This book does exactly what it says on its brightly designed cover.
The 1970s was the decade wherein I was a teenage Celtic supporter in Glasgow.
The book brought back memories of the great Celtic players I watched and the terrible clothes that I was proud to wear!
If that is also you then you’ll love this memoir of Jinky, Caesar, King Kenny, Johnny Doyle, chopper bikes, flared trousers and Afro hairstyles.
If you were too young or weren’t even born in the 1970s then it is a huge decade in the Celtic story.
It starts with the Lisbon Lion intact and forging head to Nine In A Row.
The decade concludes with the championship winning 4-2 game by ten men against Rangers.
When I met Gerry McDade at the book launch a few couple of weeks ago he gave me his business card it says under his name “voice over and scriptwriting”. The book has the feel of a TV script, part thriller, and part sitcom.
Gerry, I learned, also does stand-up comedy. That fact didn’t really surprise me after reading this book. His throw away remarks-that could have been delivered onstage to a raucous crowd-pepper the text to great effect.
This isn’t literary like Nick Hornby or academic like Dr. Joe Bradley, but it is a great lighthearted read.
You would read this on a flight to a European match and get off the plane being well up for the game.
I have a feeling that I’ll re-visit this book again and again dipping into his description of great games and great players from that era.
One that sticks in the memory is the “battle of Britain” against Leeds in 1970. His throwaway line about George Connelly’s goal at Elland road after 45 seconds:
“Intravenous injections take longer.”
His style is light and chatty, like listening to a mate with a good line in patter at the pub telling you about a game that you haven’t seen.
Sometimes I read a book for a review and I curse the hours of my life I won’t get back after wading through a terrible waste of trees.
Not this one.
The book is available online from Amazon and in the Celtic Superstore.
Celtic – The Supersonic 70s! By Gerard McDade
Black & White Publishing.
ISBN 9 781845 022631
£9.99
http://www.blackandwhitepublishing.com/books/book.php?isbn=9781845022631
