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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Liverpool very impressive in the forward areas pace and power in abundance
BCW
Well said Sir,although some on here seem to think that
our true enemy is in-house.
https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-prn1/v/t42.1790-2/1603788_484133991709065_1596135523_n.mp4?oh=3526379ee77f43a19c330ce39ca8c7e1&oe=533847B3
LG letting the Edinburgh Huns know what’s going on :-) HH
valentinesday
Our own supporters are the Achilles heel, in stifling our ambitions.
Someone told me at the game yesterday that the League Trophy was not presented to us because Sevco have won their League but the SPFL will not present them with their trophy incase they have to take it back from them if they go into administration. So trophies are not being presented until Sevco are absolutely safe from relegation through administration.
Has anyone else heard this.
Has anyone else heard this.
Oops
Has anyone else heard this?
Hun skelper
Thought that was quite funny ….accurate and inoffensive
Hope he has the sense to go home early tonight
EMBRAMIKE
You should have made the exchange before yer guard was lowered by the bonhomie.
It’s easier to drive a hard bargain when the word NAW is still in yer vocabulary.
CQN nightoooots are rarely kind on the bank balance.
Why do you think I come home so rarely?
bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers ………praying for our wee hero!
16:09 on 30 March, 2014
THOMTHETHIM
Yer all heart,bud!
*****
Big saftie, that’s me!
Suarez …
What a finish
How about the dancing Celtic fan with the Polis, on Celtic news now :-)
Oh Suarez 2 – 0
Suarez again – 2-0 ‘Pool. Well made and taken by surely the EPL POTY
Just been watching some clips of Diego Maradona this afternoon. What a player.
An age thing I guess but Pele was my hero growing up but looking at Diego I’m not sure who was best. And then Messi comes along.
Had the pleasure of the company of an older Celt before the game yesterday who had enjoyed the privilege of seeing Jimmy McGrory play. When Malorbhoy asked him to name his favourite all time Celtic team he opted for many of the older guys who had moved on many years ago but remarkably he picked Lubo in his team and no Lions if I recall correctly.
God Bless you Tony if you’re looking in.
Got Suarez first goal ..and Pool to win 3-0 or 4-1 ….
Spurs will to well to keep the score to either of the above
theoriginalsadiesbhoy
16:18 on 30 March, 2014
If the league is won early am sure it’s given at the last home game of the season, can’t remember a time it’s not been done differently. Someone putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5 or wishful thinking HH
Hun Skelper
Think you’re right …but wouldn’t put anything beyond the football authority in this country
….pfayr supports weeoscar
16:22 on 30 March, 2014
Seen it on a hearts forum and one commented we would like it and he was ……….correct :-) HH
Cowiebhoy – did the polis get the tin tack for smiling ?
Classic – maybe he had been on the Bar67 Guinness too!
Rodgers has his team playing great football.
Passing, pace and movement.
The willingness to commit runners to the last third is something other coaches could learn from.
That young Coutinho is going to be a superstar
ElDiegoBhoy
If I may be so bold:
That’d be a wonderful interview to have, I mean that gentleman’s recollections of James McGrory.
I asked on Friday if we had a CQN’er who had actually seen McGrory play.
….pfayr supports weeoscar
16:28 on 30 March, 2014
Waiting on Liverpool for a double, the other leg was Everton…:)
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
SFTB – excellent review. You’re a credit to Castlemilk and your English teacher.
67heaven.
hahaha, I’m so glad you told that chap off, well done my fine mhan ;)
From last blog,
!!bada bing!!
15:01 on 30 March, 2014
Kate O’ Mara RIP
……………………………..
You didn’t give her her full name Sultry Kate O’Mara RIP.
She was a cracker in her hey day.
embramike supporting wee oscar and res 12
16:33 on 30 March, 2014
Cowiebhoy – did the polis get the tin tack for smiling ?
Once their masters have seen it on the net, I’m sure there will be reprimands,
As
Suarez should have made it 3
The counterpoint to Rodgers are coaches like Sherwood.
Predictable unimaginative coaches who have learned a rigid set of rules with no form of creative expression.
Overpaid and unsuitable guys destroying football as a spectator sport.
http://youtu.be/kSnNFqXblNs
Nice to see he enjoyed the planned celebration :-)
Hail Hail
EL DIEGO BHOY
I bow before Tony’s superior knowledge,but I suspect a tad of inverted snobbery in his choices.
IMO,certain players in our history have been given elevated status due to their exploits in an otherwise poor team.
Now,having said that,having been brought up in the glory years,the Celtic equivalent of The Babyboomers when everything was fine and dandy,I find it difficult to fault those who worship the few stars we had back then.
Disnae make them right,nor does it make me right.
But anyone that age who can name a Celtic team in his lifetime and ignore JINKY and BOBBY MURDOCH,in particular,has been blessed to see some rare talents.
And I also think he may be underestimating Bobby Lennox too.
Mind,it’s great swapping tales of the greats wi the older fellas. They bring to life things we can only read on Celticwiki.
And if you know yer history….
hun skelper
Thanks for shedding some light on that matter. Cheers.
There have been a lot of comments on here about honest mistakes by the mibs when Sevco make their appearance in the top flight for the first time in their history. There were a lot of honest mistakes when Jock Stein’s Celtic were winning NIAR. Jock said that the way to render these honest mistakes as irrelevant was to put the ball in the back of the net more times than your opponents.
Celtic have more money than any team in Scotland. The Board do not need to speak out against what has gone on with Sevco. It will only be twisted in the media and used against us. Celtic should punish them and not rely on the SFA, EUFA or anyone else to do it. We should put a team on the park that will annihilate them with a torrent of goals and keep on repeating the punishment until they well and truly learn the lesson. Make them suffer.
Setting Free the Bears
Dynomite!!!
Yep.. Ye jist done n wrote wan o’ the Tour de Force.. Thingimies,Pal..
A Review tae Pique the Public’s Interest..
Well. Let me tell you…. that ye soitenly Piqued this Guy’s.
Ah nevah buy.. Sport Anthologies ..
But… Ye hiv jist made a Convert.
Kid.. Ye hiv Literary Talent..so ye hiv..
Ye done Good…Kid..
Congratulations!!!!
Kojo
Still,Laughin’
Talk of Jimmy McGrory,and a clip of LG, both Celtic strikers.
one a true legend,the other a Hibs fan in a pub.
howourstandershavedroppedCSC.
theoriginalsadiesbhoy-HH
TheOriginalSadiesBhoy
Fair comment.
But Them’s “learn the lesson” ? Nah, never………..
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=kSnNFqXblNs
When will the Seville book be available on kindle?
THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY
Have to disagree,bud.
It’s fine to put the ball in the net more than the opposition,but that is not the point.
A level playing field is what sport is all about.
Tolerating cheats is not.
Big-Cup-Winner and BMCUW
Tony is in his high eighties and a joy to spend time with. I chipped in with things like the boots Jimmy McGrory would have worn. The state of the playing surfaces etc. He remains resolute in his admiration for the players of that era.
Well it’s doing the rounds already just seen it on my sons phone, Leigh Griffiths in the Roseburn Bar earlier today dancing and singing on top of the tables