Our very own Setting Free The Bears has kindly written a review of Seville – The Celtic Movement, which I hear has already sold out in some WH Smith stores. SFTBs contributed a chapter to the book, which he didn’t cover in his submitted review, but which has been added in context below. Here it is:
How do you solve a problem like Sevilla? The question which Oscar Hammerstein originally posed in regard to describing the will o’ the wisp qualities of a flighty and frolicsome postulant nun, is no easier answered when the object of the question is replaced by the event, precedents and aftermath of the UEFA Cup Final played in Seville on the 21st May 2003.
That is the task set in the book Seville: The Celtic Movement, published by CQN books, a development arising from the Celtic Quick News fan website, a site which itself started in 2004 by Paul Brennan who was exasperated by the fictions commonly held by the old media and its fan adherents over “what happened to the Seville money?”.
Though Mr. Brennan appears and contributes to the book, it is largely the work of Brogan, Rogan, Trevino and Hogan who wrote 50% of the chapters, and Winingcaptains, who organised, edited and designed, with credited assistance, the format for bringing this mammoth task to the table in the shape of a readable and enjoyable book.
Though these two provide the base structure of the book, there are additional individual chapters provided by a credited journalist, some enthusiastic amateur writers, an academic and, even the old media is represented in the form of BBC extracts in one chapter. However, what rounds out this book and what gives it its unique flavour are the contributed memories of myriad fans gathered in Chapters 22 and 23, and credited to their blogging names.
It is a tough task to make the collective memories, reminiscences and reviews of the Seville experience coherent and readable, but the editors and publishers have done a very good job of ordering and editing under the various themes. Inevitably, there is some repetition and occasionally, there are some factual mistakes but these do not spoil the flow and readability.
This may be a new style of journalism and sports book but it pays decent heed to the traditional virtues of storytelling by providing laughs, tears, drama and in one memorable incident, that staple of modern literature, a skitter of scatology.
In addition to the quality of the writing and the comedy, drama and tear-jerking quality of the tales, the book has far surpassed the normal publishing standards of both the Sports Book industry and any niche publishing sector.
There are 64 pages of colour photography included with the book, many photographs provided by the contributors themselves, which provide tremendous visual garnish to the narrative descriptions within the book. This is more than double what you would find in most Sports books from “quality” publishing houses and four times what you normally get from hurried and ill-considered publishing ventures. All of this and the book is available at a price of only £18.99.
There are also several cartoons, by Bill Houston, which illustrate aspects of the tales told and provide even more comic input. The publishers and designers have gone to considerable expense to set a high standard for this new-ish area of book marketing.
It is fitting that such well told tales are given a setting which is fitting to their worth. This is a high quality and well-presented piece of work and CQN publishing have set a high industry standard which will be difficult to match.
This is the definitive source book for anyone seeking to understand what the Seville experience, which is more than the football match, means to Celtic fans. As Celts descended on Andalusia from all over the world, there is no single person who has an overall perspective on what occurred back then.
The real Celtic story requires the gathered perspectives of Celts of all hues, proud, defiant, exasperated, angry, sad, vindictive, proud again and, often all shades of emotion were experienced as the event unfolded and was reviewed.
The opening three chapters set the scene with an overview of Celtic’s history and standing in Europe, a description of the goal that saw Celtic qualify for the final and a depiction of the city and the impact of the visiting fans.
Setting Free the Bears wrote one of the most captivating sections of the book; 5000 words about the 10 seconds leading up to Henrik Larsson’s epically important goal in the semi-final second leg against Boavista. It is not so much the story of a goal but the story of an awakening. All the drama contained within one man’s Celtic supporting life poured out in the story of this goal. You have to know the value of Celtic to understand but the very essence of what the club is all about reaches from this chapter.
There was more involved in the goal that it’s likely your memory will recall. Our leaders were represented, the
The first hint of mysticism comes here as Celtic’s re-appearance in a European final takes on the overtones of a late-life romance with a lost and rediscovered former teenage sweetheart.
