by David Peace
And some of the supporters of Liverpool Football Club said, And so it should be a classic match then, Bill. Liverpool versus Real Madrid. A real classic, don’t you think, Bill?
Well now, said Bill Shankly. I don’t know about that, boys. I mean, to be very honest with you. I cannot be sure of that. I mean, I doubt it will be a flowing game, a free-flowing match. But if we can win one–nil, then that will do for me. And I am sure that will do for Bob. Because then Liverpool Football Club will deserve to be ranked alongside the all-time greatest clubs in European football. I mean, Real Madrid are already there. Real Madrid have already won the Cup six times. But I mean, it’s a very different competition now. A very different tournament. And for Liverpool Football Club to win this competition three times, this cup three times, then that would be one of the greatest achievements of all time, boys. Of all bloody time …
On the afternoon of the final, in the hours before the match. In the city, outside the stadium. Things had already started, things had already kicked off. Thousands of supporters of Liverpool Football Club had no tickets for the final. But thousands of supporters of Liverpool Football Club had still come to the Parc des Princes. To be near the final, to be near their team. But thousands of French policemen stood between them and the final, them and their team. Thousands of French policemen with batons and with guns. In their way, with tear gas. And some of the supporters of Liverpool Football Club threw empty beer bottles at the thousands of French policemen. Bottles in the air, bottles raining down. And some of the French policemen fired tear gas at the thousands of supporters of Liverpool Football Club. Tears in their eyes, gas in the air. Blowing into the Parc des Princes. Into the stadium, into the stands. The Kop of Boulogne. This stand named in honour of the Kop of Anfield. The Spion Kop.
In his seat, in the stands. Bill Shankly rubbed his eyes. Bill Shankly blinked. On the edge of his seat in the stands. Bill Shankly looked down at the pitch. Bill Shankly stared down at the players. The players of Liverpool Football Club. Ray Clemence. Phil Neal. Alan Kennedy. Phil Thompson. Ray Kennedy. Alan Hansen. Kenny Dalglish. Sammy Lee. David Johnson. Terry McDermott. Graeme Souness. Jimmy Case. Steve Ogrizovic. Colin Irwin. Richard Money and Howard Gayle. The players of Liverpool Football Club coming out into the stadium, out onto the pitch. And on another night, at another final. Bill Shankly heard that reception again, Bill Shankly heard that roar again. And on the edge of his seat in the stands. Bill Shankly looked around the ground, around the stadium. All the grounds and all the stadiums. At all the banners, at all the flags. All the red banners and all the red flags. And Bill Shankly closed his eyes,
Bill Shankly closed his eyes. And Bill Shankly smiled.
Back at the hotel, back at the reception. Bob Paisley was standing at the bar, standing on his own at the bar. And Bob Paisley saw Bill Shankly. Bill Shankly on his own, Bill Shankly walking towards Bob Paisley. Bill Shankly shook Bob Paisley’s hand –
Congratulations, Bob. Congratulations. I could not be happier for you, Bob. I just could not be more pleased for you …
And Bob Paisley said, Thank you, Bill.
I mean, after John won the European Cup with Celtic. I said to John, I said, You know you are immortal now, John. But I mean, you have won the European Cup three times now, Bob. Three bloody times. And so you are immortal, Bob. More than immortal!
Bob Paisley shook his head. And Bob Paisley said, No, Bill. No. There is only one immortal at Liverpool Football Club, Bill. And that immortal is you. That man is you, Bill. Because none of this, none of these cups. None of it could have happened without you, Bill. It’s all because of you. All because of you, Bill …
That is very kind of you, Bob. Very kind of you to say that. But I know I’m not immortal, Bob. I know I’m mortal. Very mortal.
90. Y. N. W. A.
The game not finished, the match never finished. The pain in his heart and the smoke in his eyes. The city had been in flames, sirens in the air. Bill closed his eyes. On a stretcher, in an ambulance. Bill opened his eyes. And Bill saw Ness. His daughters and his granddaughters. And Bill smiled. In the bed, in the hospital. Bill closed his eyes again. His eyes closed, for the last time. Bill was in the field. For all time. Bill had rolled the stone from the tomb. In the field. Bill saw the tree. Its blossoms gone, its leaves fallen and its branches bowed. In the field. Bill walked towards the tree. In the field. Bill stood before the tree. In the field. Bill looked up at the tree. Its branches that would rise up again, its leaves and blossoms that would come again. In the field. Bill touched the tree. This tree standing tall, this tree standing triumphant. Triumphant and resurrected now. Now and for all time. In the field. Bill knew this tree, Bill loved this tree. Her name was Liberty, her name was Liverpool.
