Last summer I took a look at those doing the impossible job. That of being a referee.

This subject has come up again in Scotland because of some reactions and attitudes towards the match officials.

The recent hullabaloo came about after an Old Firm game in which Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager was very critical of the referee’s decisions after their 1-0 loss. Then after this game that same ref received threatening phone calls.

But it’s not just this one Scottish referee, things are getting problematic for all match officials because of the pressure and criticism levelled at them from not just the team bosses, but the fans and media too.

…Another official, Steven Craven, resigned after criticism of his role in a reversed penalty decision the previous weekend.

And former Fifa referee Kenny Clark believes that people could be put off becoming officials if they are not treated with more respect.

“We’re perhaps heading for a crisis unless people start to recognise that we must ease the pressures being put upon referees,” Clark told BBC Scotland.

“If referees and assistants at the top level choose to resign then it diminishes the pool of officials able to handle matches in the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League.

» Full article

This isn’t the first time there has been refereeing controversy in relation to an Old Firm match, the well known and now retired ex-FIFA referee Hugh Dallas [pictured above], now the Scottish Football Association’s Referee Development Officer, was really on the receiving end of it during a match he officiated in 1999 when he was hit on the head with a coin. After a few minutes treatment he continued in the game but that was only one part of a very controversial match.

As mentioned this was in 1999 and it was May ’99 to be precise. Or even more precise than that – it was the end of the SPL season and this was the very last match (being played at Parkhead) with whoever winning to be crowned league champions.

And seeing only dollar signs in their eyes rather than the danger signs of this crucial decider, $ky Sports decided themselves that it should be a televised match on a Sunday evening…

After a couple of player warnings by Dallas in only the first few minutes, then the coin throwing incident and three players sent off during the game.

Eventually the match was won by Rangers who took the championship.

In the aftermath of the game a brick was thrown through a window at Hugh Dallas’s home, and any future Old Firm league matches to be played in the early afternoon. Plus the possibility of an Old Firm title decider has been avoided.

A few years later Dallas wrote about his experiences of refereeing an Old Firm game. And sadly he’s recently been in the headlines again.

- A few years ago the Glasgow band Mogwai named a song after him which was included on an anthology from Matador Records:

- To counteract and add some balance to this quite serious post… A few months back e-rawk emailed and pointed me to a video of a classical music piece by Dmitri Shostakovich, the Russian composer who was a certified referee.   He regularly went to watch Zenit Leningrad, now renamed FC Zenit Saint Petersburg – who have recently been in the new because of fan violence after their title win.

Oh I just made things serious again. Listen to some soothing music to calm things down…

Ok maybe not so soothing…

Ah you want some audio to listen to as well ? A repost of a couple from the previous referee post. Hitting the post if you will.

[See post to listen to audio] » Matt McGinn – The Fitba Referee [See post to listen to audio] » John MacLeods XI – Don’t Shoot The Ref

4th Sept 2008:

“Kevin Keegan has resigned as manager of Newcastle United after just eight months in charge…

… Keegan was furious to discover members of his already slim squad had been offered for sale during the final hours before the window closed, after he had reluctantly accepted James Milner’s £12m departure to Aston Villa.”

[See post to listen to audio]

» Busker – Thank You Kevin

At the end of the 2008-2009 season they were relegated.

9th Aug 2010:

“Martin O’Neill has resigned as Aston Villa manager with immediate effect…

…(Aston Villa owner) Randy Lerner had backed O’Neill in the transfer market during that spell but it became clear this summer that similar investment would not be forthcoming.

Lerner insisted that Villa would have to adopt a sell-to-buy policy and O’Neill was resigned to losing the services of midfielder James Milner to Manchester City.”

[Nobody at Villa sang about him, but when he was at Celtic]

[See post to listen to audio]

Derek Warfield-Ballad of Martin O’Neill

At the end of the 2010-2011 season… ???

I know, I know. They season hasn’t started. They haven’t kicked a ball yet. Plus the transfer window is still open and the prospect of managing a Premier League club, even if it’s now a selling one is very tasty for any candidate. Additionally they have a very decent squad – they’ve got Shorey …err… Heskey and um… that other swapsie from City from last season…

Aston Villa are a decent club who will probably finish mid-table now ? I mean… Stop me if you've heard this one... they are too big to go down.

James Milner. Tied in with both resignations.

But he wasn’t a part of the trouble with the Newcastle > Aston Villa transfer.

Oh wait he was:

“…Aston Villa have announced the signing of James Milner from Newcastle United – the England U-21 international has penned a four-year deal at Villa after passing a medical at Villa Park.

Villa have been after Milner for a couple of years now – and the youngster finally forced the issue by handing in a transfer request earlier this month.

But lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice.

Oh wait. It does:

“I had a conversation with James before the World Cup and he intimated that he’d like to go,” said O’Neill.

“I’d imagine things will be resolved in foreseeable future.”

“City made an offer but it did not meet our valuation.”

“I’m sure matters will be resolved soon.”

