Q&A Evening with The Blizzard Football Quarterly

Con Artist (@Con_Artistes) presents:

A Q&A Evening with The Blizzard Football Quarterly @ The Sugar Club. 19.00. Friday November 22nd. featuring The Blizzard panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair & Miguel Delaney with host, Eoin McDevitt of Second Captains.

Entry includes free copy of The Blizzard (RRP €14.99) for all & free pint of Becks Vier for first 100 through the door on the night. Tickets from: www.theblizzard.eventbrite.com

The Blizzard (@blzzrd, www.theblizzard.co.uk) is a quarterly football publication - part book, part magazine - providing a platform for top-class writers from across the globe to write about the football stories that matter to them. Previous Blizzard events have occurred in London, Sunderland, Leeds, Swansea and Liverpool and we’re delighted to now have them make the trip across the Irish Sea. Join us this evening for a rousing Q&A of two halves with audience participation, visual footage, social media interaction & competitions to discuss the in-depth, topical & humorous football questions of import All ticket-purchasers will receive a free copy of The Blizzard and the first 100 on the night will receive a free pint of Becks Vier.

Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) is founder & editor of The Blizzard. A sports journalist and renowned author who writes for a number of publications, including the Guardian, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, FourFourTwo & Sports Illustrated. Wilson was football correspondent for the Financial Times from 2002 to 2006 and is a columnist for World Soccer, The Irish Examiner and bettingexpert amongst others whilst also being a regular participant on The Guardian football podcast, "Football Weekly". He is a Sunderland A.F.C. supporter.

Bibliography

• Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football
• Sunderland: A Club Transformed
• Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics [Winner 'Best Football Book' 2009 British Sports Book Awards. Shortlisted for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year.]
• The Anatomy of England: A History in Ten Matches
• Brian Clough: Nobody Ever Says Thank You
• The Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper

Philippe Auclair (@PhilippeAuclair) is a football writer, biographer and broadcaster (and musician when none of the above). Philippe is a regular contributor to The Blizzard and Champions magazine, has held the position of England correspondent for France Football magazine since 1999 and fulfils a similar role for news and sports radio RMC Info. He appeared as French football analyst on Setanta Sports News channel in England, and can be heard regularly on TalkSPORT radio in England,Newstalk radio in Ireland, the BBC and is also a regular contributor to The Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast.

Bibliography

• Cantona: The Rebel Who Would be King [ longlisted for 2009William Hill Sports Book of the Year. Winner 'Best Football Book'British Sports Book Awards 2010]
• Thierry Henry - Lonely At The Top

Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) is a London-based Irish football journalist & author. A regular contributor for ESPN, The Irish Examiner, The Independent & The Blizzard, he is also the author of 'Stuttgart to Saipan' and was a 2011 nominee for the Irish Sports Journalist of the Year award. His articles for The Blizzard include "Wenger, l'Auteur" - What Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Cimino and the Hollywood of the seventies tell us about Arsenal.

Bibliography

• Stuttgart to Saipan

Eoin McDevitt (@EoinMcDevitt) is broadcaster & presenter with Second Captains (@SecondCaptains) now both a television programme on RTE as well as a bi-weekly podcast featured on The Irish Times.

Sounds good but will it be just an 'Off the Ball' road show though? I'd love to see them focus on the domestic game here, and see what they all make of it.

Hi,

I haven't been to an Off the Ball roadshow so can't comment. There will be a mix of pre-agreed questions & live ones picked from the audience and via Twitter as the event unfolds. I think the domestic game is a really important topic and would be great to spend some time on this - comparing against other smaller leagues, impact on the international team, the over-reliance on the UK as a destination for young Irish players. Here's a link to a recent Blizzard Q&A in Swansea here http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...;v=rxCMBNAgJks

There are others also available here http://www.theblizzard.co.uk/events/

Cheers,

Con

Thanks to all who came along to the sold-out Blizzard Q&A on Friday - a very enjoyable evening. Next up is Sid Lowe with Ken Early on December 4th.

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Author & Journalist Sid Lowe (@sidlowe) lives in Madrid and writes a weekly column for guardian.co.uk. He also writes regularly for the Guardian, World Soccer, FourFourTwo, and the Telegraph. He works as a commentator and panelist for Spanish, Asian and US television and has acted as translator for David Beckham, Michael Owen, and Thomas Gravesen. Together with his dog, he is a regular contributor to the Guardian Football Weekly Podcast.

His recent book ‘Fear & Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid’ was nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the year 2013 & lifts the lid on sport's greatest rivalry. By exploring the history, politics, culture, economics and language, while never forgetting the drama on the pitch, Lowe demonstrates the symbiotic nature of the relationship between these two football giants. In doing so he reveals the human story behind this explosive rivalry.

