An Interview With Steve McGarry Legendary Cartoonist And City Fan
Monday, 7th Apr 2014 11:41

Steve Mcgarry is a Cartoonist and a City fan. He used to design record sleeves for the likes of Joy Division, Slaughter & The Dogs, Jilted John and John Cooper Clarke. He was also the in-house poster/flyer designer for legendary Manchester rock venue RAFTERS. His cartoons have appeared in various newspapers and magazines including Look In, Shoot, Tiger,Daily Star, and The Sun. Steve joined us here at Not In My Lifetime to have a chat about his love of City.

Hi Steve, Thanks for joining us. So how did you become a City fan?

My Gran used to tell me tales of when she was a little girl growing up in Ardwick in the years before the First World War and she could remember sitting on her dad's shoulders as they walked through the crowds to watch City play at Hyde Road. My Grandad, who was born in 1900, actually worked as a young man on the construction of Maine Road, although he was of that generation that used to watch City one week and United the next. (Thinking about it, there weren't too many other forms of entertainment available to the working class in those days, so I suppose it makes a vague sort of sense that you might want to savour that big game atmosphere at every opportunity.) My Uncle Stan and my big cousin Mike were staunch United fans and they took me to my first game, a derby at Maine Road, which ended in a home defeat. I remember very little about the day, other than I have a vague recollection of other kids making room for me to stand up against the perimeter wall behind Bert Trautmann's goal in the Scoreboard end. As far as I can make out, this game must have been in February of 1957, a few days after my fourth birthday. I always tell people that I don't count that as my first game because I was too young to grasp what was going on.

So I'm not sure how I managed to resist the attempted indoctrination by the red members of our clan … maybe it was partly to do with tribal affiliations at primary school … but by the time my Grandad took me to see City play Leicester City in August, 1961, I was an eight-year-old City fan. That's what I consider my first game. I remember that I'd pestered and pestered him to take me, that we sat in the Platt Lane stand and City won 3-1. Years later, I learned that was also the first game that my pal Kevin Cummins, the legendary photographer, attended.

My next game was Bert Trautmann's Testimonial, which was a night game in 1964. I was still at primary school - St John's in Benchill, Wythenshawe - and I went with my friend Paul Bell and his dad. We stood in the Kippax and somehow got separated from his old man, so Paul and I had to leg it through the streets after the game to catch the match bus back to Wythenshawe. I remember that was really scary and really exciting!

Later that year, I passed the 11-Plus and was accepted by St. Bede's, which is just across the other side of Alexandra Park from Maine Road. As I was going to be taking that bus journey to and from Wythenshawe to school in Moss Side every day, my mum said it was okay to start going to City games without an adult accompanying me. So that close season, me and my pal Paul Priest turned up at Maine Road on training days to get autographs in our City scrapbooks and when the season started, I began to attend every home game, first team one week, then reserves the next.

That went on for the next couple of years, going to every game that I possibly could. I used to wag school occasionally to go to the ground on a weekday to get autographs, standing out in the cold and rain with one or two other demented fanatics, pen and scrapbook in hand. Then when I was 14, I wrote to the club asking if I could have a job as a programme seller, which was my brilliant plan to get into the games for free. They blew me out for that … but offered me a job selling "On the Ball" raffle tickets. I had to pretend to be 18 but no-one asked for credentials and suddenly I was getting paid to go to games. Result! I staked out a spot in the Kippax towards Platt Lane, because I knew the away fans always congregated at the opposite end and that would offer the distinct possibility of getting slapped and robbed as the invading hordes came through the turnstiles. So it was all City fans passing my turf and it turned out to be a good laugh. I got a percentage commission, so some weeks I'd actually make a few bob … but better yet, I was allowed to sit or stand anywhere in the ground. By showing the bag of tickets to the blokes manning the gates it was open sesame! Now, I've always been a fronty sod, so naturally I took shameless advantage of my position. Five or ten minutes before kick-off, I'd march round behind the Kippax, behind the Platt Lane stand, stroll through the tunnel in the corner, open the perimeter gate and brazenly march onto the touchline. Next to the City dugout there were two benches - one for the St. John's Ambulance people … and one for me! I swear to God, I used to sit on that bench for every home game, posing for the cameras if the game was being filmed for TV, and no-one ever questioned what I was doing there! Eventually though, the siren call of the Kippax proved too strong and I went back to standing with my mates.

