Old Reading Footage Wanted For New Archive

Nowadays, it feels like every second of every football match is meticulously recorded - not only for broadcast and highlights, but by fans too. You could surely find at least a dozen different angles of all the action for every Reading game in the last half decade or so, if not further back.

Of course, it wasn’t always like this. Comprehensive video coverage - both official and unofficial - is a relatively new phenomenon, so the pickings get increasingly slim the further you delve into the Royals’ history. And of course, the rarer footage from decades past is prone to being lost forever.

Because of this, the club have launched a new supporters’ appeal that we at The Tilehurst End are getting behind. They want to gather as much Reading footage as possible and comprehensively digitise it, whether it’s currently on DVD, VHS, Betamax or anything else, so that it can be kept safe for generations of future Loyal Royals to come.

They’re interested in the following footage:

• Match footage - whether in part or in full, and whether it was broadcast live or released for sale on video.
• News footage
• TV coverage - interviews, features and anything else
• Fan-recorded footage - whether inside or outside the ground

Photo by Reading Post/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

Perhaps you’ve got an old stash of Reading recordings tucked away in your loft or at the back of your shed. They could well be the last visual trace of an old match that would otherwise be lost to future generations.

When this footage is gathered in, it’ll be copied and put into digital storage, where it’ll then be properly categorised and sorted. From there, the club plan to make all this old footage available to fans on demand.

To get involved, email media@readingfc.co.uk.