The Argument III (cont.)
On the train, at their table. Harold stared out of the window. Harold did not recognise the landscape, Harold did not recognise the place. Harold turned away from the window. And Harold took a postcard from out of his jacket pocket. Harold put down the postcard on the table. Harold slid the postcard across the table towards Bill. Harold smiled. And Harold said, You know who that is, Bill?
Aye, said Bill. Of course I do. It’s the Huddersfield Town side that won the Championship three seasons running.
Harold shook his head. And Harold said, No, on the other side. Turn it over, Bill. Do you know who that is?
Bill picked up the postcard. Bill turned over the postcard. And Bill read the words on the back of the postcard:
Up the Town, Nikita Khrushchev
Bill looked up from the words on the back of the postcard. Bill looked across the table at Harold. And Bill nodded. Bill smiled. And Bill heard the whistle of the train. Bill heard the voice of the guard –
All change here! All change, please!
SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is a work of fiction. And so this book is a novel. The following books all helped to inspire this work of fiction, this novel. However, I would like to pay particular tribute to four books:
SHANKLY: My Story by Bill Shankly, with John Roberts (1976, 2011).
Shanks: The Authorized Biography by Dave Bowler (1996).
It’s Much More Important Than That by Stephen F. Kelly (1997).
The REAL Bill Shankly by Karen Gill (2007).
And then …
44 Years with the Same Bird by Brian Reade (2009).
A Strange Kind of Glory by Eamon Dunphy (1991).
Best and Edwards by Gordon Burn (2006).
Bob Paisley: An Autobiography by Bob Paisley (1983).
Bob Paisley: Manager of the Millennium by John Keith (1999).
Burns the Radical by Liam McIlvanney (2002).
Cally on the Ball by Ian Callaghan and John Keith (2010).
Crazy Horse by Emlyn Hughes (1980).
Dalglish by Kenny Dalglish, with Henry Winter (1996).
Dynasty by Paul Tomkins (2008).
Everton: The School of Science by James Corbett (2003, 2010).
Ghost on the Wall: The Authorised Biography of Roy Evans by Derek Dohan (2004).
Harold Wilson by Austen Morgan (1992).
Harold Wilson by Ben Pimlott (1992).
If You’re Second You Are Nothing by Oliver Holt (2006).
In a League of Their Own by Jeremy Novick (1995).
Jock Stein by Archie Macpherson (2004).
Kevin Keegan by Kevin Keegan, with John Roberts (1977).
Kevin Keegan by Kevin Keegan (1997).
Life of Robert Burns by John Stuart Blackie (1888).
Liverpool 800 edited by John Belcham (2006).
Matt Busby: Soccer at the Top by Matt Busby (1973).
Mr Shankly’s Photograph by Stephen F. Kelly (2002).
RED MEN by John Williams (2010).
Secret Diary of a Liverpool Scout by Simon Hughes (2009).
SHANKLY by Phil Thompson (1993).
Shankly: From Glenbuck to Wembley by Phil Thompson and Steve Hale (2004).
Sir Al
f by Leo McKinstry (2006).
Sir Roger by Ivan Ponting and Steve Hale (1995).
Soccer in the Fifties by Geoffrey Green (1974).
SOVPOEMS by Edwin Morgan (1961).
Talking Shankly by Tom Darby (1998, 2007).
The Amazing Bill Shankly (CD) by John Roberts (2007).
The Bard by Robert Crawford (2009).
The Best Laid Schemes: Selected Poetry and Prose of Robert Burns edited by Robert Crawford and Christopher MacLachlan (2009).
The Boot Room Boys by Stephen F. Kelly (1999).
The Essential Shankly by John Keith (2001).
The Football Man by Arthur Hopcraft (1968).
The Footballer Who Could Fly by Duncan Hamilton (2012).
The King by Denis Law, with Bob Harris (2003).
The Management by Michael Grant and Rob Robertson (2010).