By the time I was 15, I was going to away games, too. Occasionally we'd travel by coach but we were invariably potless, so quite often we'd hitch all through the night to a game. I was great mates with Rob Gretton by then - he attended St. Bede's with me - and we would set out at midnight a Friday after the pubs shut. We'd thumb our way to the M6 or wherever and once we made it to a service station, it was just a question of bugging drivers as they made their way back to their cars after they'd stopped for a cup of tea and a slash until you got a lift. Getting back after the game was always a pain. We'd run round the car park until we found City fans with room for us. If that didn't work, then we'd mooch about and hope that we could find a pub in the city centre where the hardcore City fans were drinking. There was gang of handy lads, older than us, who used to hire a coach. I think it was known as Ginner's coach, maybe? Anyway, I can remember them letting us ride back on their coach a couple of times if we chipped in a couple of bob for the driver. Failing that, we'd try and jump the train … or thumb our way back. Thinking about it now, the idea of a young kid putting himself in all these potentially dangerous situations is quite alarming. I have twin sons of my own and I don't think I let them out of my sight until they turned 21!!!

Steve with Rob Gretton(with City scarf) 16 years Old.

Being Manchester born and bred how come you are now living in sunny California?

My illustration career began to take off in the 1980s and my work began appearing more and more newspapers and magazines. In 1989, I was offered a syndication contract by United Media in New York, which meant that I could get a US work permit. I'd been to California three or four times by that point, our twin sons were only 18 months old so we didn't need to worry about schools and we'd always fancied an adventure in the sunshine, so we thought we'd try it for a year or two. That was 25 years ago and bar a year or two when I had a house down in Devon for a while, we've been here ever since!

Do you manage to get back to Manchester for the odd game?

I used to be back in the UK regularly. but now not so much. At one point, I was doing my daily strips Badlands and World of Soccer for The Sun, Pop Culture in Today and Ray of the Rovers in Shoot! so I always made sure to get back and meet up with the various editors a couple of times a year. In those days, you couldn't find any UK games on TV and the only way to find out how City had gone on was to phone family or hope the Sunday edition of the LA Times carried the results. The only way to watch something like the World Cup was to find a Spanish language channel that carried coverage. So we'd actually head back to Manchester for four or five weeks so the kids could see their grannies and I could watch the World Cup or European Championships in the pub with my mates. At that time, being on a work permit meant I had to periodically enter and leave the US anyway. So, if I was in Manchester during the season and City were at home, I'd try and get to the game and I actually got to take my sons to a couple of games, which was quite a touching moment in a dad-and-lad type of way. These days, our parents are dead, I don't do a lot of work with UK clients and I have a green card, so there isn't the impetus to get back over and consequently it's been a while. And to be honest, it always feels a bit bizarre to leave California for a vacation in Wythenshawe!

What's your all time favourite City Memory?

Without question it's Sergio at 93:20. Had we won that game easily, I'd have been overjoyed … but to win the title in such dramatic fashion, seconds remaining and United celebrating on the pitch at Sunderland, it was just overwhelming. I was with my wife and kids, watching here in Huntington Beach, and we were just all leaping and screaming and hugging each other, with me in floods of tears and sobbing like a baby. To tell you the truth, I'm welling up just thinking about it now. Aside from wife and kids memories, that was one of the greatest moments of my life. Tremendous relief and sheer, unadulterated joy.

Do you have an all time favourite City player?

My first hero was a winger we had called Dave Wagstaffe - he was my favorite when I was a kid. He had a sort of blonde Beatle-cut and was really skillful. He left for Wolves and we got Mike Summerbee in. I was a big admirer of Colin Bell and Neil Young, but Buzzer was my man. It's funny how things pan out. When my wife and I were first married, we bought a house in Cheadle Hulme and I had some building work done to get the house ready for the new babies. I usually got lads in that I knew from the pub but this one time, I really needed some tiling work doing as Debs was coming home with the newborn twins from the hospital so I rang a tiler who advertised in the local paper. I opened the front door and it was Neil Young! I spent the next two days quizzing him about all the ins and outs of his time at City while he vainly tried to get my bathroom tiling done!

And who is your favourite current player?

David Silva. He may be the best City player I've ever seen.

Do you think money is ruining football. Ticket prices have been talked about a lot lately and also the re-arranging of fixtures for TV?

It's global entertainment now, isn't it? Billionaire owners, millionaire superstars and games screened live around the planet. It's light years away from the game that I grew up with. I don't think its been ruined … it's simply evolved. Think about where the club came from - Billy Meredith was still working down the pits as a miner when he was City's biggest new star! Neil Young ended up tiling my bloody bathroom!

How did you feel when Mancini's reign came to end? Do you think it was the right time for a change?