Then it is over to 12 chapters by Brogan, Rogan, Trevino and Hogan. In his own unique style, BRTH describes his Seville experience and the companions with whom he shared this experience. All the elements of suspense are there in a “Will He or Won’t He Make It to the Game” stylee. If they ever re-make “The Perils of Pauline” then BRTH is just the man to give a modern day Pearl White a set of obstacles to overcome. However, it would not be a silent film as Jim has plenty to say about the cast of characters involved.
This central story sets the template against which the later blogger descriptions of how they obtained tickets, travelled to and from Spain, and experienced the build-up, the day and the outcome, can be compared. The themes of loss and redemption are presaged as tickets, travel plans and friends and family members go awry before being re-united in co-incidences that would shame the credulity of James Fennimore Cooper and indeed, there is an appearance of a Mohican, or at least a haircut style, in one of the many tales.
The challenge of doing justice to the mystical experience that was Seville has led these bloggers brings out the best in their non-professional writing. They want to represent again, in the manner described by Jim McGinlay on p.84 where he states that “in essence, the people traveling were not so much going to support Celtic and, instead, were going to be Celtic.”
The middle sections of the book, chapters 15 to 19, cover the following, largely discrete themes, two of them composed by Joe Ruddy:-
*An overview of the games and the fans reaction to each tie
*An account of the BBC coverage of the day (by an Aberdeen supporter and an ex-Rangers co-commentator let me remind you.)
* An interesting range of views expressed via Twitter and other social media
* A fascinating set of extracts from Professor Giulanotti’s academic study of the Seville experience
* And a tale of technical ingenuity and hazard that allowed New Zealand’s ex-pat and descendant community to get their Seville experience
As every day is a school day, Professor Giulanotti introduced me to the novel term, dietrologia, which is, apparently, “the science of observing or speculating upon what goes on behind the scenes in powerful groups”, or paranoia as we call it in Castlemilk. The good professor describes Celtic as a “relatively exogenous community” and, though I am not sure of a precise definition of this term, I am fairly confident it has nothing to do with temperance or teetotalism.
Chapters 20 and 21 allow two further gifted writers, Blaise Phelan and L.Monaghan to describe their ticket experiences as they were particularly dramatic and comic.
Then we are onto the heart and soul of the book, the multi-faceted descriptions by numerous Celtic fans of their Seville. In Scotland we are used to having 57 words to describe various states of rainy weather but it taxes the Celtic tongue, poetic as it is, to convey the sense of oppressive heat experienced on The Long Walk to Bessa and back.
It is in this section that you will, once again, laugh, gasp, rage and cry at the descriptions of what occurred to an extraordinary people at an extraordinary time. I guarantee you that, however hard or callous you imagine yourself to be, you will cry unashamedly at the story of The Boy Jinky on page 305 about the scattering of his son’s ashes. It was far from the only occasion on which my eyes were wet.
The book concludes with a cheeky poem and a word from CQN’s main man, Mr. Brennan, on the impetus to found CQN, based on the questions being asked about what Seville meant for Celtic finances, basically, “what happened to the Seville money?”
From that question, the intent of which so irked Paul Brennan that he started a blog, CQN has grown and developed to the extent that, at a distance of 10 years, some perspective and agreement is beginning to emerge as to what Seville meant for the club.
I would not claim that the distilled essence of all that Seville means to us is here within this book but a goodly proportion of it is well represented here. With the passage of time, there may be less resentment against Porto and more of an acknowledgement of how good a team they were technically but the justified sense of wounded resentment is still well represented too, against the play-acting of the Porto team, the weakness of the referee, and the venality of the ticket touts, fat cats and a minority of our own support in the vending of tickets. There is, even, some scapegoating of our own players as this book seeks to represent all the reactions to the match and the event.
As someone who chose not to go to Seville, because I refused to go without a ticket, I found the recollections had finally altered me in that view and I echo what HamiltonTim said in stating that the failure to go to Seville was the biggest regret of my Celtic supporting life.
For those who have struggled to watch the Seville DVD and re-live the painful memories, could I commend the words of Troon Tim in stating that these CQN recollections have been “an absolute pleasure- far better than watching the DVD.” If you buy the book, you can put that act off until the 20th anniversary at least.
