On stage: The story of the Reds revolution
ACOMPELLING story of how Bill Shanky and Bob Paisley joined forces to transform Liverpool FC will be told in Southport later this year.
Bill And Bob: The Anfield Revolutionaries will take place at The Atkinson on Friday, December 6, marking the 60th anniversary of Shankly’s appointment as manager in December, 1959.
The show was written by author, broadcaster and Southport resident John Keith who has also written biographies of both Shankly and Paisley among 33 books about football.
It will be narrated by John along with Kop heroes Ian St John, Ian Callaghan, Chris Lawler and Phil Neal, on stage to tell their tales.
The show charts Shankly’s arrival at a club trapped in Second Division mediocrity and how he inspired a glorious revival of Liverpool fortunes.
John said: “It’s essentially a football adventure story and how Bill and Bob took Liverpool on a magic carpet ride out of
the depths of despair and to their successes both home and abroad.”
The charismatic Scot Bill Shankly, assisted by coach and physio Paisley, guided Liverpool to promotion, three League titles, two FA Cup triumphs, which ended the club’s 73-year wait for the trophy in 1965, and to a Uefa Cup success and unbroken qualification for European football.
When Shankly sensationally quit in 1974 Paisley succeeded him and went on to amass a collection of 19 trophies in nine seasons, crowning Liverpool’s 17-year journey from the second tier of English football to become kings of Europe in 1977.
The show is not only an accurate documentation of the club’s successes and timeline of events but is also a fascinating human interest story.
It provides a revealing insight into the two men who set the standards for future generations.
John said: “It really gets inside the two men and their relationship as they were poles apart in personality but shared an abiding passion and genius for building football teams.
“They say opposites attract and that was certainly true in this case.
“Bob Paisley was an extremely good physiotherapist and could diagnose a player just by seeing them on TV, whereas Bill had a kind of psychological block with that kind of thing and didn’t like to talk about it, so they helped each other in ways like that.
“If you could make a perfect dovetail joint of two men, Bill and Bob would be it.”
John said: “Bob was much more reserved than Bill and didn’t like the limelight.
“He infamously said: ‘I’m just looking after the shop until the proper manager arrives.’. But each of the men was a genius in their own right and together achieved a miracle for Liverpool.
“It’s a truly remarkable story.”
The production features exclusive audio and video material, under the technical direction of Gill Beattie, with songs from international artiste Ian Ross.
There will be plenty of inside information from the legends invited on stage, Ian St John, Ian Callaghan, Chris Lawler and Phil Neal, who knew and worked with the pair.
John said: “I think both Liverpool and Everton fans would enjoy it. I’ve written about Everton in the past and I’ve had fans from both sides telling me they’ve enjoyed my work about each team.
“I’m very straight down the line and there are no fictional elements to this story, it’s just a straight forward tale but very interesting and very inspirational.”
The show has proved popular so far, with nearly half the tickets sold.
John said: “We were very lucky to get the date December 6 as it had to be in December to mark the 60th anniversary and a lot of theatres are doing panto around that time.”
Tickets are £26 are available at The Atkinson box office or by calling 01704 533333. Or visit www.theatkinson.co.uk