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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Murdoch McGrain Larsson
That’s very kind offer thanks wouldn’t like to trouble your dad but think it’d be great to read
stories from the different era’s on the blog. Guys like your dad must have wonderful recollections of greats Celts.
I used to go over to Rutherglen and travelled on the Downcraig bus from The Glen Bar (then the New Orleans) for several years.
My own dad is 81 today and my mum, a Calton kid, watched the Celtic as a girl with her brothers. Her favourite was John McPhail. My Da used to take me as a kid but my Ma is still Celtic daft.
No excuses….well remembered. Yeah he was brilliant that night. He just kept on being in loads of space and I’m just glad he only played one half. I had a few drinks before that game but I still realised at the time how good he was.
Apricale…. I just loved Roberto Baggio. Only seen him once in the flesh. Nov 1992 in Govan. But he ended up in the Southern General with broken ribs……and the Scottish papers said Alan Mclaren marked him out the game…..aye right !!!
jamesgang
To you and all the others who left early your punishment was you missed the highlight of the day.
A couple of Leigh’s bairns scoring into the Celtic end!
Pity their Da hadn’t managed it in the previous hour or so, eh? :-)
Did someone here question the ability of Bobby Murdoch,? Please say no. He was the closest to the best player I seen in a Celtic Jersey.Willie Fernie.HH
Billy Bhoy…. Are you in Glasgow?
If so, your best bet is to go to Lennoxtown yourself. I have done it a few times and the players stop and sign your stuff. HH
Billy Bhoy
What donationfor foundation :-)
connaire12
Good again, to catch up and hope your wearing your badges with pride. See you soon hopefully.
HH
CRC
Another weekend over, just back from a rather cloudy and windy East Kilbride. Grankids now back with their mother. I enjoyed the day day yesterday as it’s not every week I get to go to Celtic Park with the ones I love. I was meant to be taking my oldest grandson to the game but I wasn’t aware his best mate had a birthday party organised and he was expected to attend. Anyway the 2 younger ones got a day out at Paradise for the second time in their short lifes.
Not to sure if they’ll remember the day but I will and have the photos and memories of the day that will make me smile in days to come.
Bought them both new Beanie hats and it was so funny as Leon wanted to try them all on first to see which one felt right, he settled on a plain black one with celtic on the front, he even took it to bed with him last night. I had to go in and take it off him once he was sleeping.
Who know whether they they will want to go to games when they get older but I know for a fact there will only be one team that they support as they grow older and make their way in life.
It’s such a joy to introduce kids to our wonderful club. Over the years I’ve taken many young people to their first ever Celtic game and can faithfully report that every single one of them still supports and folows Celtic to this day, not all go to every game and 2 of my nephews are only ever in this country every couple of years but when they are here the first thing on their mind is a trip to Celtic Park to watch the hoops.
My sisters all kid me on that I owe them a fortune for all the Celtic strips they have had to buy over the years as a result of me taking their kids to games and those same kids then getting the bug that is being a Celtic supporter.
I’ve often wondered why I do this? Is it for selfish reasons? I don’t really know what the motivation is or the real reason I do it though I do know that some of my happiest memories in life are associated with following Celtic. I took my wife Isobel to her first ever football game, 1984 SC finale, I knew that day that I would ask her to be my wife as she totally got what we were all about. No mean feat for a wee free from Stornaway.
So as I prepare for the week ahead, a week where I have a job to go to, I thank my lucky stars that I am fortunate enough to be part of a community that looks after not only it’s own but those less fortunate than us. HH
on the leaving early debate . I have only left once and had a very good reason . yesterday I stayed to the final whistle but with a 7.30 boat to catch and a 2 hour journey(if we are lucky and checking in 15 mins prior to departure) we must get on to the motorway by 5.00pm 5.15pm at the latest, I would dearly Love to watch Celtic celebrate as often as possible but for me and all the other boat dependant Norn Iron Celtic supporters it just isnt possible. I dont think badly of any supporter leaving cos I like to believe they all have legitimate reasons like me for doing so , why would anyone go all the way to Paradise and leave just before celebrations begin? However if anyone has a say in the last home game timing , kick off one hour earlier would work for me.
