He's Here, He's There

Neil Palmer

Description

"He's here, he's there, he's every-f*cking-where, Gerry Gow, Gerry Gow" was an anthem that could often be heard reverberating around Ashton Gate in the 1970s as Bristol City climbed towards the first division. Gow was one of football's original cult heroes that emerged throughout the seventies and eighties; often sporting long hair and a bushy moustache. Gow pulled off both with style during spells at Bristol City and Manchester City. Written with the help of the Gow family, He's Here, He's There: The Gerry Gow Story celebrates the career of the Ashton Gate 'Enforcer'. It provides a fascinating insight into a player that fans of a certain vintage consider the greatest to wear the red of Bristol City. With fresh insight from Gerry's family, friends, team-mates and opponents, including the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Peter Reid and Chris Kamara, this is a captivating insight into a cult hero, a football hardman, a Bristolian icon; but also Gerry the man, and a man sorely missed but still loved by so many.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing
• Date de parution: 22 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785319136
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Neil Palmer, 2021
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785317651
eBook ISBN 9781785319136
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
1. The Boy From The Drum
2. Taking A Chance
3. Sillett s Boys
4. Making Your Mark
5. Julie
6. Comings And Goings
7. We Have Ourselves A Team
8. I m Not Coming Off
9. Let s All Get Up The Concorde
10. Survival
11. Silverware
12. End Of An Era
13. The King Of Maine Road
14. Dad
15. Wembley
16. Moving On
17. A Club Too Far
18. New Challenges
19. Where s Gerry Gow?
20. Joolz
Career Statistics
Bibliography
About The Author
Loving you changed my life It should come as no surprise That losing you has done the same
Acknowledgements
BOOKS LIKE this stand or fall on the memories and opinions of the people who knew, or shared, a pitch with its subject. Therefore I am forever grateful to the vast number of family, team-mates, opposition players and friends and supporters who gave up their time and spoke honestly about Gerry Gow. The list has been endless and again I am grateful to have been able to share and listen to their memories. In truth a couple of words by me in this section really cannot properly thank them.
Writing about any sporting hero carries a responsibility and at times the weight of getting it right for Gerry s family and the supporters seemed too much. Without the help of the Gow family the task may not even have got off the ground, so again I am in their debt. Chris, Willie, Rachael, Jenny, Julie and Joolz, you are all very special people.
Writing any book can be a very solitary experience so I would like to thank my wife Sally for the endless back up she gave me during this project. Support is a very important thing during the process of a book and again I thank Paul and Jane Camillin and their incredible team at Pitch Publishing who produce wonderful books all year round. Hopefully this will be one of them.
Thanks must also go to Garry Bray, Gary James, David Woods and Matt Stevens for their incredible knowledge of their respective clubs. A special mention must also go to Chris Bradfield and Jonathan Pearce, whose enthusiasm for the project and love for Gerry was plain to see from day one. And also to Sean Donnelly for always supporting anything Bristol City.
Most of all I thank you, the reader, for taking the time to pick the book up and give it a go. I hope that through these pages you will discover a bit more about the Gerry Gow who was loved by us all.
Foreword
THE SUMMER of 1970. The hippies were hanging on. The punks had yet to find their tartan bondage gear and safety pin piercings. Pre-teen rebellious angst was stirring in me.
England had lost the World Cup quarter-final to West Germany. Peter Bonetti, one of my earliest heroes, had gifted them the winner. I d cried. I wanted a new hero to believe in.
I already had my Bristol City favourites. Pictures of chunky midfield maestro Bobby Kellard, craggy, old centre-forward John Galley and blond Bristolian pin-up boy Chris Garland had adorned my walls. But there was something missing.
Georgie Best had been banned by the FA in January for his disreputable behaviour . My grandmother loathed him. I loved him. But he didn t play for Bristol City
Saturday, 15 August. As always I took my little transistor radio to Ashton Gate to listen to Radio One up until the players ran out when I d switch to Radio Two, as it was then, to listen to the other scores. Elvis Presley was singing the last number one of his lifetime, The Wonder of You , and out they came from the little tunnel in the old main Ashton Gate stand. Bristol City and Sunderland. Ninety minutes later I had found my footballing James Dean with the Robins badge on his chest.
