Episode Five: John Murray Transcript
John Murray 0:01
Well, you don't find too many things that are as much of a symbol of the North of England than this. This is Hadrian's Wall. This is the Roman wall.
Joe Fenn 0:17
Welcome to the Portico Podcast. This is Rewriting the North, a celebration of place and writing in the North of England.
John Murray 0:31
I'm John Murray, and the spoken word is my trade. I'm a sports commentator, football commentator. But this is where I'm from. And this is rural Northumberland. So the farmhouse where I grew up is just about 200 yards along the wall from where I'm standing now. And this is what we call the crags. So I'm standing right next to the wall itself. But just over the top of the rise, there is a sheer drop down there, of probably, I don't know, 40 metres, 50 metres. So in lambing time, certainly one of my tasks as a farmer's son would, would be to come up here every day, and look the sheep. So I would come up and just check that the sheep are okay. And that everything was fine. And all of the lambs had been born as they as they should be. So, the the crags is up ‘ere. But if we go up onto the top, so if you were, if you just come up here, and we walk right to the very edge. So you've got a whole range of gnarled trees that are being blown in this wind. But, but this is it, this is the these are the wilds of Northumberland, where I grew up.
John Murray 1:55
I think when you grow up somewhere like this, you do have lots of time to think. And I did entertain myself by listening to lots of sports on the radio. I would come up here to look the sheep, I would bring my radio with me in the summer when we clipped the sheep.
John Murray 2:20
This is classic Northumberland weather conditions here, we've got a blanket of grey cloud, but a way, way down to the southwest, suddenly, the clouds have opened, and the sun is peeping down. And we've got shafts of sunshine on the top of one of those little hills away to the south. And it looks absolutely terrific.
John Murray 2:53
This is the lonnin. We bring the sheep in here to go along to the pens, which are just over there to to our left. And that's where the dipping would take place. That's where, that's where we would do the clipping here. Actually, this is where the clipping would be. We'd put big tarpaulins down, the sheep would all be in the pens, then you'd bring them out one by one, they'd get clipped there, and, and then off, they go back out into the fields again.
John Murray 3:30
It feels an awful long way from being here and growing up as a farmer's son to sitting in some of the most famous football grounds in the world and commentating on on the sport. And from where we are, it's actually not far to Newcastle to Sunderland, to Middlesbrough. But really, it does feel like a different world. So what I want to do is, is take you on a little tour of those great bastions of Northeast football, and give you an idea of why and how I developed as, as a football commentator. And using the words and language that I do to do that.
A really early influence on me, one of my editors in the in the radio sports department in London, they'd say to me, read as much as you can, and read widely. And think about the words that you use, and your language and words are so important. And even now I do think a lot about the words and the phrases that I want to use. And I am influenced by what I hear, what I read. And whenever I hear something that that I like I do you think "I could use that in a football commentary..." And one of the things I've been thinking of recently, as well, my old dad who who's no longer with us now was very much a North Country man and he had a kind of an unusual turn of phrase himself. And, and I think that was a big influence as well. And if he could see it standing here now doing this on top of the wall on the crags, I think he'd say "sicka like farce." Which means "such a farce", you know. So we're going to walk down now and get back in the car and get away from all this, and head into the end of the big city to Newcastle, and start our little tour of the big football grounds of the North East.
John Murray 5:41
Well, I know in this podcast series, you've spoken to a lot of very, very creative people. What I find is, if I have time to think about what I'm doing, I always find that quite difficult because I'm so used to having to do things as I see them. So that's my my creativity is, is actually doing it on the hoof and trying to make a football match or a sporting event as interesting as I can. And obviously, being a radio commentator first and foremost, it is the the sound of it, and the words and language that you use that are your principal tools. And I find that to be a constant challenge to do that. Because every situation every match, every event is different. There's always a story there, there's always something to hang it off. And I suppose, like in any job, you are trying to achieve perfection. It is a live performance. Whatever happens here, whatever happens in this event, whether there's something terrible happens, whether something great happens, whether something historic happens, I'm going to be able to find the words to describe it and encapsulate what is happening. And actually, what we're going to do today, we're going to go from the Tyne to the Wear, to the Tees. So we're going to be crossing three of the great rivers of the North East of England, starting with the Tyne which we're crossing right now.
