Steve Finan next month releases his new book, titled Celtic in the Black & White Era – Hundreds of Previously Unseen Classic Photos and on a recommendation from JoeBloggsCity from thecelticwiki.com we got in touch with the author to have a chat about this coffee-table style Celtic book and to have a good chat about football in general and Celtic in particular.
“The book is the latest in my In The Black & White Era series. I’ve already published Lifted Over The Turnstiles: Scottish Football Grounds In The Black & White Era, It’s A Team Game: Scottish Football Team Line-Ups In The Black & White Era, and Dark Blue Blood: Scottish Rugby In The Black & White Era, among other books,” Steve told The Celtic Star.
“My job is to create books from the material in the DC Thomson archive. I was, before this, a journalist of 40 years’ experience, although always a desk-based job — I was chief sub-editor, news editor, production editor, etc., of several newspapers. This book-producing thing is, I must add, a fantastic job that I am thoroughly enjoying. I’ve met some very interesting people, such as JoeBloggsCity (although I’ve never actually physically met him!) But knowledgeable, kind, “proper football” people.
“I intend several more books, building up a nostalgia library: Lifted Over The Turnstiles 2, Scottish Cup Finals, Scotland v. England, all “in the black & white era”, using photos which are, I hope, previously unseen.”
So why did you decide to publish a “in the black & white era” book on Celtic?
The Celtic book has been by far the best project so far, as there is so much fantastic material to work with. I claim to have “previously unseen” photos, although as you’ll know this is quite a difficult concept when it comes to Celtic. There are so many photos that it is difficult to say whether they are truly never-before-seen. I will be interested (and quite scared) to talk to you, and look through the book, to gauge your opinion on whether a pic can genuinely live up to my “never previously seen” tagline!
Some of the pix, for instance Jimmy Johnstone at his welding job, John Thomson with his fiancée Margaret, Gerry Marsden singing YNWA alone with Danny McGrain, a series of photos of George Connelly doing a keepie-up display 14 months before the Dinamo Kiev half-time entertainment display . . . I am rather proud to have found.
I’m under the impression that I can bring something new to the canon of old Celtic photos. A handful of the 300+ photos show their age, they have had long working lives in newspaper/magazine archives. But I have resisted all the efforts and exhortations from page artists to “digitally clean them up”. I feel that a digitally enhanced pic, or one with “cloned in” background or repairs isn’t a true representation of the times the pic was taken.
There are many famous pix that I could have used but didn’t, because I know they have been seen before. Indeed, I’ve used a shot from Hampden In The Sun on the front cover that doesn’t show Dickie Beattie holding up seven fingers, but is an arresting shot nevertheless. There is a whole chapter on Hampden In The Sun.
Tell us about your Celtic connections and can you explain why there have been so many Celtic books over the years?
There are many pretty blummin good Celtic books (much more than any other club) and I’m hoping this might be another one. It is unashamedly a nostalgia thing and we’ve kept the production values high (photograph-quality paper is ridiculously expensive these days) because we know that books like this are often given to fathers, grandads, uncles as gifts (better than yet another pair of socks!!!) so it is a big, heavy, quality item. That feels like a substantial gift.
I should add, however, a note of honesty. I was not brought up as a Celtic supporter. My father would take me (and my brothers) all over Scotland to see football (and many times to Celtic Park) but I am, if anything, a Dundee United supporter.
My father’s favourite all-time player, though, was Bobby Evans because of his never-say-die attitude. My father loved football, but had no time for players he thought weren’t trying. It was the world’s greatest crime, in his opinion. And he said Bobby Evans would never give up, no matter what happened. He urged us to take a lesson from that.
I believe that though we might support different teams, as football men (and I mean proper football men, not idiots who don’t appreciate what that means) we have more in common than separates us. I was once left alone with a bloke (we’d gone to dinner at the house of a colleague of my wife) while the women did cooking things in the kitchen. The bloke didn’t know one end of a football from another, and didn’t want to talk about whether Man U would miss Roy Keane for the 1999 European Cup Final. By the time the wives came back from the kitchen he was showing me his blummin’ coin collection! It was the longest 20 minutes of my life. Boring so-and-so he was! I can only “do” smalltalk about football.
So no, as said I will never lie about this, I’m not a Celtic supporter by birth. However, I have fallen slightly in love with the Celtic of Evans, Peacock, Tully, etc. This was just slightly before my time and I’d give anything to be able to go back and see that team.
I should also say one thing that I’ve found to be true. A Celtic supporter will put his team on a pedestal. That is to be expected. We all do that with our teams. But if an outsider like me lauds the Celtic team, then there is a certain value to be had in that. I recognise that the Celtic team of 1967 achieved the greatest feat in the world history of club football. That recognition is true when it’s a Celtic supporter describing it, and is still true but perhaps carries added weight when a non-Celtic supporter acknowledges it.
When is Celtic – Hundreds of Previously Unseen Classic Photos in the Black & White Era by Steve Finan published and where can our readers get a copy?
The book is to be published on 7 September. It is hardback, large format, 320 pages, about 300 photos, retails at £19.99. The official Celtic shop has agreed to stock it. And (I was amused by this) we have bulk pre-orders in already for copies to be sent to booksellers in France, Italy, Spain and Brazil. Celtic supporters certainly get about!
Steve Finan
