BOSS Nights’ Kieo writes kids book to help young Kopites learn the LFC chants

Singer-songwriter Kieo has written a kids book to help young Kopites find their voice on the terraces at Anfield.

My First Liverpool Songs is a rhyming picture book written for Liverpool fans in their early years and tells the story of beginning the journey as a lifelong Red, going to the match – and starting to learn some of the famous chants sung on The Kop!

Kieo, 30, who’s perhaps better known for playing to tens of thousands of fans as part of the BOSS Night’s tours, says: “This is the first time I’ve written a book and the reason I did it was to get more young Reds into going to the match and getting behind the team.

“I remember being a young lad and hearing the songs and you didn’t know all the words for them.

“Some kids aren’t on the terraces every week, but they have a massive interest in Liverpool, and I just want to try and amplify that.”

The idea for the book struck about a year ago and Kieo, originally from Walton but now living in the city centre, started to think about how he would put it together.

“I didn’t want to just list the songs and do a bible of lyrics, I wanted to write something that would grab kids’ attention, that was interesting visually, that was a rhyming kids’ book, and that told the story of going to the match, all the sights and sounds you see and hear when you go to watch Liverpool.

“I see so many kids when I go to the game, and I just want everybody singing off the same hymn sheet.

“I think I just wanted to create something for the next generation of supporters and inspire them to get as much out of Liverpool as I do.”

Kieo (real name Kieran Molyneux) wrote the book and sketched out the idea before his friend, Rob May, from Liverpool-based LO Studio drew the final illustrations.

It contains 7 songs – including We Are Liverpool (Tra La La), We Love You Liverpool, We Do, and We All Live In A Red and White Kop – and Kieo says there was only one he had to slightly change: “I took out one curse word, but these are beginners’ songs,” he adds, “the traditional Liverpool songs that are there long after players come and go, and managers come and go.

“They are about the club and about the team, and they’ll always be there. I guess my favourite song is We Love You Liverpool, We Do, because that goes through different teams over the years, and we do love them.

“I think it’s the uniqueness of Liverpool, when you realise they’re like nobody else in terms of the football they play, the ground they play at, and the atmosphere. When you go to the game and you fall in love with the club, you become obsessed.”

Kieo had a number of jobs before being able to do his dream job of playing around the world with his guitar.

In recent years, he’s played to huge crowds of LFC fans as part of the BOSS Night tours. The events evolved from the BOSS Mag fanzine as a chance for fans to continue the celebrations after the games, and they rapidly outgrew small venues and now regularly outsell their current home at the Olympia in West Derby Road.

Kieo has been part of BOSS Nights’ success from the beginning, and has since played with loads of legendary Liverpool artists from The Lightning Seeds and John Power, to Space.

“I’ve been playing for years around Liverpool now and I started doing the BOSS Night stuff nearly 10 years ago. I always wanted to be a singer and started singing and writing in my teens and had a good crack at it.

“I’m still trying but I’m getting there. I think the moment I realised I could actually do it for a living was probably when I walked out to 60,000 people in a fan park in Madrid for the Champions League Final in 2019 and I thought, this is here to stay now, I’m not going to ever stop doing it.

“It’s my life, it’s what I belong doing.”

Kieo is hoping to release new singles early next year and bring out an album by the end of 2023: “It’ll be a mix of stuff, from rock to some slow and serious songs, quite varied really.”

And there could even be another book.

My First Liverpool Songs is aimed at around two to seven years, and has achieved huge success already, with orders coming in thick and fast from around the world.

“I’m lucky to have played for Liverpool fans all over the world so I know there’s one in every corner of the world, and the idea of the book is that it’s not just for kids, but for parents to sing with their kids. The support has been great and I’m really grateful for it, so who knows, there could be a second volume.”