Culture71Gaffer on tape: Sir Bobby Robson at St James’ Park during
his tenure as manager of Newcastle United (1999–2004)Bobby
dazzler
A documentary about
Bobby Robson reveals
a manager who knew how
to make others shine
Most biopics need light and shade. Ideally,
they track the life of an individual of
exceptional talent and Shakespearean
flaws, who achieved greatness with
monumental set-backs along the way,
and ended in triumph or ignominy. Bobby
Robson: More Than a Manager, a new
feature-length documentary directed
by Torquil Jones and Gabriel Clarke, is
no such story. Instead, it shows a man of
remarkably warm and robust character,
buffeted by the winds of fortune, or rather
the whims of high-level football. Which
comes with a poignancy of its own.
The film opens with Robson’s discovery
in 1995 that he had a malignant melanoma in
his sinuses, a diagnosis which for most people,
his doctor tells us, would mean that “two
to three years would be good”. Not Bobby
though: nine months later he took over
at Barcelona. If this is meant to set out the
stall for what kind of a man Robson was,
then the film goes all out to prove its thesis.
How, in the Eighties, his reign at Ipswich
Town got them named “best club in
Europe”; how, in 1990, he led England closer
Whatever you think of him, Father John
Misty, the alter-ego of 37-year-old Josh
Tillman, is always excellent value. His
absurd lyrics, stand-offish persona
and inability to buton his shirt have
won him flocks of fans. Yet, his fourth
LP, God’s Favourite Customer,
showcases a more vulnerable side
— a departure from the satirical jibes
of his previous album Pure Comedy.The tongue-in-cheek Misty is still
very much in evidence on single “Mr
Tillman”. It’s a funny track — lacing his
story of a less-than-ideal hotel stay
with winding chord progressions and
an absent-minded whistling interlude.
However, the likes of love-sick anthem
“Just Dumb Enough to Try” opens the
doors to his sincere side — that is, until
we reach a synthesised trumpet solo.God’s Favourite Customer is
as close to earnest as Tillman has
ventured since his 2012 debut, Fear
Fun. While one would hesitate to call
it a wholesome album, it’s nice to
know there’s a hopeless romantic
somewhere beneath all that facial hair.
—
God’s Favourite Customer is out on
1 June (Bella Union)The fog clears
On his emotional fourth album, musical flâneur Father John Misty
gives us glimpses of his real selfto World Cup glory than they’d come
since 1966, and how he breathed life into
an ailing Newcastle United in his final
managerial position in the early Noughties.
The lows, when they came, were
oten imposed on him — his unceremonious
ousting from Barcelona, the media
hounding preceding his exit from the
England job and, of course, the disease
that ultimately killed him. But the love that
emanates from those interviewed, fromRonaldo, Alan Shearer, Pep Guardiola
and a tearful Paul Gascoigne is undeniably
touching. Even José Mourinho, for many
years Robson’s right-hand man, temporarily
sets aside his sneer. Far from being a flaw,
Robson’s niceness, this film suggests, was
his singular strength.
—
Bobby Robson: More Than a Manager is out
in cinemas on 31 May, available digitally on
1 June and is out on DVD on 4 June