Sid’s unique insight into this rivaly is given further depth on foot of his PhD, titled “The Juventud de Acción Popular in Spain, 1932-1937”. This was subsequently published as a book called “Catholicism, War and the Foundation of Francoism” which expanded on his thesis and deals with the political history of the Catholic youth movement during the Spanish Second Republic and Spanish Civil War.

For this evening, Sid will be talking about all things La Liga discussing the main themes of the book whilst taking Q’s and offering up A’s from the audience. Hosting this event for the evening will be Ken Early (@kenearlys) of Second Captains (@secondcaptains) Podcast & RTE TV show and The Irish Times columnist.

Fear & Loathing in La Liga review…

It's Messi vs Ronaldo, it's Catalonia vs Castilla. It's the nation against the state, freedom fighters vs Franco's fascists. It's majestic goals and mesmerising skills, red cards and bench brawls. It's the best two teams on the planet going face to face and toe to toe. It's more than a game. It's a war. It's Barcelona vs Real Madrid.

...Only, it's not that simple. From the wounds left by the civil war to the teams' recent global domination, historian and expert on Spanish football, Sid Lowe lifts the lid on sport's greatest rivalry. Lowe has spoken to the biggest names and the forgotten heroes who defined their clubs. Men like Alfredo Di Stéfano and Johan Cruyff as well as the only survivor of the most politically charged game in history, the Barcelona striker who knocked Madrid out of the European Cup for the first time ever, and the president who celebrated his club's defining moment by taking a midnight dip in the Thames.

By exploring the history, politics, culture, economics and language, while never forgetting the drama on the pitch, Lowe demonstrates the symbiotic nature of the relationship between these two football giants. In doing so he reveals the human story behind this explosive rivalry.

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@Con Artist (@Con_Artistes) presents:

The Anatomy of Liverpool: An Evening with Jonathan Wilson & Scott Murray and host John Keith.

The Sugar Club. 19.00. Sunday January 12th.

**Interest in this event is such that early purchase of tickets is strongly recommended. The perfect Christmas gift for Liverpool supporters.**


http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-anat...ets-9689857625

After our previous two sold-out football evenings (The Blizzard; Sid Lowe: Fear And Loathing in La Liga) at The Sugar Club, Con Artist returns with a surgical dissection of ‘The Anatomy of Liverpool: A History in 10 Matches’ - the book by Jonathan Wilson & Scott Murray. This evening with Jonathan & Scott will be hosted by the inestimable John Keith author, broadcaster, journalist & Merseyside football historian. Following the talk, there will be an audience-voted screening of one of the 10 matches covered in the book with introduction by our panel.

The Anatomy of Liverpool: A History in 10 Matches

Wilson & Murray’s new book is a compellingly forensic analysis of ten key Liverpool matches that have shaped the club's fortunes for more than a century - from the long-lost triumphs of manager Tom Watson, who arrived in 1896, to the 1977 European Cup triumph over Borussia Mönchengladbach, to the astonishing Champions League Final comeback against AC Milan, 'The Miracle of Istanbul', in 2005. Legendary players and managers of the stature of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Kenny Dalglish populate these pages, which highlight the genius and the flaws of individuals by examining them in practice.

Certain games lie on the fault-lines of history. Perhaps they mark the end of one era or the beginning of another. Perhaps they encapsulate a summation of a manager's reign. Or perhaps they mark a crossroads, moments at which football looked one way, and then went the other. But this is not a virtual history of Liverpool FC. the prime purpose is not to speculate on what might have been. Rather it will try to determine why what was, was. No game is won or lost, after all, in a single moment but by a million little things.

The Anatomy of Liverpool tells the story of a great club through a detailed examination of ten key matches looking, as a football history must, first and foremost at the football.

Jonathan Wilson
Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) is founder & editor of The Blizzard. A sports journalist and renowned author who writes for a number of publications, including the Guardian, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, FourFourTwo & Sports Illustrated. Wilson was football correspondent for the Financial Times from 2002 to 2006 and is a columnist for World Soccer, The Irish Examiner and bettingexpert amongst others whilst also being a regular participant on The Guardian football podcast, "Football Weekly". He is a Sunderland A.F.C. supporter.

Bibliography

• Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football
  
• Sunderland: A Club Transformed
  
• Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics [Winner 'Best Football Book' 2009 British Sports Book Awards. Shortlisted for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year.]
  