I had first met Gerry Gow when he arrived in Bristol as a teenager from Glasgow and spent time at the home of manager Alan Dicks in Ormerod Road, Stoke Bishop. It was a leafy street where we played football around parked cars and dodged moving ones. Once or twice, Gerry came out to have a kickaround. I didn t really know who he was. I understood few words of his Glaswegian growl but one thing he saud has always stuck in my mind.
When you tackle make your body low like a boulder. They don t move. Don t stand tall like a tree. They fall over! He was seven years older than me. Too old to consider a friend. Then.
Bobby Kellard had been sold to Leicester a few days earlier. The number ten shirt was up for grabs. Gerry seized it in a breathless 90 minutes, which resulted in a 4-3 for his side. Two goals for Gerry Sharpe, one each for Ken Wimshurst and Alan Skirton. But it was the 18-year-old in only his second league game who stole the show. He snapped into tackles against rock-hard Colin Todd and Bobby Kerr. He wanted to outdo the great former Arsenal goalscorer Joe Baker, who did net two for Sunderland that day, but was certainly not outshone.
I worshipped Gerry from then on. I modelled myself on him. He had the glint in the eye of one who mocked the establishment. I became an anti-school dissident. The hair became longer and more unkempt. So did mine. Detention followed! I tried to play like him. I tackled like fury. But I could never pass the ball like Gerry.
That s what people forget. Yes! He was a piratical buccaneer with the whiplash challenges that were to put Bremner and Giles or the dreaded Rovers enemy Frankie Prince, among countless others, on their backsides. But he could play. Really play.
He could pass like a dream, read the game, lead by example and score goals. He should have played for Scotland. He should have played in more cup finals than just the one with Manchester City.
When people ask me who my favourite all-time footballer is from my 50 years pf being involved in the game they expect to hear Best, Cruyff, Messi or Ronaldo. Perhaps Beckenbauer or Moore. I admired them all and many others.
But unashamedly I always say Gerry Gow.
For me he was more than just a footballer. He became my mentor in my teenage years when I was filming Bristol City games for the club with my dad. We were the first club TV analysis team in Europe. I got close to the players. They became like older brothers. I still adore them all. But Gerry was special.
When I got my first job with Radio Bristol, Gerry was always the first to do an interview and the first to point out the mistakes I had made in reports. He still had the Glasgow growl.
When he was about to leave for Man City he came to the commentary position and did one final interview. We both cried. I was heartbroken.
I am ashamed that we lost touch for many years. There was a phone call or two when he was at Yeovil and messages from mutual friends. Wilderness years. I won t forgive myself for that.
One day out of the blue I was asked to host a testimonial evening for him. We had a pint in the bar beforehand. It was as if the missing years had never existed. True friendship is like that.
Only a few too short months later, he called. He told me he was ill. That he wasn t going to get better.
The end of the story. Except it isn t.
Christopher Reeve, the Superman actor, once said, The hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
Neil s text will tell the story of the barriers Gerry had to cross in life and in football. I am so pleased his story is in the hands of a good writer and a good Bristol City fan who has tirelessly spoken to the people who knew the man so well through so many landscapes of his remarkable journey
I never met James Dean of course. I ll never get to meet Bruce Springsteen, I guess. But I was a friend of my greatest hero.
Everywhere I go, I know - he s yur, he s there. He s every fucking where.
Jonathan Pearce
Introduction
THE MORNING, 10 October 2016 was like any other day for me. I was at home making a coffee with a few thoughts of what I would do in two days time for my birthday. There wasn t a lot to choose from as my 54th birthday beckoned; reminding me of how the years were flying past. I contemplated the options for my wife and me as after all, the days of going on a massive bender and ending up in a nightclub were long gone, so I took a look at what was on the TV that night.
I then became aware of the radio as the BBC Radio Bristol announcer stated, Former Bristol City footballer Gerry Gow has passed away after a battle with cancer.
The news stopped me in my tracks. I was immediately transported back to the images of Ashton Gate in the 1970s and Gerry, with his wild perm and even wilder moustache, slaying all before him as the crowd sang, He s here, he s there, he s every fucking where, Gerry Gow, Gerry Gow, I have to admit I have a little couple of verses of it myself as I went and sat in the living room.
The song is and always will be iconic to a certain generation of supporters. Many fans of my era would without hesitation name Gerry Gow as the greatest player ever to wear the red shirt of Bristol City. Only a handful of pl