MEP315 SPORT, MEDIA
AND CELEBRITY
9. CASE STUDY I: THE OLD GUARD
Key figures
Bill Shankly: Scot, w-class, player and
manager, renowned for wit and rhetoric
(e.g. ‘Football isn’t a matter of life and death
– it’s more important than that’)
Brian Clough: from NE England, w-class,
player and manager, charisma and wit, a
‘flawed genius’ (suffered alcohol abuse –
chose to manage the ‘Damned United’)
George Best, Kevin Keegan, later Paul
Gascoigne: northern w-class heroes
Celebrity / identity theory re: Best
‘Celebrity a genre of representation, a
discursive effect; a commodity [to be
traded]…a cultural formation’ (Turner
2004: 9)
Best as problematic icon of Irish national
identity (assoc. with Northern Irish
Protestantism / loyalism / unionism)
Best as first media-made sports star
related to postmodern concept of
spectacle
Best as local hero / national telestar
Coverage of Best as a public figure
marries local boy narrative with stellar
image
‘This boy from Cregagh was superb’
(Belfast Telegraph, 30/4/64)
‘Thin-faced Beatle…a boy amongst
men…[the Irish] were right about
George Best, their human telestar, their
major means of communication’ (Daily
Express, 2/3/1964)
Best as media celebrity
Works as BBC TV pundit for from 1966
TV advertising (sausages to after shave)
Ghost writing Daily Express column
Fashion modelling and football boots
Ireland Saturday Night serialised his life
in 6 weekly parts 1966 (alongside feature
interviews with each Beatle – prior to
being dubbed 5th Beatle)
Best as ‘spectacular’ brand name
George Best tea towel manufacture in NI
Flybe Airline Leeds to Belfast names one
of its fleet of planes after Best
George Best Belfast City Airport
‘To go beyond the texts to the contexts in
which they are produced, consumed, and
used, using media spectacles to illuminate
their historical and cultural situations’
(Kellner, 2003: 29)
Airport signage
Summary issues
Complexity of celebrity/sports,
compounded in contemporary history
Best’s ‘fame fuelled primarily by TV’
(Whannel 2002: 111)
The business of being ‘blessed’: Ulster
Presbyterianism and Best’s celebrity
Importance of non-metropolitan TV and
other media sources to construct Best