Get It On: How the ’70s Rocked Football
£11.20£12.30 (-9%)
SHORTLISTED FOR BEST SPORTS WRITING AT THE SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023
“Sheer joy” – Patrick Barclay
“Exhilarating” – When Saturday Comes
“Perfect” – Josh Widdicombe
“★★★★★” – FourFourTwo
Four years after the crowning glory of 1966, and a decade after the abolition of the maximum wage, a brash new era dawned in English football. As the 1970s took hold, a new generation of larger-than-life players and managers emerged, appearing on television sets in vivid technicolour for the first time.
Set against a backdrop of strikes, political unrest, freezing winters and glam rock, Get It On tells the inside story of how commercialism, innovation, racism and hooliganism rocked the national game in the 1970s.
Packed with interviews with the legends of the day, this footballing fiesta charts the emergence of Brian Clough, Bob Paisley and Kevin Keegan and the fall of George Best, Alf Ramsey and Don Revie, presenting a vibrant portrait of the most groundbreaking decade in English football history.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Biteback Publishing (23 Feb. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 416 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1785907867 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1785907869 |
| Dimensions | 2 x 14 x 22 cm |
by Colin James
I have really enjoyed reading this book it brought back many memories of the 70’s and how football helped shape that decade. Obviously, it was well researched, and it contained many interesting stories.
by djay
Fabulous trip down memory lane and eloquently revisited with more anecdotes than you can shake a stick at.
My only watery complaint is it should be longer! At 376 pages it’s certainly pretty comprehensive but any worthy tome shouldn’t be allowed to end!
Looking forward to the 80s edition – and perhaps a 70s part two; “Children of the Revolution”?
by Fat
Very good read
by Waldi
Spurling’s sprawling exploration of 1970s’ football is extensive, and relatively entertaining/informative.
Mining a deep well of creditable (almost awe-inspiring) research, including an impressively deep well of in-person interviews harvested over many years, the book offers a plethora of insights and anecdotes from within the beating heart of this fascinating era in the sport’s history.
Typographical and factual errors are mercifully too few to mar the knowledgeable reader’s enjoyment.
This book is very good indeed, and whets the appetite for the promised 1980s’ sequel.
by Mr. D. R. Holding
Decent enough book similar to “all crazee now” English football and footballers in the 70s which I reviewed a couple of months ago. Could possibly have been 25/30 pages shorter and still told the same story maybe by dropping the chapter on Shankly or Clough as these have been told many times before…
by KevinS
This book immediately transports you back to the 1970’s. Superbly researched and written, it is a different class to your average football book. Apart from one boring chapter on football strips, the other 20 chapters are mostly classics for any footie fan who lived through this period. Particularly enjoyed the chapter on Hereford’s cup win over Newcastle, the chapters on Cloughie and the three degrees at West Brom. But it’s pretty much a great read throughout.
by Key Perspective
If you remember 70s football you will love it.
by S Riaz
Although I started the Seventies as a young child, by the end of the decade I was in my mid-teens, and it was the period when I first fell in love with football. Television was different then and I tended to watch whatever my mother or brother watched, which was often things like ‘Football Focus,’ or ‘Match of the Day.’ I went to school next to the Boleyn Ground and recall West Ham players having to run the gauntlet of our school playground, mostly good-naturedly, as they went in. So I was keen to read this, which takes the reader back to that period.
So, the Seventies? Flared trousers, kipper ties, mullets and wide lapels. In football terms, there were a lot of negatives, from hooliganism and pitch invasions, to racism and the National Front. However, it was also the period when football began to turn into the sport we know today, with panels and pundits, World Cup songs (who can still sing, ‘Back Home’?!), the importance of the F.A. Cup and colourful football shirts became something that kids wanted to buy. Football became slowly commercialised, but still many footballers did not earn much. There were also characters and what a cast of characters lie within this book! Alf Ramsey, George Best, Brian Clough, Kevin Keegan, Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Emlyn Hughes, Tommy Docherty and others. It was a time of excess, of excitement and passion. An excellent, entertaining and informative read. I would definitely read more by this author.