Interview with Craig Johnston

[magneto]

http://www.fourfourtwo.premiumtv.co.uk/pag...1065772,00.html

 

 

What are you up at the moment?

 

I basically have all but divested everything I do including coaching kids and developing shoes and I am exclusively a photographer. That is all I do. I got quite upset. I've been living in England all this time. And I had a number of coaching programmes called Super Skills that took me a long time to put together and I got let down by the FA, the Premier League, potential sponsors and investors. I ended up spending a fortune on the programme and was let down by everyone so I lost most of what I had. And it upset me so much, I've totally walked away from football and coaching and now I am a photographer.

 

I don't do anything except that. I had an exhibition in Orlando in December. It went really well and was well received by the art crowd. I do a lot of photography for Sothebys, the auction house. I specialise in sculpture and still life. And I recently photographed Tiger Woods for Tag Heuer. That was my first real paying job as a photographer. I've been doing it for years for free. I'm hooked on it now as a career.

 

What happened to the Liverpool FC surfboard?

 

Oh yes, the Liverpool board. I don't have that anymore. When the Hillsborough disaster happened, I auctioned off all my Liverpool memorabilia to help raise money - my actual FA Cup final shirt, tracksuits that Shankly had given me, and the Liverpool surfboard. They raised $100,000 altogether.

 

Is it true that you wrote the Anfield Rap?

Absolutely. Conceived, written, directed the video. I went to London and sought out a guy called Derek B who was a rapper and he was Britain's first ever rapper. This is before rap had even come to Britain's shores and I was on it and I went to this guy and said: "Look it is a piss-take - let's write it". So I wrote the words and he got the Twist and Shout hook.

 

There wasn't a single English international in the team at the time. They were all Scots, Irish, Welsh, a Dane, a Zimbabwean, an Australian. So the whole thing was about the dressing room craic. It was about McMahon and Aldridge and accents and how the other lads didn't talk like them. The whole thing was about accents and how there was only two who had the proper Scouse accent. Now and again I get a royalty from Virgin Records and it's always a cheque for like £1.27 or 89p. I never bank it because it's not worth it. I should frame them though.

 

Then the minibars...

 

The minibar thing called The Butler is still going. I've spent a long time in hotel bedrooms in my career and as footballers we always used to get blamed for pinching stuff out of the minibar. Some of it was true but sometimes it wasn't. So I thought there's got to be a better way. Rather than reinvent the fridge I thought why don't we put some shelves in place with sensors that link to the phone. It's a simple idea and when I was living in Ireland I decided to make one and it went from there.

 

It was design and I've just got a design head. I love the way things are made. As a kid I didn't play with toys I used to pull them apart to see how they worked and then see if I could put them back together again. It was all about how it worked. If you're a designer and you like things that are 3D and are aesthetically pleasing, then you can get immense satisfaction out of good design.

 

Does that translate to football?

 

For me it's the same with football. I get a real buzz out of a great performance from a team if it crosses that line and becomes art. There's a wonderful joy in watching someone like Gianfranco Zola beat a man by using ballerina-type moves. Again it's art. I've always thought visually; I've always thought in 3D space. Hence the love of fine art photography which is what I am doing now. I'm photographing lovely stuff, you know. How does all this come about? Because it just comes naturally. I was made to be a designer. People say, "how does a footballer end up being an inventor and patenting this and that and that?" And I say, I was an inventor and then I became a footballer.

 

What was the intensity of living in Liverpool like, at a time when the two biggest clubs in the country were in the city?

It was when we won the FA Cup in 1986 and we went back to the Mountbatten Hotel and we were due to go to Stringfellows that night to celebrate. And there was the Cup full of champagne and we'd just won the double, don't forget.

 

Going back to the January, Everton had been way ahead of us in the league by about 8 points so we had to win every game home and away and in that final week we won away at Chelsea to win the league and they drew or something. They had a brilliant team: Lineker and Peter Reid and so on. So we were the first and second best teams in the country, both from the same city, and then we beat them in the FA Cup to win the double, which had only been done twice before.

 

It couldn't have got any tenser between the two teams and the two sets of supporters in the same city. It was so intense and so myopic and intrusive into your own life. I couldn't walk down the street without someone saying "ah, Craig, I love you, my wife loves you and my daughter loves you" and then a second later someone else would come up and say "You're a w*****. I f***ing hate you, you're a f***ing t***." They both really believed what they said. How do you live with that? It was so invasive, especially for a shy person like me. So for me the pressure was f***ing extraordinary.

[johngibo YPC]

Led an interesting life hasn't he?