John Murray 7:22
So the eastern end of the Roman wall, is Newcastle, and that's where we are now and I'm in Leazes Park, which is right behind one end of St. James's Park, Newcastle United's football ground. And I always think of Newcastle United and St. James's Park as being right in the heart of the city, and it is. I mean, we're, we're about 200 yards away from the goal at one end, the park is right next to the stadium. So looking at it now we've got the the seagulls above. We've got a little bit of sunshine. I've got the old Victorian bandstand, we've got the black lamps, and the trees and then that huge, hulking great grey football ground with its its white metal struts on the top of it. And when the atmosphere gets going in there, that is something special. It really is. People in this part of the world have been Newcastle United fans for generations and generations. And they care deeply about what happens in sites in St. James's Park, particularly when Kevin Keegan arrived, who was the big star of English football. Newcastle hadn't had much success over recent years, recent decades. And the hope and the feeling was that Kevin Keegan and then Bobby Robson as well, after him would bring that success back. Now they didn't bring the trophies. But they did bring a great feeling. All of the sights I've seen, I've never seen anything like the electricity and energy there was on the streets of Newcastle that afternoon. There were people literally dancing in the streets. Open and undiluted joy that Kevin Keegan was coming back here. That's what the football and football happenings meant in a city like this.
John Murray 9:29
So we've left Tyneside and we're now on the way to Wearside, which is just a short journey past various industrial units and car showrooms.
John Murray 9:43
That's the River Wear down there... We must be driving now on what was the site of Roker Park... And I mean, you would just would not know it, would you? Apart from the names of the roads. So we've got Clockstand Close. If we turn to the left, and we've got Promotion Close on the right. It sounds like a statement of intent, doesn't it? Promotion Close. Some of the old terraces are still here, but it's a collection of new houses, in amongst that. So there we are, so that that's where Sunderland used to play. In actual fact, some of my very, very earliest memories of coming to the football and actually watching as a fan, were here at Roker Park, on this site. I remember one really cold winter's day, watching Ian Rush for Liverpool, scoring a couple of goals and I remember there being snow on the pitch. And I remember standing in the Fulwell end, which was the popular end of Roker Park, right down near the front. And seeing Ian Rush, who was one of the big stars of the game at the time, one of the great goal scorers and to a young boy as I was at the time, football mad, you know, to be able to stand on and watch someone like that close up with such a massive thrill.
John Murray 11:30
It just so happened that I was sent to report on what was the last league match at Roker Park. And I remember when the match had finished thinking, "That's it, all of these years of history of this great old stadium. And I remember looking across and feeling quite emotional, but that that was it. They were going to pull it down, wipe it off the face of the earth, this place that had been such an important place for so many people." Things were going to move on but that is the nature of football. That's the nature of sport. That's the nature of life. That's how it works, isn't it... and now we'll just make a little trip back to the Stadium of Light which is their current home.
Navigation System 12:20
Where would you like to go?
John Murray
Sunderland Football Club. So here we are just turning the corner towards the sparkling Stadium of Light. And there on this roundabout. There's the miner's lamp. And actually, as we just move past the stadium suddenly the sun is absolutely dazzling us, it is genuinely the Stadium of Light.
John Murray 12:52
So outside the Stadium of Light, this this here, this here, this means a lot to me this. This is the bronze statue of none other than Bob Stokoe. This pose that Bob Stokoe is captured in is the famous scene where he ran onto the pitch. After Sunderland won the FA Cup in 1973, which was a huge surprise, they beat the mighty Leeds United. They were the underdogs and they won one-nil. And for me, this was the first FA Cup Final that I remember watching on television. In the farmhouse, and all the Murray family were gathered round and watched the North East team, the underdogs winning the FA Cup. So that's Tyneside and Wearside and now for the final destination. We're heading to Teesside and Middlesbrough football club.