The final word should go to CQNs creator as he honestly evaluates the new media approach which has led to this new style of book:-
“Citizen journalism is far from perfect, in fact, it is mostly absurd, but, it is democratic in its access and, most importantly, it is ours.”
In my translation that means, these may be the views of internet bampots but they are our internet bampots and they represent well.
Get yours here:
[calameo code=0003901710a55b5798f06 lang=en page=54 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
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16 roads – glasgow celtic champions.
23:25 on 30 March, 2014
Can I just check. Was that a literal story or a parable/metaphor about Newcastle and Sports Direct closing down Hubs Inc at some point?!? ;-)
A premonition I hope!
HH jamesgang
Huns Inc even
16 roads
It is only illegal to kill them randomly. I can shoot them as they steal eggs from my hen coup, which I have no problem doing. Any farmer who’s stock is theatened, eg, new born lambs eyes, which they pick out regularly, are permitted to kill them. They are the rats of the bird population as are their close cousins,, crows. Hope this helps. :-))
Weefra HH supporting and praying for Wee Oscar.
Doc as Cowiebhoy would say
Ya roaster :)
PB1888
I’d been offered £800 each for our tickets and would have taken it, but my mum never missed a game on her book for anything.
We always left a few minutes early as neither of our walks could deal with the mass exit.
Underneath the Jock Stein we stopped at a tellie and I persuaded my mum to stop and told her “he’ll score this”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLlfr4Ng8nU
:-)
I look forward to reading the Seville book.
I was there. I also questioned what happened to the Seville money and I will continue to question perceived wisdom.
Lazy and complacent is what we are.
We must question it.
Kayal33, I hope I remember that game correctly as I think I was right in line when he took the ball from a throw in shimmied past a couple with a dummy of a shot and then planted a wonderful shot in the top corner, what I remember most was when the interviewer after the game was congratulating on this wonder goal he said so what, we lost.
16 roads – glasgow celtic champions.
I’ll bring over my cat he constantly attacks the magpies in my back garden…jtt will verify it.
Btw, he’s called Caesar :))
eddieinkirkmichael
21:53 on 30 March, 2014
Great post eddieinkirkmichael….
Sittin here slightly inebriated again watching ed china work his magic on a ford mustang. Working the morrow so need to retire which I’ve been saying for last hour :-)
God bless wee Oscar
HH
jamesgang
23:37 on
30 March, 2014 – It was a real life incident mate,it happened today,witnessed it with my own two eyes I did.
WeefratheTim – Thanks for the information chief.
Kill as many of them magpies as you possibly can.
Goodnight and good luck to all Celtic supporters.
16 roads – Glasgow Celtic Champions.
23:25 on 30 March, 2014
Greetings.
Seen a bizarre incident today.
A magpie carried a mouse up into a big hedge and devoured the thing! Blood was gushing from the mouse.
I fired a stone at the magpie,it flew away and left what remained of the mouse on the hedge.
Not that I am easily shocked,but I was a wee bit taken aback by the entire episode .
Don’t like mice,however those magpies are a pure evil creature,they must have beaks like razor blades.
Also it is illegal to kill the damn things by law,believe it or not.
They are a menace and a pest,although if they are keeping down the mouse population then they must be doing something useful a suppose.
HH.
___________________________
God and his Perfect creation at work.
I dinnae know why I am scared of beastie things, well I do, it was fear put into me as a Child by Propaganda from the MSM/Television.
Throw away That Television
sipsini
23:41 on
30 March, 2014 – Very brave cat you own mate.
I have seen magpies chase and attack weak cats on numerous occasions as well.
Absolute cretins they are.
Oiche mhaith.
neganon2
23:22 on 30 March, 2014
I never mentioned “fan”. I talked about “supporter”.
You are probably a fan. You are not a supporter.
Neganon2, keep questioning mhate, keeps us all honest.
petec
23:49 on
30 March, 2014 – I am not so sure about them being creatures of God mate,because they are very unlucky,also their relative,the crow is said to be a sign of the devil .
Def gone now.