[melia]

I'm photographing lovely stuff, you know. How does all this come about? Because it just comes naturally. I was made to be a designer

 

Christ, he's turned into Yosser Hughes. "Photos, oh aye, I can do that"

[Andy Mac]

Used to love watching Craig Johnston running around like a whirling dervish. He had so much energy and grit to succeed.

 

He was the type of player supporters love to see, always giving 100%. Seems like he lives his life that that too.

[vish]

yep, one of my favourite players.

[Bald Devil]

Led an interesting life hasn't he?

 

I wish I'd met Derek B. He's a bad young brother.

[Guest Reddred]

There wasn't a single English international in the team at the time.

 

Wasnt Barnesy in the team at the time???

[muleskinner]

You've got it slightly wrong about rap not even making it to Britains shores by 1988, Craig.

[Rich Gobey]

You've got it slightly wrong about rap not even making it to Britains shores by 1988, Craig.

 

Of course, there was Derrek G (Griffiths) famous playschool rap about a dog running around with his tonuge hanging out.

 

Cica. 1976

[Ostrich Man]

"dressing room craic"

 

 

b*****d.

 

coyler write him a letter.

[Guest Jude]

"dressing room craic"

b*****d.

 

coyler write him a letter.

 

 

Well he did live in the land of the jolly green giant for a while.

[Kahnee]

Is there anything he hasn't invented or written?

[Jonesy]

Is there anything he hasn't invented or written?

ooooooooooooooh rentaghost!

[Ostrich Man]

Well he did live in the land of the jolly green giant for a while.

true how would he know the correct spelling is crack being as its an ulster/scots/english word, the rest of ireland only adopting and gaelicising it within the last 40 years.

 

Edited July 21, 2007 by Ostrich Man

[Falconhoof]

There wasn't a single English international in the team at the time.

 

Wasnt Barnesy in the team at the time???

 

I think he's talking more about the team he played in around 1986, rather than the 1988 vintage when Barnes was tearing the league apart.

 

Craig Johnston said that playing football for Australia would be like surfing for England. He was uncapped for Australia but was called up to an England squad in 1988.

[Frosty Jack]

"and here we have Britains answer to Eric B; Derek B"

[hagi_complex]

Deadly player. I remember being perplexed as to why he quit/left. Seems like a good lad - certainly not your average footballer.

[Frosty Jack]

Deadly player. I remember being perplexed as to why he quit/left. Seems like a good lad - certainly not your average footballer.

 

probably shagging someones missus, or someone shagging his.

[Chili Palmer]

probably shagging someones missus, or someone shagging his.

 

His sister was very ill, so he quit and moved back to Australia to look after her.

[Frosty Jack]

oops sorry

[Red Lecter]

His sister was very ill, so he quit and moved back to Australia to look after her.

Yeah, there was an interview with him last year about why he quit and what he was doing. I think that was the first stime anyone actually realised why he had more or less just disappeared off the face of the earth.

[BG]

He says in the full article that when he came to England aged about 16 or 17 I think from Australia (by himself) he was on trial at Middlesborough.

 

Jack Charlton told him "hey Kangaroo, f*** off back to AUstralia, you're the worst player I've ever seen".

 

Craig was too embarassed to go home becuase his family had sacrificed a lot to get him to England so he just kept practising and turning u pto train with the Boro reserves without Charlton;s knoweldge until he made it.

 

Reading that article I thought he came across as very naive in business terms but as a very interesting bloke who's full of ideas.

 

Giving up football at his peak to look after his sick sister is pretty admirable too.

[mooks]

Is no-one commenting on him selling all his football memorabilia to raise money for Hillsborough families?

 

That's the part that stood out for me. Funny how differently we all view people.

[downunder]

Yeah, there was an interview with him last year about why he quit and what he was doing. I think that was the first stime anyone actually realised why he had more or less just disappeared off the face of the earth.

 

I think only those post SKY fans didn't know that. It was made public (about his sister) a day after the final (his retirement wasn't meant to be in the papers until after the game). It is also in his Autobiogrpahy

 

He was also the 'unofficial' LFC phoptographer, he did the pictures for at least one of the players' testimonial brochures whilst he was still a player.

Edited July 23, 2007 by downunder

[Red]

Is no-one commenting on him selling all his football memorabilia to raise money for Hillsborough families?

 

That's the part that stood out for me. Funny how differently we all view people.

 

 

Thats the bit that stood out for me too.

 

My best memory of Craig (totally unrelated to his philanthropic side), was sitting outside a night club in the Kings Cross area of Sydney and hearing a scouse accent from someone comin' out the club. I looked up to see Craig Johnston and Stan Boardman walking past with Stan swearing about how hot it was in there.. which was nice.