• The Anatomy of England: A History in Ten Matches
  
• Brian Clough: Nobody Ever Says Thank You
  
• The Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper
  
• The Anatomy of Liverpool: A History in Ten Matches

Scott Murray

Scott Murray is a journalist and author. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian, whose sport website he used to edit; he now writes live minute-by-minute match reports, the Fiver, and the weekly historical Joy of Six column. He has also written for G2, the Guardian Guide, FourFourTwo, AOL Fanhouse, the Evening Standard, GQ, GQ Sport, Esquire, Arena, Spin cricket magazine, and Men’s Health. He wrote the English edition of Football for Dummier, is the co-author of football miscellany Day of the Match. co-author of Phantom of the Open, the preposterous but true story of bad golfer Maurice Flitcroft, the belligerent troublemaker who shot the worst round in 150 years of Open history. He was also a contributor to both volumes of Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur's Is It Just Me Or Is Everything ****? and a co-writer of the E4 comedy Golf War. Scott is a Liverpool FC supporter.

John Keith

John Keith author, broadcaster and stage producer/performer, was a Daily Express staff sportswriter for more than 30 years and was one of seven media representatives summoned to Downing Street to meet British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher after the 1985 Heysel disaster.

John left the Express in 1996 to concentrate on broadcasting and writing books. He hosted BBC Radio Merseyside’s Saturday Football Phone-In for almost a decade and co-presented Team of the Century in which listeners voted for their best team of the 20th century drawn from Everton, Liverpool and Tranmere players. In 2008 John joined new station City Talk 105.9 to launch a Saturday evening show entitled Strictly John Keith, featuring studio guests from sport, showbiz and the media talking revealingly about their lives and careers.

John covers Everton and Liverpool home games as a match reporter for Ireland’s national radio service RTE and has featured in several television programmes including Granada’s hit series Reds in Europe, various BBC football documentaries and he appeared in the 13-hour History of Football.

He has written more than 30 books, ranging from children’s annuals in collaboration with Kenny Dalglish and Kevin Keegan, a comic strip book with Brookside and film actor Bill Dean, and acclaimed biographies of Dixie Dean, Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Colin Harvey, Billy Liddell and Ian Callaghan. The biography of Kevin Sheedy will be published in April 2014. His book, 2008 Reasons Why Merseyside Is The Capital Of Football, written jointly with Gavin Buckland, was published for Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture year 2008.

In September 2006 John wrote, produced and appeared in the first stage presentation of The Bill Shankly Story, a show which has played in four countries and stretches into its eighth year in 2014 featuring Anfield legends Ian St John, Ian Callaghan and Chris Lawler. It was the first British football stage show to be presented in Norway and in September 2008 it was selected as one of the United Kingdom events to launch the Cultural Olympiad, building to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

John also wrote and appears in The Dixie Dean Story stage show which he co-produces. It premiered in May 2008 to celebrate the Everton and England legend’s record 60 League goals in 1927-28. In 2007,John narrated a short documentary film telling the story of John Brodie, the Liverpool-based inventor of goal nets.

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This Sunday folks,


We’ve got all games bar the Villa ‘89 & Wolves ‘47 available to screen. Ace interview with Jonathan Wilson here on the This is Anfield site explaining his approach to the book: http://www.thisisanfield.com/2013/11...omy-liverpool/


Merseyside journalist, author & broadcaster will be our host for the evening in January. Here he is talking about The Bill Shankly Story...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-atrwpHY6o


Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-ana...ets-9689857625
FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/753143484713494/


Cheers!

Last forum call for this Sunday - It's going to be a good one. Doors at 6. Talk at 7. Some links from during the week to whet the appetite...

1. Interview with Jonathan Wilson on Game On 2FM last night: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_gameon.xml

2. Interview with Scott Murray on Off The Ball: http://www.newstalk.ie/reader/47.305...061/blog_list/

3. Unsure which match to vote for? Have a look at our highlights reel here to give you some inspiration! Big ups to Tony Galvin's nephew, Steven for putting this together: http://youtu.be/-em9jPnjTkY

4. Totally Dublin with their 3 choice events for the weekend including #TheAnatomyOfLiverpool...http://totallydublin.ie/more/td-week...ary-10th-12th/

5. Joe.ie Wishlist: ""If you’re a fan of the Merseyside club, then there’s a night in the Sugar Club this week that’s a must see, where acclaimed football authors Jonathan Wilson and Scott Murray discuss their most recent book, The Anatomy of Liverpool: A History in Ten Matches. As the title suggests, they look at ten of the most important matches in the history of the club and how they impacted the team that we know today, as well as looking at their illustrious past and how these matches defined their time, or highlighted the end of an era. We’re sure that there are plenty of sports books that might not have been under the tree at Christmas, and if this wasn’t one of them, then you should head out and get it now so you have time to read it before the Q&A session this weekend."

http://www.joe.ie/joe-life/joes-wish...s-and-cameras/

6. Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-ana...ets-9689857625

...and will be available on the door.


Keep an eye on @Con_Artistes for updates!