehead – They’re listening to myself Jamie and Dan ‘the Mekon’ Shoesmith. The Mekon was a character in a comic called Dan Dare whose brain was so big it had to travel on a separate vehicle and there seems to be nothing that Dan doesn’t know about football. So I started calling him this in production meetings and he absolutely hated it. If you go back to earlier shows when I referred to him as the Mekon in every episode he gets really annoyed but he now seems to have embraced it.
What prompted you guys to start up the podcast?
DS – We met through a forum called the Football Ramble. Initially I had a blog called There’s Only One Gerald Sinstadt and had a feature at the end of it which was basically top 5s. The blog wasn’t really getting anywhere but the lists were quite popular.
JW – When blokes get together and talk about football in pubs they often talk about lists so we decided to do that – top three this and that. We lived quite near to one another and I’d done a podcast before so I had all the equipment.
DS – It’s a chance to chat shit about football for an hour basically. It would nice if people listen to it. To sort of mitigate the effort.
JW – It all began probably about May or June of last year where we had lots of meetings in pubs where lots of different burgers were tried and I attempted to drink every type of beer London has to offer.
I hope it gives us the authority to influence managerial decisions at an international level.
What has been each of your favourite moments doing it so far?
JW – We did a top 3 a couple of weeks ago – the top 3 football rivalries – and I picked a rivalry from the Isle of Scilly. It’s the world’s smallest football league that’s comprised of just two teams. They’re called the Garrison Gunners and the Woolpack Wanderers and they play each other – and only each other – every weekend. They play 17 fixtures in the league and there’s also two cup competitions – one of which is inexplicably held over two legs – and the season starts with a Charity Shield as well.
We’re actually organising a 3For3 trip there at some point and we’re going to stand behind the goal and sing ‘Can we play you every week?’
DS – The first time we did Take On Mekon (where listeners e-mail in questions to challenge me) I got the question right and Jamie just pissed himself laughing for about five minutes. You can hear it on the podcast, we didn’t edit it out. I was just crying with laughter at this. After a little while we somehow managed to compose ourselves and finish the podcast but it was just so funny.
With so many podcasts out there why should people tune in to 3For3?
DS – Because if they don’t I’ll punch them.
JW – We like to think we offer a different take on things that have happened recently and it’s also a really good way of looking back on great and not-so-great moments from football in the past.
We’re passionate about it. We know our stuff and we care. We love our show and want people to get involved with it. It’s as much the audiences as it is ours.
You’re fast building up a loyal following. Are you hoping to get listeners more involved?
JW – We’ve already got a 3-for-all where listeners can submit in their own top 3.
We have Take On Mekon where listeners send in questions and try and out-flank him with their football knowledge. The Mekon is currently winning that one 3-0. And this week in collaboration with the Daisy Cutter we are launching the non-league lottery where, if you’re following us on Twitter or the Daisy Cutter on Twitter, you can tweet us using the hashtag #nonleaguelottery and we will draw a non-league team for you live on the show and we will give you a page on our Facebook page. And you’ve got to go and follow that team. It’s the law.
DS – We’re always looking for listener content. So the more people listen the better the podcast will become.
What are your hopes for the future as regards 3For3?
JW – Fucking hell, that’s a tough question. I’m not bothered if it doesn’t make any money, I just want it to be respected. I just want people to enjoy it and hopefully learn something from it. A lot of our audience are quite young – 16, 17 or 18 – and we occasionally get tweets from people saying ‘I didn’t know that’ about things that happened in the mid-nineties for example.
As long as we’re enjoying it and our audience are enjoying it then hopefully we can live long and prosper.
DS – I hope it gives us the authority to influence managerial decisions at an international level and I hope we beat this other football podcast called Football Forensics which is arguably the biggest load of shit on iTunes.
