That was extra special! Don’t think I’ve ever been to a better Celtic night to be honest. We honoured Celts from Willie Maley all the way through to Frank McGarvey. We had a Lisbon Lion paying tribute to the late and much-missed David Potter, Big John Hartson telling his stories, Tommy Callaghan – Our Superstar from Cowdenbeath – giving us a brilliant insight into the managerial genius of Jock Stein, while paying tribute to his old Celtic room-mate Harry Hood and a gallus young Celtic signing, Johnny Doyle.
Lisbon Lion John Fallon talked about his friendship with David Potter and, as usual, was brilliantly entertaining as he talked about his lifelong Celtic passion.
Big Bad John Hartson and Tommy, Our Superstar from Cowdenbeath, were wonderful, as was Tommy Sheridan, who spoke passionately (as always) about Willie Maley, the Celtic support and ethos, and also his dear friend Frank McGarvey. And the original Holy Goalie John Fallon was his usual brilliant self.
In the audience, we had the two oldest Celtic first-team players, Peter Goldie and Billy Craig, who were in that wonderful Celtic side of the 1950s. And we had the families of the likes of Sean Fallon, Willie Fernie, Harry Hood, Frank McGarvey and many others inside a packed Kerrydale. Tommy Callaghan (jnr) was also there with his dad.
Celtic authors and historians were also in the room, led by none other than Pat Woods, with Jerry Woods, Frank Rafters and Matthew Marr also there. And amongst a raft of special guests, we had Rosemary Potter and members of her family there as we paid a very special Celtic tribute to David – which Rosemary thought was wonderful.
We talked about Celtic all night long and the passion and the emotion from Matt Corr was there for all to see as we launched his third solo book, Majic, Stan and The King of Japan.
The morning after the night before, I asked Matt for his thoughts on the launch event.
“I am absolutely overwhelmed. What an incredible, emotional night. I have a million thank yous to get around to and possibly as many apologies, as I didn’t get a chance to speak with folk properly. So many great Celts in the room speaking about our club and paying tribute to friends no longer with us. A night I will never forget.”
Tino from The Celtic Exchange podcast did a brilliant job hosting the night and Angus Johnston was our photographer. Angus covers the Celtic FC Women games for The Celtic Star and is a huge fan of our very own Sandman, but would never admit it! And of course The Celtic Noise was represented, together with various writers from The Celtic Star, including Matthew Marr, Paul Gillespie, Just an Ordinary Bhoy and Lubo98.
A hand-picked set from the wonderful Boolavogue duo made sure we were entertained throughout the evening, with songs honouring Harry Hood, Willie Maley and the anniversary of Hampden in the Sun. And for those who stayed around to the very end we had an extra special nod to our Irish heritage (nuff said).
This was a format that’s never been tried before and probably will be impossible to replicate. It was a night about Celtic players and Celtic supporters on the 66th Anniversary of Hampden in the Sun in 1957, and we organised a tribute to David Potter and a nod to the 7-1 Celtic team by effectively giving a copy of David’s excellent biography of Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style – to everyone who participated as their raffle ticket with 100% of the money raised going to Celtic FC Foundation in memory of David Potter. He’d have liked that.
An incredible £1,199.15 was raised last night and has already been delivered to the Foundation this afternoon, so a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who contributed and who will now enjoy reading Putting on the Style.
We will now be selling the remaining copies of the Willie Fernie biography over on Celtic Star Books, with 100% of the sale price (£10) going to Celtic FC Foundation. So, from today, you can now buy David Potter’s brilliant Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style book at celticstarbooks.com/shop for just £10 plus postage, with all £10 going straight to Celtic FC Foundation in honour of David Potter. This promotion will run through until Christmas, or until the book has completely sold out.
Rosemary Potter already knew that her late husband David was extra special but nevertheless even she was surprised at the overwhelming respect, admiration and love in the room for him last night.
The banner on the big screens stated – The Celtic Star – Obsessed with Celtic.
The verdict on that?
Guilty as charged.
The Celtic Star’s Photo Gallery from the launch night if Majic, Stan and the King of Japan starts on the next page – if anyone spots themselves and wants a high res copy of the photo sent over please drop me an email to editor@thecelticstar.co.uk and I’ll be delighted to forward to you. We’ll ask Matt Corr to add captions to the photographs and hopefully he’ll do that later today…