As a long suffering (yes I know I’m not allowed to say that anymore) Man City supporter I’m very conflicted.

On the one hand I welcome the prospect of seeing Milner playing over at Eastlands, but on the other hand I question as to why Bob Mankini (and the liability that is Garry Cooke) are stockpiling all these players. With this restriction on a 25 named squad for this season you have to wonder if half of them will be sitting with Robinho up in the stands. Maybe a few will go out on loan, but many of these (very overpaid) prima donnas will immediately start to sulk and demand a move. Shay Given has already started threatening.

Plus when they do get on the pitch it’s not going to be a set line-up. Again with some of these “firebrand” personalities, some of them…most of them like to kick out and have seen a few yellows and reds last season.

With this embarrassment of riches comes the extra trouble and pressure for Mr Mancini and I wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t the next to follow O’Neill if the club isn’t topping the league.

As I said I’m very conflicted. It used to be when I mentioned that I was a Man City supporter I got a nod of sympathy from the other party. But now it’s the Mercenary XI and a sneer at their wealth.

I’ll let previous Citeh boss, previously mentioned, to play us out.

Because…

… being a City fan right now. No seriously. Stop laughing. It really isn’t.

Today’s subject is about two men who managed Celtic and between them won everything. These two gentlemen are a large part of the club’s history and are now legends:

Willie Maley and Jimmy McGrory

Willie Maley began at the club as a player until in 1987 he was appointed, at just 29 years old, as Secretary-Manager. Thus becoming the first manager of Celtic FC and in his first season won the League title.

Maley never worked with his players in training, he watched games from the directors’ box and never indulged in team talks or spoke to his players at half-time or post-match. Maley would not even announce the team: players learned if they were in or out through reading the line-up in the newspaper.

Willie created a new policy of recruiting youngsters from local teams and with these kids he they won six league titles in a row between 1905 and 1910 and won the first Scottish League and Scottish Cup doubles.

When they grew old, Maley built a second team which won four titles in succession between 1914 and 1917 and set what is still the UK record for an unbeaten run in professional football – played 62 games, winning 49 and 13 drawn. Celtic continued to gather trophies throughout the 1920s and in the mid-1930s Maley built his third great team, featuring Jimmy McGrory among them.

Willie Maley was the longest serving manager at Celtic. In his 43 years as manager, he won 16 league titles, 14 Scottish Cups, 14 Glasgow Cups and 19 Glasgow Charity Cups.

There was a tribute song done by David Cameron (not that Tory twit) about Maley:

» David Cameron – Willy Maley Song

- A visual representation of that song:

Jimmy McGrory had a long distinguished career as a player before taking the reigns as manager. He was signed by Maley to Celtic as a 17 year old in 1922 and between then and 1937, he scored 397 league goals for the club. Over the course of his career, he amassed 550 goals in first-class matches, including 410 goals in 408 league games, making him the most prolific scorer in British football history.

After leaving Celtic, he joined Kilmarnock as manager, before returning to manage Celtic in 1945. He held this position for nearly 20 years. As boss he won the League Championship twice, two Scottish FA Cups, and the Scottish League Cup twice in two consecutive years.

One of these League Cup wins became a notable moment in Celtic’s history when in the 1957 League Cup Final they beat Rangers 7-1. Their biggest win other the other Glasgow team and one never repeated.

Because it was sunny and because of a film that was big in the cinemas that year, the final became to be known as the Hampden In The Sun final and there was a song composed about that day:

» Unknown – Hampden In The Sun

This entry was suggested by and thanks once again to The Vinyl Villain.

With this next one, in which the producer Adrian Sherwood was involved, the project looks at football at the time and everything surrounding it – including the trouble on the terraces and outside the grounds:

I’ll pull some quotes from kiwimick who posted this commentary on Rate Your Music and gives an excellent summary on the whole thing:

…The Barmy Army are effectively the loose collective otherwise known as Tackhead and friends, and here they combine a couple of their shared passions – sampling and football – to create a body work unlike anything else heard before or since. It won’t appeal to all, but it does have some curiosity value, and will be well worth a listen for anyone who has previously enjoyed Tackhead, Little Axe, Dub Syndicate, Mark Stewart, or indeed fans of experimental dub or eclectic lightweight cut-and-paste style Hip-Hop.

When this was initially released circa 1989 in the immediate aftermath of the Heysel/Bradford/Hillsborough tragedies, English football was at its lowest ebb for several generations, and the game was awash with violent so called “fans”… …Attendances were low, safety concerns high, and the family-friendly all-seater environment we see today was still some way off in the future…

Instead of using samples some lines from any songs, they used the chants/songs sung by the crowds at some football matches. Most notably was recordings from West Ham and Celtic games, which I’ll mention more about below.