I suspect that most City fans feel grateful to Roberto because of what he achieved for us. I know I am. But to be honest, I felt the parting of the ways was inevitable. Early doors, I had minor reservations in a few areas - felt he could have let them off the leash more often, wasn't over-enamoured with his choice of backroom staff, couldn't understand why he persevered with Jo out on the left or played Vieira in situations where his lack of pace was badly exposed - and I thought the Tevez spat was unnecessary and his over-indulgence of Mario was ridiculous. It was like a bizarre bromance soap opera at times. Had Mario not imploded in the title run-in and ruled himself out of contention, I'm not sure we would have managed the comeback, he was so disruptive. Having said that, we played some wonderful football at times and once the title was secure, I suppose I thought that lessons would be learned and we would go from strength to strength. Instead, last season was really disheartening. As amusing as Mario can be, he should have been shown the door in the summer for starters. I thought Roberto's constant moaning in public about Marwood and the failure to sign RVP was counter productive and the constant public sniping at players destructive. I couldn't understand why we had signed Maicon, after seeing how Bale had destroyed him a couple of years earlier, or why we were trying to play a back three that was patently not working, especially since our backline had been outstanding in the previous campaign. It just seemed to me that Roberto was creating unnecessary problems for himself and even at this distance, it was obvious he had lost a fair chunk of the dressing room. Had he stayed, I wonder who would have moved on? In any event, it didn't need Nostradamus to foresee that with the added factor of Ferran and Txiki being installed, Roberto's days were numbered.

Steve presenting an original to Dennis Tueart back in the 1980s

Manuel Pellegrini.....Do you think he is the right man for the job?

I like his approach and his demeanor and we have certainly played some incredible football this year. You get the sense that there is unity and harmony in the dressing room and throughout the club and that can't be a bad thing. Certainly the likes of Dzeko, Nasri and Kolarov all look much the better for his presence. I'm a little disappointed to see the likes of Barry and Lescott sidelined, but I suppose that's inevitable and I think Manuel has made a couple of missteps … but he seems to learn quickly. We'll have a better sense when we see how the campaign finishes but all in all, I think we are in great shape.

Do you follow an MLS club?

No, I haven't been able to muster the enthusiasm up to this point. However, up to this point, we didn't have New York City FC, so that will probably change soon!

We have all grown up looking at your cartoons in magazines and newspapers but which is your favourite cartoon you have ever drawn?

I'd had bits and pieces of minor success doing stuff for kids comics but my very first commission from a national newspaper was when The Daily Star had me illustrate the centre-spread of the paper for the 1981 FA Cup Final. It was a huge way to debut, drawing all the players and the manager from both teams … and it was so much sweeter that it was City (although Spurs eventually beat us.) That really kickstarted my career. On the strength of that I got my own series in the Daily Star and my own page every week in Match! magazine and everything just snowballed from there.

And how about your favourite record sleeve?

I did quite a lot of record sleeves early in my career - Jilted John, Slaughter & The Dogs, John Cooper Clarke, etc. To this day, most of the imagery associated with Slaughter & The Dogs is taken from the sleeves I did for them all those years ago. It's absolutely astonishing to me to see grown men with my record sleeve designs tattooed on their body! But I think the sleeve that Rob Gretton had me design for Joy Division, for the 12" EP "An Ideal For Living," is the one credit that impresses people the most, particularly out here in California, where Joy Division have this sort of mythical status.

What has been the highlight of your career?

There's been lots. As someone who still feels (and sounds) like a Wythenshawe lad, I'm very conscious of how lucky I've been to do something I love and have a bit of success. I enjoyed my 13-year run in The Sun every day with "Badlands," I've had my own series in Shoot!, MOTD, Today, News of the World, Daily Express and The People. In fact, The People called me "the world's greatest cartoonist" which is absolute bollocks - but I still made sure they sent me a couple of dozen copies of that issue so I could brag like fuck! Getting syndicated for the first time was huge. The big US feature syndicates get 10,000 submissions annually from cartoonists looking for a deal and they probably only launch two or three new features each year - so for one of the world's biggest syndicates to headhunt a British cartoonist was amazing! I'm the first-ever person to be named Illustrator of the Year by both the NCS and the Australian Cartoonists Association. I was the President of the National Cartoonists Society, the world's premier cartoonist organization, for four years, which was a great honor. But in all honesty, one of the gigs I enjoyed most was having my own series in the City programme back in the early 1980s. It paid buttons … tee-hee! … but I was thrilled to be able to do it and it allowed me to meet the players and enjoy a cup of tea in the VIP Blue Room after every game! Small things amuse small minds and all that, eh?

And finally....Who do you think will lift the Premier League Trophy this year?

Viincent Kompany, of course.