Yesterday, there was a storyline online about the singer Liam McGrandles and how he was supposed to perform at Celtic Park before the game, only to withdraw due to the stick he was getting on social media—specifically on the platform known as X.
Now, X is not my favourite platform. I actually refused to use that name for a long time and never was its number one fan. If you want to see the dregs of human behaviour, it’s a good place to visit because it already resembled a lawless, unmoderated mess before a certain person bought it and fully committed to that vibe.
The McGrandles situation was strange. I’m not a great lover of acoustic performances on the pitch, but I wouldn’t have given anyone stick for being asked to perform.
What’s the point in that? I thought it was fair for him to be angry, and people calling out those giving him grief—especially in the way some of it manifested—was perfectly reasonable. He was unhappy, and he had every right to be. He expressed that unhappiness in a long social media post, using the very same platform to fire back at the clowns who had gone after him.
I personally wonder what someone who was furious about the club’s choice of entertainment has going on in their life to make a big song and dance about it online before a massive Champions League game.
You’d think the match itself took precedence. You’d think people would be focused on that. But a lot of folk are obsessed with gossip and the kind of stuff the military calls “chickenshit”—small matters of very low consequence.
If you wanted to get embarrassed over something before the match, there were far better candidates. One of our so-called celebrity supporters thoroughly humiliated himself by interrupting a live broadcast interview with a drunken, rambling speech. Now that was embarrassing. I can’t believe nobody stopped him.
But a famous name takes you a long way, and this particular famous name enjoys being associated with our club. One thing I’ll give him—he’s an actual fan, a real one, a proper one who regularly attends games. So for that, he gets something of a pass.
But he’s one of those guys I have very little time for. And yeah, I freely admit part of that is his political views and his staggering lack of any kind of sense.
He epitomises the kind of mindset the Proclaimers wrote about in their outstanding takedown piece In Recognition—someone who embraces this club and its Irish background, someone who sings all the old ballads, but who quite happily bent the knee in front of the monarch and wears Sir before his name.
I strongly dislike anyone who chummed around with Boris Johnson and congratulated him on his 2019 election win.
Regardless of all that, I think the contrast between the two situations is clear. One guy got stick, and the other was treated like a bit of a laugh. I thought the latter was boorish and stupid, and he shouldn’t have been allowed to do it. But there you go. I’d rather have listened to McGrandles on the pitch than sat through a drunk TV interview.
I hope Liam gets to perform at Celtic Park soon. As I said, it’s not my cup of tea, but I’d never get on someone’s case for it. It can’t have been a nice experience for him, reading abuse—abuse for what? For nothing. Because some people have nothing better to do than find something or someone to moan about. Pitiful. Absolutely pitiful.
And to those who say it doesn’t “scream Champions League level”—neither does having a massive tent outside your stadium for the media and bigwigs. Neither does selling your star striker and not replacing him before games like this.
There are plenty of things this club does that don’t scream Champions League level, and there are actual people worth calling out for those decisions. But instead, some folk picked a singer. Picked a guy living his dream.
I just find that hard to wrap my head around, especially when the other singer behaved like such a prat.
Photo by Crystal Pix/MB Media/Getty Images#
The other night we put up our latest podcast. Recorded just after the Ibrox club went crashing out of the cup, we called it They’re Simply Depressed.
I feel bad for Liam. I enjoy his music and he seems like quite a talented musician who loves the club.its really disappointing that some of our support were so cruel to him. I actually cracked up at the whole Rod Stewart interview-he always seems like a nice guy to me. This is probably a foreigner thing but to me while I probably don’t agree with some of Rod’s politics it doesn’t really bother me, same with if he supports the Royal Family. It’s not like he brings banners or protests or tries to really express those views at Celtic matches. James-are you going to write an article on the Green Brigade’s “Give ‘Israel’ the Red Card” banner? I’m telling you man those guys believe and want to do to Israeli’s what many in the pro Israel camp want to do to Palestine: one state from the other. The parenthesis around Israel say it all. Love your work as always buddy.
