MEP315 SPORT, MEDIA AND CELEBRITY

9. CASE STUDY I: THE OLD GUARD

Key figuresBill 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 telestarCoverage 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 celebrityWorks as BBC TV pundit for from 1966TV advertising (sausages to after shave)Ghost writing Daily Express columnFashion modelling and football bootsIreland 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 NIFlybe Airline Leeds to Belfast names one of its fleet of planes after BestGeorge 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 historyBest’s ‘fame fuelled primarily by TV’ (Whannel 2002: 111)The business of being ‘blessed’: Ulster Presbyterianism and Best’s celebrityImportance of non-metropolitan TV and other media sources to construct Best