Good luck my friend.
I remember the outrage I used to feel as a Celtic supporter after a game where we had been been cheated by officialdom.
I would imagine that`s just how Hibs supporters feel right now.
The nail in Hibs coffin was the second yellow which was completely accidental on the part of the Hibs player.
The Hearts player outpaced him from behind and ran in front of him.
The Edinburgh jury strikes again.
HT
Thanks for filling in the rest of the Bar67 cast. A gent as always.
I thank you all for the splendid hospitality and if any of you ever make it to the Roseburn, then the drinks are on me – although I can’t guarantee a table dancing CFC striker :-)
That invite also goes for any of the CQN Corner team – all welcome – HH
Ah Tom Molach.
A classic case of dehumanisation.
You see years ago I challenged our host to a debate.
Supporter versus customer I said.
Let’s talk about the difference and the way our club treated us.
Paul refused the debate. And for good reason.
The club treat us as a customer. But a customer who has no choice. They think commercialism is the king. They have forgotten our purpose. That’s just a factore of our absentee landlord. He couldn’t give a fig about the customer. He views us as fodder to be exploited. He has already openly shown his disdain for celtic supporters. He has decried us openly. He has also shown his love for the Hun. He looks forward to their return.
Make of that what you will.
Are you simply watching an overblown wrestling match?
Are you happy with that?
So back to your fan v a supporter analogy. Your rods are poor. Let’s talk about a supporter versus a customer analogy. Oh I am a supporter who will fight for progress. You are a customer. Happy with any old crap product.
It’s to the shame of many on this site that they refused a customer v supporter debate.
You have strayed into territory they hid away from.
Stone the crows…wonder where that came from!
Neganon2
My point was after travelling all the way over from Ireland I would have loved to have stayed to see the celebration but couldn’t. Did it once before after stopping the 10iar match against St Johnstone and didn’t make it home until the Tuesday. Liver and Mrs wouldn’t allow that now. Having said that if I was as disaffected as some on here re leaving before the end I would personally just cut out the middleman and not go at all. I don’t go to Celtic games to support/ not support the board I go to support the team, my team. I don’t feel that that makes me lazy or complacent.
When the dead team play their matches against us I personally will not go to those matches but that’s because of what they stand for and the bile and bigotry they will spew in this current guise. The other games That I can attend I will. For me that’s what being a supporter is about. Problems that I have with how the club is being run I will post on here ,on other forums,in discussions with friends, other supporters et al. How others wish to show/voice their disaffection is entirely up to them but far be it from me to tell them how to do it. I feel I am my own person. Each to their own.
God bless the Tic. Site now left to the Moonhowlers.
Gearroid. Quite right. You are absolutely entitled to your opinion.
And me mine……
16 roads – Glasgow Celtic Champions.
23:54,
The Owl on the $ also signifys death in so many cultures, it doesn’t mean the Owl is not a Creation of God. Heck, as God is the Alpha and Omega……
Off to bed as well, catch up soon.
16 roads – Glasgow Celtic Champions.
23:25 on
30 March, 2014
Greetings.
Seen a bizarre incident today.
A magpie carried a mouse up into a big hedge and devoured the thing! Blood was gushing from the mouse.
I fired a stone at the magpie,it flew away and left what remained of the mouse on the hedge.
Not that I am easily shocked,but I was a wee bit taken aback by the entire episode .
Don’t like mice,however those magpies are a pure evil creature,they must have beaks like razor blades.
Also it is illegal to kill the damn things by law,believe it or not.
They are a menace and a pest,although if they are keeping down the mouse population then they must be doing something useful a suppose.
———————————————————–
“Bizarre”?
“Shocked”?!
“Pure evil”?
LOL!!
Take it you didn’t get Ted Hughes at school?
Magpies are crows (corvidae) with an away strip on. They eat anything.
“Nature red in tooth and claw…” CSC
Doc – try it even WITH GOOGLE!
sipsini – please feel free to ask as many of them as possible.
Off for some zzzzzzzzs so Nytol
Neganon2
I thought that was the whole point of my post. It must have been lost in the translation. Everybody is entitled to an opinion simples.