John Murray 13:58
I don't want to, like, overegg the commentators pudding but, but there is an element of the artistic and the creative. And yes, you can prepare for lots of eventualities but also lots and lots of things that you do not expect to happen, happen in live sports and broadcast and you have to improvise, something unexpected and 'wow' happens and you haven't prepared for it. And you say the perfect thing. Virtually every match or do something happens that surprises me that you haven't prepared for when you just have to deal with it. But that's that's one of the challenges of commentary.
John Murray 14:45
In an industrial area, former, heavy industrial area like the North East of England, and like the the towns and cities of Newcastle and Sunderland and Middlesbrough. I think it is true to say that, for many people for many years, football was the big release. Life and times were hard for a lot of people for a long time. And, no matter how tough things work for families and people in their day to day lives, they were going to be able to go and watch Newcastle or Sunderland or Middlesbrough on a Saturday afternoon at three o'clock. And the footballing stars, were going to bring a bit of light and relief and joy to their lives. And I do think that, that is why we talk of certain places, having a connection with football in the way that we do.
John Murray 15:52
So here we are, the final step along the way, is Middlesbrough Football Club. And this is the Riverside Stadium, which is another one of the more modern football grounds. But what they've done here, and it's a lovely touch, they actually brought the gates, the main gates, from their former ground over in the town, Ayresome Park. And actually, when I first started as a commentator, I used to work at Ayresome Park when I was in local radio. And I remember coming up to these gates, these big red, painted wrought iron gates. And we have written in white lettering at the top Middlesbrough AFC. The Riverside stadium is right next to the River Tees, which is just at the end of the car park there. And sometimes you come here and big ships are actually right there, right outside the stadium. And there's one of the old cranes from the shipbuilders, that is just over the other side of the river. And you've got the image of Middlesbrough as well that we can see: The Transporter Bridge, which is just the most fantastic example of Industrial Revolution architecture, and is a.. it's just a breathtaking piece of iron work. Now what I want to do is I just want to bring you round here to this is... on the other side of a bridge that is right opposite the Riverside Stadium. Printed on this bridge are the words of Alistair Brownlee, who was a football commentator working in local radio. And when we talk about the role of a commentator and what they do, you know, they're really a bit part of things, they are a bit part of the footballing world. But when a commentator is able to come out with words that are perfect and fit the moment... I don't think there are too many better examples than what Alistair said at the end of one of Middlesbrough's most famous victories. And this was on the night that they won through to the European final, the UEFA Cup final, which was an incredible feat. And the words from Alistair at the end of that match. They're up there in big coloured letters. So it says, "That is it."
Alistair Brownlee 18:27
That is it. It's Eindhoven. It's Eindhoven. Boro have made it. One of the most glorious nights in the history of football. We go back to 1876, the infant Hercules, fathomed out of the foundries of Teeside, mined out of the Eston Hills, we're roaring all the way to Eindhoven and the UEFA Cup Final. It's party, party, party! Everybody round my house for a parmo!
John Murray 18:59
Brilliant words, brilliant words to come out with that. So the infant Hercules, the steel history of Teeside mined out of the Eston Hills, which are just over there to the south of Middlesbrough. And a parmo is a local delicacy, could we call it and it's something that is unique to Teesside Middlesbrough, this area. He's touched on a number of themes there that's that's out of his head that's out of his imagination, his creativity. And I think that's the kind of thing that all of us all commentators try to do when you're sitting behind a microphone is to, to get the opportunity for a moment like that and to match the words to it. That's the difficult bit but that's what we... that's what we try to do.
Joe Fenn 19:58
That was the fifth and final episode of the Portico Podcast, Rewriting the North. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Joe Fenn speaking to you from the historic Portico Library in Manchester, home of Northern England's biggest literary award, the Portico Prize, a celebration of place and writing in the North of England. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. And tell your family and friends about it. The Portico Library is a registered charity. You can find out more about our work at www.theportico.org.uk. The Portico Podcast is funded by Arts Council England. The producer is Nija Dalal-Small. Concept and programming by Sarah Hill, with special thanks to Dr. David Cooper. Join us next time.