Robbie, to compare Israel and Palestine as one State to another is being a bit naive, and showing ignorance of the history of Palestine, before the Zionists with the help of the US and Britain imposed themselves on the area, and colonised it more and more over the past 80 years. Israel has an Army.Navy and Air Force that has been armed with sophisticated weapons supplied and sold to them by the west. Palestine has no Army, Navy or Air Force, millions of its people have lived in refugee camps for decades. The Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza have never been able to travel outside those areas without Israeli permission. Hamas and Hezbollah are both Islamist armed groups who have grown out of the desperate situations the Palestinians have found themselves in, and are deemed terrorists by Western Governments, There is no doubt in my mind there is only one rogue state that has been stealing land since 1947 and continuing to do so and that is Israel with the backing of the United States.
You might ask what’s that got to do with Celtic and lots of Celtic supporters will agree with you, The Green Brigade like most Ultra Groups in football take a political position, and in their case they lean very much to the left, supporting people suffering injustice. I myself am quite proud that young Celtic supporters are politically aware and I applaud them for some of the great work they do for food banks etc, I just wish they would bin their obsession with Pyros.
Interesting take on that situation micmac as I’ve not really followed it and refuse to watch the news these days since Covid came to our world almost five years ago (restriction wise anyway)…
I also lean to supporting citizens suffering injustice and have been involved in the situation in The Six Occupied Counties on The Island of Ireland in certain ways –
But I don’t really think Parkhead is the place to highlight these things and I’d be really pissed off if Celtic get fined or into trouble with UEFA regarding this latest political banner !
Get what you mean Clach and I respect that opinion, but as long if it’s only a banner and not disrespectful in its messaging then I’m okay with it.
Just hope they’ve got the message about those damn Pyros.
Sevco fans are onto it at Wallow Wallow micmic…
Reporting the banner to UEFA via e-mail already –
I suspect they’ll take one look at the grammatical errors and (sic) spelling and digest and bin…
But they (Sevco fans) are dangerous peepil for sure !
Hey MicMac! Appreciate you taking the time to share w/me your viewpoint. I’m sorry that my other point wasn’t as clearly articulated-I have a newborn and was writing my comment prior at 4am. I’m very much pro Palestinian in the sense that I acknowledge they’re indigenous to the Holy Land, are under occupation in the West Bank, and lack freedom of movement and deserve to have a country where they feel safe. The Green Brigade’s position based on banners and also postings I’ve read via social media or at the ground I believe are hypocritical not because they support the Palestinian people but because in their messaging they also undermine the Israeli people. From the PFLP flag (that organization supports one Arab state and no Israel) to how they described their Remembrance Day banner to now using parenthesis on the word ‘Israel.’ I could be mistaken, but how that rings to me is they (the Green Brigade) supports one Palestine and the eradication of Israel. That to me seems just as extreme as what many in the West and in Israel want to do and are doing to Gaza and in the West Bank at this time.
Robbie, I get your point, I admit I didn’t pick up on that. Like you I believe in the two state solution to the problem, although we have been talking about it for a long,long time and the more land the Zionist settlers steal through terrorism, makes it harder and harder to find a solution.
I’m pretty sure that the biggest danger to the two state solution with Mr Trump in the White House, is the eradication of what’s left of Palestine in The West Bank and Gaza.There has been ethnic cleansing going on in Palestine for 70 years whilst America, Britain, and France not only looked on but actively supported it with economic support and arms supplies. Unfortunately this has lead to the rise of Islamist extremism all over the Middle East and Afghanistan which at times has overflowed to Europe and North America.
Congratulation on the newborn Robbie, hope you get a good nights sleep soon.
On the football front, we’ll hopefully go to Munich and at least keep our pride, Domestically we’ve got a lot to look forward too.
Thought I had a log in for here but it didn’t work and had to re register, but no mind. I’d say Rod was kinda amusing, bit like his cup draw. No harm I think and he’s doing well at 80! Also, yesterday he went to visit a dementia patient in Glasgow who is a fan, he was asked to record a message but actually went to visit her, danced and sang with her and took her to the game, a lovely thing to do along with the Celtic Foundation for that alone he deserves to be cut some slack. His opinions and politics are not always for me but I’d have him down as a good guy and he clearly loves Celtic.
