"The only person whose picture was allowed to hang in our kitchen was Bill Shankly. I thought, Mark E Smith should be in here as well. But Sheila vetoed it. I bowed to a superior authority."
(John Peel, 11 November 2003)
William "Bill" Shankly OBE (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish footballer and manager who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool.
Shankly came from a small Scottish mining community as one of five brothers who played football professionally. He played as a ball-winning right-half and was capped twelve times for Scotland, including seven wartime internationals. He spent one season at Carlisle United before spending the rest of his career at Preston North End, with whom he won the FA Cup in 1938. His playing career was interrupted by his service in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He became a manager after he retired from playing in 1949, returning to Carlisle United. He later managed Grimsby Town, Workington and Huddersfield Town before moving to become Liverpool manager in December 1959.
Shankly took charge of Liverpool when they were in the Second Division and rebuilt the team into a major force in English and European football. He led Liverpool to the Second Division Championship to gain promotion to the top-flight First Division in 1962, before going on to win three First Division Championships, two FA Cups, four Charity Shields and one UEFA Cup. Shankly announced his surprise retirement from football a few weeks after Liverpool won the 1974 FA Cup Final, having managed the club for fifteen years, and was succeeded by his long-time assistant Bob Paisley. He led the Liverpool team out for the last time at Wembley for the 1974 FA Charity Shield. He died seven years later at the age of 68.
Links To Peel[]
Memorial to Peel hero Bill Shankly, as featured on Sounds Of The Suburbs: Lanarkshire
Peel was a huge fan of Liverpool Football Club and one of his heroes was Bill Shankly, who rebuilt the side into a major force in English and European football. In Margrave Of The Marshes, Peel described how he celebrated Liverpool's win in the 1981 European Cup Final in Paris with John Gorman (of the Scaffold) and others, and the next day met Shankly at a hotel in the city where he was staying with the Liverpool football squad:
"Gorman and I were staying, entirely fortuitously, at the same hotel as the Liverpool squad and in the morning came down to breakfast to find Bill Shankly at reception, paying his bill.
As he prepared to leave for the coach outside, I darted forward and offered to carry his bags. Apparently, the great man didn't find this odd at all because he agreed at once. I regard this as being my greatest sporting achievement. A photograph of Bill is the only picture allowed to hang in our kitchen. It is before me - as they say - as I write and I have just walked across the room to check the caption. It reads, 'Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, supporting a campaign for more sports facilities in the city'.
The only other people in the picture are ordinary Liverpudlians and I often wonder who they are, especially the bloke on the left laughing at whatever Bill is saying. As they have been in our kitchen for twenty years or more, I feel as though I know them anyway. Our daughter Florence, recently graduated from Liverpool University, is named in tribute to Shanks. Florence Victoria Shankly Ravenscroft - now there's a name to reckon with."
Liverpool v Man Utd - Bill Shankly's Footballing Philosophies
Peel would sometimes wear a red t-shirt on television with a Bill Shankly quotation on his socialist views, especially during Glastonbury and also on a programme called What The Magazines Say. It is not known when Bill Shankly made the featured comment:
"The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That's how I see football, that's how I see life."
On Sounds Of The Suburbs: Lanarkshire, broadcast in 1999, Peel visited the memorial birthstone of Bill Shankly in Glenbuck, southern Scotland.
Plays[]
- 11 November 1990: Thirty Five Summers: Come Together 7" Version (Shankly Mix) (12") Planet (features sample of Bill Shankly speaking)
- 13 December 1990 (Radio Mafia): Thirty Five Summers: Come Together (Shankly Mix) (12") Planet (features sample of Bill Shankly speaking)
See Also[]
- Blur: Reading; Peel wears another Shankly t-shirt while delivering thoughts on Blur.
- Standing Room Only: JP gives thoughts on football in 1994, wearing Shanks t-shirt.
- TV Hell: Rock Bottom: The great man again features on a Peel t-shirt.
- Disc & Music Echo: Peel Columns
- Sounds