The story of George Best is one that will not go away it seems – now, a team of renowned musicians and writers have brought it to the stage, writes JANE COYLE
HIS LIFE might have been a seemingly endless series of all too real cliches and horror stories but, almost five years after his death, the fascination just refuses to end.
After a film, a TV drama, a piece of contemporary dance and acres of space in the gossip columns comes Dancing Shoes – The George Best Story, a play with music by musicians, JJ Gilmour and Pat Gribben and words by two of the North's most popular playwrights, Marie Jones and Martin Lynch. "I saw Blood Brothers years ago. I said to myself 'I'm going to write one of those – a musical based on a simple story about the life of an ordinary guy'," says Gilmour. "Here it is. Both are great stories but the difference is, George Best's is true."
Gilmour is from Coatbridge, a town eight miles from Glasgow with a huge Irish population, affectionately known as the 33rd county. Although he hasn’t lived in Scotland for many years – he lived in France and is currently a resident of Jersey – he is a fanatical Celtic supporter. But, like all genuine football fans, he was always fascinated by the genius of George Best.
“I’d had an idea for a musical called The Fifth Beatle,” he says. “I wrote a few songs and played them to friends in Jersey and to my neighbour Gilbert O’Sullivan, who was mad keen that I should do something with them. By the time I met Pat [Gribben], I had seven songs up my sleeve but no clear idea of where to go with them.”
Strangely, for all their parallel experiences, their two paths had never crossed. Gilmour made his recording debut in 1989 with the Silencers, who were bigger in Europe than in their native Scotland. Gribben was a member of Belfast punk band the StarJets, who were signed to Sony Records in the late 1970s. He then formed the Adventurers with his wife Eileen and former StartJet Terry Sharpe. Managed by Simon Fuller, they signed record deals with Chrysalis and Warner Brothers Elektra.
When he returned home after years in London, Gribben teamed up with Brian Kennedy and is regularly on the road with him, playing Glastonbury this year.
“Pat and I met two years ago,” says Gilmour. “I was staying with my brother in Belfast, recovering from a bereavement. I wasn’t in good shape. I was here, yet I didn’t want to be here. I’m a deep thinker but I didn’t want to be thinking too much about anything. At the same time, I didn’t want my mind to be idle. I needed to be doing something.”
Gribben takes up the story. “We were introduced by a mutual acquaintance who knew me from the Adventurers. He asked if he could bring James to my house. I said ‘who is he?’ In this business, you get lots of people turning up wanting to play with you, but I Googled him and listened to some snippets of his albums.
“Anyway, he came up and we had a yarn and started messing around with a few things. When he first mooted this idea for a musical about George Best, I think I raised an eyebrow. Then he played me a song called Georgie. It’s about his parents asking young George what he wanted to do with his life – be a fireman, a teacher, a minister? It’s a brilliant song. He manages to convey all those emotions without being corny or schmaltzy.
“He went home and I stayed up and wrote an end piece. Then we started working on more songs and wondered what to do next. We managed to get a number for Marie Jones, who invited us over. We played her that song and a few others and she was hooked. She talked to Martin Lynch and brought him on board. Then came director, Peter Sheridan.”
Gilmour is well aware that there will be a posse of cynics huddled in the long grass, waiting to take pot shots. There has already been a television drama and a contemporary dance piece about Best in the past year alone.
“Yeah, I know, people will be thinking, what’s next – George Best on ice, George Best in tights? The reason a musical has never been done in Ireland is because everyone has avoided it. When I’ve mentioned it to people here, they’ve said ‘oh dear, how could that work?’ But I’ve never been one to shirk a tackle. We had all these good songs and I knew what I wanted to say but not how to say it. We needed other people to make it happen. I’d even written a few scenes myself, which Martin and Marie had a good laugh about. It’s been a big thrill to see what this amazing creative team has done with it.”
Given its upbeat title, one wonders whether Dancing Shoesis to be another warm-hearted homage to the glamorous Best fairytale, with only passing mention of the dark, ugly days.
“To be honest, if I’d done it myself, it would have been darker,” says Gilmour. “But from the start, Peter said we would have to do the whole thing. So while it does have a positive slant, everything is addressed.”
“There was a bit of reticence on Marie and Martin’s part to examine the mother’s role,” says Gribben. “George’s sister Barbara felt the same, which is not surprising after that BBC drama, which was an assassination. Anne Best comes out of this as a loving person whose life was destroyed by alcohol. It’s clear that the two of them loved each other deeply, but that drink was so much a part of their relationship in a really sad way.”
“We’ve had fantastic luck with this show so far,” says Gilmour. “All the boxes have been ticked. Pat and I found each other. We got Marie and Martin. We got Peter and then a brilliant cast. We had a musical stagger-through at the weekend and it was tremendous. If that’s the worst it can be, I think we’re going to be okay.”
Dancing Shoes – The George Best Storyruns at the Belfast Grand Opera House, July 28–August 14