- Actually I’ll add another quote from the excellent and very detailed site On-U Sound In The Area which is an unofficial tribute to the On-U Sound record label. Click to read more

So to the songs then and I’m going to post some selected tracks from the album and add some short notes (taken from the Barmy Army biography page) beneath each one with a bit of background:

Starting with the tracks which were released on a 12″ single *

* I don’t have the full 12 inch version – this is the 4 min one [See post to listen to audio] » Barmy Army – Sharp As A Needle [See post to listen to audio] » Sharp As A Needle dub [See post to listen to audio] » England 2 Yugoslavia 0 -> Read the notes “Abide With Me” was probably taken from the 1989 FA Cup Final. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” sample is from Celtic’s Parkhead, when Liverpool played their first match after Hillsborough in April 1989. The man on the keyboards was Ministry’s Al Jourgensen That’s Kenny Daglish on the cover of the single – you can find more images here.

One about Alan Devonshire, who was a West Ham legend:

[See post to listen to audio] » Barmy Army – Devo -> Read the notes Another of the album’s rhythms was actually used by Mark Stewart when “Devo” surfaced as “These Things Happen” on the artist’s Mute album Metatron (ON-U LP51) : [See post to listen to audio] » Mark Stewart – These Things Happen

Because of the increase in trouble around the grounds, the Tories were trying to introduce a compulsory national ID card specifically aimed at the time at football fans. Neil Kinnock and the Labour party were against it, [column 150] but hey – 20 years later – guess what.

[See post to listen to audio] » Barmy Army – Civil Liberty

Finally to cap this off – I may post some more in the future, but for now here’s a couple of traditional terrace songs dubbed up by Sherwood/Clail/Tackhead and co:

[See post to listen to audio]
» Barmy Army – Blue Moon
[See post to listen to audio]
» Barmy Army – Que Sera Sera

The first one was the 80′s throwback Pat Nevin and today it is – going by the image I found of him below – Henrik Larsson.

Just like Nevin the younger Larsson fancied himself as a model or something:

…did not need to see that armpit hair…

He’s 37 now and still going. Turning out for Helsingborg, who’s season has just ended (they finished 4th) and mentioned in the back pages again recently because David Moyes giving a mad eyed stare (© The Grauniad) his way with a view to signing him on a short term loan because of Everton’s current striker crisis.

There’s little more that can be said about him because everybody knows who he is. He’s one of those players that fans of opposing teams find really annoying because of what he can do.

An unknown (as in I can’t find any info about them) band did a euro dance-type ravey ravey tune about him, one which DJ Bobo would be proud to call his own.

[See post to listen to audio]
» Fanclub – Henrik Larsson

- Lyrics

…and if that isn’t a fast enough beatz for ya. There’s an even faster version.

He also mentioned in passing about another Marra composition – this one about another legend who played for one of the Glasgow teams and has sadly just passed away today.

Former Celtic player Gil Heron has died at the age of 87. He passed away in a nursing home in Detroit on Thursday, November 27.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Gil had been playing in the United States and was invited to Scotland and took part in a public trial at Celtic Park on August 4, 1951, scoring twice in the game.

It was enough to impress the club who signed him and he made his debut on August 18, 1951 in a League Cup tie against Morton at Celtic Park. He scored once in a 2-0 victory.

He stayed a year at Celtic, making five appearances and scoring two goals before joining Third Lanark.

He eventually returned to the United States, settling in Detroit.

Heron was known as the Black Arrow and was the first black player to play for the club.

You may be familiar with that name, rings a bell doesn’t it. He is the father of Gil Scott Heron who is a famous poet and musician.

Until we can find that Michael Marra song about him(and the other one about Hamish) – here’s a couple done by his son:

[See post to listen to audio]
» Gil Scott Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

[See post to listen to audio]
» Gil Scott Heron – The Bottle

The first track much sampled by hip hop and rap artists

The second track much covered by everybody

Above image via Jamd.com

Gil Heron – 1922 – 2008

Update:
An article via the TimesOnline in which Gerry Hassan visited Gil Scott-Heron and they talked about…

…”My dad always looks for the Celtic results,” he said, before acknowledging the unique quality in the Scots that puts such a pride in “music and football”. He feels a powerful bond with Scotland to this day…

…The Jamaican-born Heron senior was playing for Detroit Corinthians when he was noticed by Celtic scouts during a North American tour in 1951. The centre forward was said to “exude all-round athleticism” excelling in boxing and sprinting as well as football.

During his year at Celtic, he was best known for what one contemporary described as “camera-shutter speed”. Off the park, he played cricket for Poloc and Ferguslie and stayed in a hotel in the centre of Glasgow. Sean Fallon, a team-mate, remembers him as a man about town who loved his music — spent a lot of time after training in the music section at Lewis’s department store, listening to the latest American imports.

Heron senior never got used to the physically intimidating style of play in Scotland and was released at the end of the season. “I wouldn’t get the same thrill from another club,” he said, though he went on to Third Lanark and the English club Kidderminster Harriers before returning to Detroit where he published two books of poetry…

… I spend an hour and a half talking to his son, who was once misunderstood to be a Rangers fan because he posed for a photoshoot wearing both Celtic and Rangers scarves. He says he has always supported Celtic.

» Full article