Tbh ah always think there’s somethin corny about havin a singer performin before a home game. It achieves nothin more, than a respectful, obligatory applause from the crowd anyhow. Keep it for pubs or clubs.
Agreed, the thing everyone has in common at Celtic Park is Celtic, a live singer is never going to please everyone on the other hand it’s pretty harmless, not worth getting upset about.
And btw. RS, where Celtic are concerned, is just a Celtic supportin celebrity pissheed. He should stick tae doin his own shows and his own seat.
James you take things far too serious and personal pal. Judging somebody because of their politics is village idiot stuff, it’s actually too stupid for words. There is more to life than politics. I actually saw trump and Obama having a laugh couple weeks back, they might not agree on politics, but that don’t mean they don’t agree on other things eg, Super Bowl etc. Judging somebody because of their politics is quite frankly preposterous.
I happen to think your moniker is village idiot stuff, “Thegoodghuy” it must be great to live in that great wee perfect World, you sound like a right condescending wee naive axse.
Defining one’s character, on there politics is right out of carstairs stuff. Politics is only one thing, there’s lots of other things. Just you keep supporting Hamas and all other killers mate. I blame the parents.
It’s a long time since I had any parents so I would absolve them from blame of anything. Although they would probably be proud that I spent many hours throughout my life as a Trade Union activist arguing the case for fairness for my fellow workers and always tried to be on the side of people suffering injustice. It shows what a wee smug ignoramus you are, when you equate support for the suffering Palestinian people with support for Hamas.
Well said Micmac, being pro Palestinian does not mean being pro Hamas.
There are Celtic supporters and true Tims…. therein lies quite a difference.
Goodghuy is a Celtic supporter.
Lol, I’ve heard it all now. So because I don’t like the green brigade, and I don’t want Palestinian flags at Celtic park, that makes me not a Tim lol. What the hell is a Middle East conflict, and a moronic fan group got to do with Celtic. I’ll tell yous one thing, Celtic would be far better off without these things, that’s for sure. Uefa will be reminding our club again I’d imagine, because of that stupid banner at last nights match. This will be the umpteenth time, I suppose you can’t educate chimpanzees.
I thought Rod’s impromptu interruption was quite entertaining and his love for Celtic shone through. He wasn’t pissed, only slightly inebriated like many of our fans, and in a very merry mood with a bit of devilment involved.
Incidentally, there are seemingly lots of celebrity Celtic fans, but can anyone name one who turns up more often than Rod to shout on the Bhoys with the obvious gusto that he does.
Johnny I’m like you regards rod Stewart,I think he is a really good ambassador for our club,he is high profile and wears his heart on his sleeve or on his bands bass drum,he is one of many high profile fans we have ,but like you stated he does get to a lot of games unless he’s on a big tour,but I think he’s a decent guy and that was quite funny last night and yes he was a little bit tipsy but not drunk,our sevco friends would love to have supporters like Rod,the only high profile fans they had was Wet wet wet, maybe Lulu and some stupid wrestler.I must admit I tire of all this political stuff that goes on this site ,they should stick to football.
@ Goodghuy, point taken, sorry about that, I should not have attempted to educate you.
Tbh in the grand scheme of things I find myself meh! about Rod Stewart.i don’t agree with his politics but I imagine there’s many agree with him.ive been abused,online mostly by Celtic fans whose views are much more abhorrent to me than being a Tory or a Royalist
Stick to this site Sophie, we might not agree all of the time, but we disagree in a pretty reasonable way.
Not really fussed about Rod Stewart but I do take issue with the Green Brigade.
Why no condemnation of what happened on Oct 7 or any support for the hostages.
There’s no balance in their politics ….I don’t reckon they have a clue just poseurs!!!!
They are a drain on Celtic FC can’t see why Celtic don’t block their season tisckets , must be able to identify most of Them.