God Bless Wee Oscar
HH
Best performance I remember by a non-Celt was Gunter Netzer for West Germany against England at Wembley – 1971/72. He just seemed to be at the right place at the right time – every time – and scored a penalty. Germany won 3-1.
It was a performance worthy of Bobby Murdoch at his best.
Eddie, big thumbs up to that post mhate.
eddieinkirkmichael….. Great post !
Dena29, the supporters who have boats to get back have every reason to get away sharp.
It’s part timers like JamesGang people get annoyed with:-)
Great to meet the pair of you yesterday, hope to do so again soon.
Hrvatski Jim,
Netzer was wearing a green jersey that night. Brilliant performance. One of the first games I saw in colour.
dena29
21:55 on 30 March, 2014
It was lovely to see you again on Sat. Wear those badges with pride, you deserve them!
HH
CRC
Weefratim
When i visit my auntie Masie she always goes on about her four weans. All pensioners….Brilliant!!!!
Tbj
as u know we both know the significance of 29th March..
I have just returned home from a wee day with family and friends,
ole holy goalie is like us through and through.
he has kept the faith and I will follow him wherever he chooses to go..
Wearing green and white – what else could he do?
Mind you ,having Beckenbaur, Hoeness and Muller in the tem did help a bit..
Ok guys, back on again. A brilliant end to The Musketeers and left it wide open to a sequel. Hope so.
Right wits happening, haven’t read back. :-)) wit aboot our wee CQN CORNER? Any decisions? Any takers? Sorry if I missed replies, but I am jiggered after a busy day and still have lambing checks to do. HELP. Lol.
Weefra HH supporting and praying for Wee Oscar.
Zbyszek,
Thanks for highlighting Aiden’s interview. It wouldn’t affect Russian clubs. Many players, except for the best, will keep following the rubles.
Poor Aiden couldn’t tolerate cold showers. Welcome to our world Mr footballer.
All the best Mr Z. Did your team defeat Poznan?
Biggest damp squib was Mike Channon who had run riot all season in England and who was going to destroy Scotland at Hampden – until he met Danny McGrain.
Doc
21:14 on 30 March, 2014
CRC, five bleeding minutes late!
====================
So Bannockburn is 5 mins behind everybody else in the ole timezones
10 min late ha, ha!
HH
CRC
HH
Weefra
Off w/c 7th might bring the ghirls up.
CRC
I will be wearing both my CQN and CQTen badges with absolute pride. After all you put them on for me. Lol
Weefra HH supporting and praying for Wee Oscar.
Down In The Dandelions
https://soundcloud.com/jamesgrantsongbook/down-in-the-dandelions-1?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=twitter
enjoy it will be away tmrw
Pair ah Roasters
WeeFra, will see you there.
Enjoyed meeting the diverse group that CQNers are.
CowieBhoy, Moi!?!?!?
Another vivid memory from that time sadly was when them won the league at our place in 99. And I did stay to the end. Painful tho it was.
Justice for the 96..
tomorrow starts the new inquiry.
As liverpool go top..
Dena29
I left early yesterday aswell, would have loved to stay but the 2 little people I had with me were getting bored and I was worried about getting back to the bus.
Your journey to attend the game was more than most and probably took more effort as well as cost than most of us.No way should supporters such as yourself have to explaine yourselfs. HH
Billy Bhoy
I felt suitably chastised sir……..then swiftly booted in the whotzits by Doc!!!
LyingInAcrumpledHeapCSC
Eddie. You’ve obviously been doing something right in the old Celtic intros. Keep up the good work!
HH jamesgang
billy bhoy 07
Good on her, just the way my ole mum feels. God bless. :-)
Weefra HH supporting and praying for Wee Oscar.
Detest Citeh and loathe Chelsea so please let Liverpool win the EPL
JamesGang:-))))
I staid until Izzy had just about completed his lap of honour
Biggest buzz, is seeing the smile on Paddybhoy1888’s face as he sees the CQN beanie passing
Well well worth it alone :-)
BT
You do not require an invite up here, and you know it. :-))) Looking forward to it. Hopefully mrs BT remembers how to get here. Lol.
Weefra HH supporting and praying for Wee Oscar.
Kids relaxing before the action
https://twitter.com/edwardrice1/status/449919331103944706/photo/1