The Saint by Ian St John (2005).
The SHANKLY Years by Steve Hale and Phil Thompson (1998).
The Unfortunates by B. S. Johnson (1969).
THOMMO: Stand Up Pinocchio by Phil Thompson (2005).
Three Sides of the Mersey by Rogan Taylor and Andrew Ward (1993).
Tom Finney by Tom Finney (2003).
Tommy Smith: Anfield Iron by Tommy Smith (2008).
Tosh by John Toshack (1982).
Winning Isn’t Everything by Dave Bowler (1998).
The crowd attendances, team sheets and goals for many of the games in the novel were taken from the website www.liverweb.org.uk. Chris Wood of the www.lfchistory.net website also kindly pointed out many factual (and grammatical) errors in the original proof. Thank you, Chris!
Many of the scenes involving Bill Shankly and the supporters of Liverpool Football Club were also inspired by the recollections of people on the many fan forums and websites dedicated to Liverpool Football Club.
There remains a great deal of debate about when You’ll Never Walk Alone was first sung by the supporters of Liverpool Football Club. However, the closing scene of Chapter 12 was inspired by Wooltonian’s post of 30 April, 2004, on the www.redandwhitekop.com forum. Thank you.
The original idea for this novel came out of a conversation with Mike Jefferies. I would like to thank Rob Kraitt for putting Mike in touch with me. And to thank Mike and Rob for all their encouragement, help and support during the writing of this book. I would also like to pay particular thanks to John Roberts: very generously, John lent me the tapes of his conversations with Bill Shankly and also a tape of the Radio City interview between Bill Shankly and Harold Wilson.
Astrid Azurdia, Sam Dwyer, Robert Fraser, Ann Scanlon and George Scott also very kindly provided me with documents and materials that helped in the writing of this novel. Thank you very much.
I would also like to thank the following people for their assistance and their support. In Liverpool: Ian Callaghan, Stephen Done, John Keith, Stephen F. Kelly and Paul McGrattan. In Huddersfield: Stephen Dorril and Michael Stewart. In Leeds: Stephen Barber, Emma Bolland, Anthony Clavane, Robert Endeacott, Rod Dixon, Chris Lloyd, Alice Nutter, Jane Verity and all the Red Writers at Red Ladder, Leeds. In Tokyo: as always, Hamish Macaskill, Junzo Sawa, Peter Thompson, Atsushi Hori and all the staff of the English Agency Japan; Motoyuki Shibata, Ariko Kato and all the staff and students of the Department of Contemporary Literature at the University of Tokyo; Mike and Mayu Handford, David Karashima, Justin McCurry, Akiko Miyake, Shunichiro Nagashima, Richard Lloyd Parry, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and David Turner. In London: Ruth Atkins, Ian Bahrami, Andrew Benbow, Lee Brackstone, Angus Cargill, Anne Owen, Anna Pallai and all the staff of Faber and Faber. Also Jake Arnott, Matteo Battarra, Andrew Eaton, Laura Oldfield Ford, Stephen Frears, Carol Gorner, Tony Grisoni, John Harvey, Michael Hayden, Richard Kelly, Eoin McNamee, Keith and Kate Pattison, Maxine Peake, Ted Riley, Katy Shaw, Steve Taylor, Paul Tickell, Cathi Unsworth, Paul Viragh and the staff of the Working Class Movement Library in Salford. Finally, I would like to thank all my family and friends, in Britain and in Japan, particularly Julian Cleator, Jon Riley and,
most of all, my father, Basil Peace,
and William Miller, always.
About the Author
David Peace was chosen as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2003. He is the author of The Red Riding Quartet, adapted by Channel 4 in 2009, GB84, which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2004, and The Damned Utd, which was made into a film in 2009. These were followed by Tokyo Year Zero in 2007 and Occupied City in 2009, the first two books of his acclaimed Tokyo Trilogy.
By the Same Author
NINETEEN SEVENTY FOUR
NINETEEN SEVENTY SEVEN
NINETEEN EIGHTY
NINETEEN EIGHTY THREE
GB84
THE DAMNED UTD
TOKYO YEAR ZERO
OCCUPIED CITY
Copyright
First published in 2013
by Faber and Faber Ltd
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This ebook edition first published in 2013
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ISBN 978–0–571–28067–4