NegAnon2
So you think its ok to share jokes with stewards that mistreat our young fans? The same fans you profess to support.
On your way out early from a league title celebration.
Yeah, we need more fans like you.
If the Seville review by SFTB is typical of the book itself it will indeed be a yawn – rambling never-ending sentences. Education is a good thing but the idea is not to use every word you’ve ever learned in the same sentence.
Still, if it makes you happy.
The Bottom Line is ………….
00:31 on
31 March, 2014
If the Seville review by SFTB is typical of the book itself it will indeed be a yawn – rambling never-ending sentences. Education is a good thing but the idea is not to use every word you’ve ever learned in the same sentence.
Still, if it makes you happy.
——————————————-
So….did you buy then…?
The bottom line is
We have said that if you’re not completely happy with the Seville book you can have a refund.
Hundreds of Celtic supporters tell their stories – some as incredibly funny too.
Crows(Corvids) Are Believed To Possess A Level Of Intelligence That Matches The Average Seven Year-Old Human Child….
So They Evidently Possess An Intellect That Would Embarrass The Average Cambuslang CoarnerBoy…..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2590046/Crows-intelligent-CHILDREN-Study-reveals-birds-intelligence-seven-year-old.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2556662/Bird-brained-This-crows-genius-Amazing-video-reveals-creature-solves-8-complex-puzzles-unlock-treat.html
–
Up The Hoops !
God-Bless Brother Walfrid
THE best way to catch the magpies is to use a Larsen trap……then kill them…….so there, tell all the huns you know !!!!!!
Covered previously but obviously worth repeating…
Everyone is entitled to an option.
Everyone is entitled to express their opinion.
Everyone should be prepared to defend their expressed opinion when others object.
But see when they do? Please…don’t start greetin’ that you’ve been denied an opinion. You’ve not. It’s just that someone else has a different opinion and is arguing with you.
Don’t go in a huff when people disagree with you – just argue your point.
Of course, it may become apparent that your point is pish.
Fine – we’ve all been there.
Be big enough to accept it.
Kilbowie Kelts post made me think back to the amount if mass goers who used to think they were the ‘best Catholics in the world’ compared to people who could only attend once a week for whatever reason.Usually the reason was my da had to go to work most days and my wee mammy was too busy looking after us weans.
I couldn’t stand the self appointed elite then and still struggle when I think of how our own looked down their noses at us.I have no affectionate memories of the clergy who patronised us in 1960s Glasgow.
John Lennon once said that The Beatles were bigger than Jesus.
I can understand that now……….Celtic in Hoops were always bigger than any Priest in robes for me.
A few years ago, on Elgin golf course while playing as part of fourball, I witnessed a barbaric and cruel scene involving crows. One of the crows, who had different colouring from the rest, some light grey on the wings and back seemed to be agitated and the rest of say 10 pure black of its brethren were pecking and preventing it from flying. At the 15th at Elgin you often have a wait of five or ten minutes. Over the wait, the majority escalated the subjection of funny colours crow until they had killed it. Nature is cruel and not subject to laws or social norms.
The Singing Detective Demands The Resignation Of Campbell Ogilvie
00:38 on
31 March, 2014
Crows(Corvids) Are Believed To Possess A Level Of Intelligence That Matches The Average Seven Year-Old Human Child….
So They Evidently Possess An Intellect That Would Embarrass The Average Cambuslang CoarnerBoy…..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2590046/Crows-intelligent-CHILDREN-Study-reveals-birds-intelligence-seven-year-old.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2556662/Bird-brained-This-crows-genius-Amazing-video-reveals-creature-solves-8-complex-puzzles-unlock-treat.html
–
Up The Hoops !
God-Bless Brother Walfrid
————————————————-
How much pish can the Daily Mail publish? Still, if people want to pay them for it…
I won’t buy the Seville book.
I still can’t bring myself to watch that game again.
I still can’t stand Mourinho.
Must have had the ‘Milan ‘ gene passed on from my dad who won’t even discuss the Feyenoord Final.
CelebratinggloriousfailureCSC