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Details
Title: By Any Means Necessary-A Journey With Celtic Bampots
Author: Paul Larkin
Published: 31 Oct 2012
Synopsis
Between 2008 and 2012, everything changed for Celtic and the supporters. Everything changed for the Author as well. The Internet Bampots were on the rise, going after songs, Referees and an old enemy. . .
Read how Referees thought about Celtic straight from the mouth of a Grade 1 Ref and marvel at how the Internet Bampots refused to take it any more.
There are also stories of seedy trips to Atlantic City, mixing with the Mafia and breakfast with The Latin Kings.
Well, it is a Paul Larkin book after all. . .
Review
(review by Kevtic of KDS forum)
I’ll try not to let the fact that some of the proceeds from this book will find their way into Celtic Graves Society funds influence my review. It’s also been a long time in coming; I had actually finished reading the book about a month ago but just didn’t have time to get a review down on paper.
I think this is Paul’s 4th book and far and away his best effort. Although in the main I enjoyed his previous books at times I found them just a bit too chaotic with no real structure or rhyme and reason as to how they were set out. BAMN is a much more professional affair and personally it makes for a far more enjoyable read. This is a book by and about an internet bampot for and about internet bampots and their part in the death of Scotland’s 2nd biggest institution. Paul intertwines that story with his own personal journey from his arrest in New York through 4 years of hell before finally coming out the other side. His journey is a harrowing one and it’s probably an understatement to say he’s lived a life and survived but not without a few scars.
The book starts with the ‘true’ story of a referee’s journey to become a grade one ref and the culture of ‘handshakes’ and lodge meetings. It’s the stuff that has fueled Celtic fan paranoia down the years but as recent history has shown it turned out we actually weren’t paranoid enough. Taking it at face value it’s a disturbing but not surprising look at the dark, secretive and agenda ridden society of referees and if even half of it is true it’s a wonder we have managed to win anything over the years.
Like his previous books Paul is happy to let others say their piece or to provide more detail and background to a story. In previous books this didn’t always work but in BAMN he has got the balance just about right. I particularly liked the pieces by Sean Walsh (talking about social media and football), the birth of the Carluke Shamrock podcast by Richard Swan and Brogan, Rogan, Trevino’s lengthy article about ‘politics’ and ‘self preservation’ within Scottish football. BRT also rips apart the hun’s finances over the last decade and questions why those in authority at no point stepped in and questioned the running of the doomed club.
If I have one criticism, and it’s small one, it’s the Projecting Paddy McCourt final section where Paul takes a trip into writing fiction. Like the Channelling Charlie Mulgrew pieces in the previous book I just didn’t enjoy them and they felt out of place but kudos to Paul for trying something different and maybe that’s the direction he wants to head in the future.
BAMN isn’t your typical Celtic book and many will find the content and style of writing not to their taste but it is another welcome addition to the myriad of people who write about Celtic in the numbers that no other club can even come close to. Paul is part of the new generation of social media savvy football fans and understands the importance and collective power that it can bring together when all are tweeting and blogging with a shared purpose. How different the story of the huns financial collapse might have been without the internet bampots is hard to say but we are certainly a much more informed and knowledgeable support for the efforts of the internet bampots. The landscape has changed forever and it’s a change for the better.
Product Details
- Paperback: 406 pages
- Publisher: lulu.com (28 Sep 2012)
- ISBN-10: 1300092653
- ISBN-13: 978-1300092650
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14.8 x 2.3 cm
Links
Review
(from RepublicFootball.net)
Source: http://republicfootball.net/reviews/
I’ll tell you what I think is the first rule for writing, blogging and tweeting about Celtic. Make sure you actually write about Celtic and don’t make it all about yourself and you won’t go far wrong. The second rule for writing about Celtic is that there are no rules.
Paul Larkin’s new book ‘By Any Means Necessary – A Journey With Celtic Bampots’ flagrantly breaks the first rule and just about every other rule that you can conceive of, including the whole grammar shebang, and yet has a structure and an authentic voice that makes it a Tony Watt netbuster of a read. It’s the structure that makes it work.
There’s a central narrative of Paul’s struggles with life in and away from New York City.Sometimes disturbing, sometimes brutal and yet surprisingly honest and uplifting, and yes there is a real-life run in with the law and some brave and illuminating admissions. You are left to draw your own conclusions about Paul’s struggles with his life and everything in it, but there is always Celtic in the background to add further grief and occasional joys.
But you also get interwoven testimonies from selected players from the Celtic new media revolution, some ‘bampots’ of various levels of influence and none, including a poorly conceived and self-aggrandising piece from me (remember rule number one?)
Some of these are very insightful and leave you wanting more. There’s a tantalizing piece from an incognito former SFA official that leaves you wanting to know an awful lot more. Further developed it would blow the lid on the operations of current and former SFA officials and their not-so-hidden agendas. This alone is worth the price of the book.
As well as exposing himself and the inner workings of Scottish football officials, Larkin also shines a light on the great work people like David Harper and Graham Wilson do in making Celtic fan groups so strong and influential and how there’s much to be learned from following their example.
There are omissions of course, some of the great and the good of Celtic bampotery are absent, but the most high-profile of those really need to be writing their own books and telling their own story using their own means of production. But to give you a taste of Paul’s view of the past few years I leave you with this:
‘In 2008 they tried to make us feel unwelcome again and we got their song outlawed. In 2010 they tried to cheat us and lie to our manager and we got them out. In 2012 they tried to tell us it was Armageddon and we showed them it was, but just for one club.’ ‘Things will never be the same again.’
So this book offers an authentic means of summing up recent events and a very involving way of telling the writer’s own version of the story. My advice if you want it is to get yourself a copy of this book by any means necessary and enjoy the journey.