Scottish actor Simon Weir had opening night nerves on Thursday night as his lead role in the new film, Spanking in Paradise, received its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, however Weir reckons that those nerves were nothing compared to the pre-match nerves he wil havefor an historic football game.
Weir's film has already been selected for ‘the Best of the Fest’ line up on Sunday, and it is a deeply funny dark comedy set in the Capital. However, he is now putting acting to one side to try to bring about a return of international football to Glasgow's Cathkin Park after an absence of 126 years.
The Glasgow based performer, who has appeared in Scottish television shows Taggart, Monarch of the Glen, River City and Take the High Road, has previously combined his love of acting and football with roles in The Football Factory and Irvine Welsh's Acid House, however unearthing details of his great-grandfather’s football career provoked the interest in the famous old ground.
Weir is now looking to pull all these strands of his life together by staging a Scotland versus England Charity Match to highlight the forgotten stadium in the shadow of Hampden and to raise funds to stop its further decline.
Weir’s curiosity was stirred when he discovered that his great-grandfather, John Weir, played at the ground for Third Lanark from 1916 to 1919. Weir has reason to be proud of his fore-father as he explained, “John Weir made his debut on January 29, 1916 against Aberdeen and he scored a hat-trick in a 6-2 win which was pretty good going. He played a further 15 times that season and I found that amazing as across in France people his age were being slaughtered on an industrial scale. That started me thinking, why was he there and why did he not sign with Third Lanark until 1915.”
John Weir’s last game for the 'Hi Hi' was on March, 1 1919 against Ayr United and he started the next season at Airdrieonians before moving to Kings Park and then Armadale from 1921 to 1924. Weir then played at St Bernards, before finishing off his career with Bo'ness, helping them win promotion to the first division as Scottish Football League Second Division champions 1926–27.
Weir said, “Having traced his football career I am now trying to track down his army record to answer remaining questions.”
Weir is so passionate about tracing his great-grandfather’s steps and staging the game at the former home of Queen's Park and Third Lanark that he has started to improve the fabric of the ground in painstaking fashion.
Visitors to the park can now clearly see the work Weir has done, as he has cleaned inch by inch nearly 200 feet of the boundary wall that divides the pitch from the remaining terracing.
Weir said, “I am determined that this country's Victorian sporting heritage is brought alive again at Cathkin. Amateur teams still play there every weekend but it can be so much more, I can not think of any other ground that hosted an international football match in Victorian times that you can stand in and see a football pitch.”
“Hamilton Crescent in the West End of Glasgow staged the first international football match between Scotland and England in November 1872 but that was then and remains now a cricket stadium. Cathkin was a football ground and remains a football ground.”
Cathkin started life as the home of Queen's Park in 1893 and it was known as the Second Hampden until 1903 when the third and existing Hampden site was created.
Third Lanark, founder members of the Scottish Football League in 1890, moved in there until their demise in 1967 amid rumours that the ground was to be sold for housing.
Cathkin then passed into the control of Glasgow City Council when it was discovered within the title deeds that the site could only be used for recreational purposes.
Since then the Main Stand has been demolished as has the terracing roof, however much of the terracing in the amphitheatre that once housed 45,455 fans remains and Weir is determined that what is there is preserved.
Unfortunately a much loved pavilion is also long gone with Weir saying, "From the pictures I have seen, Cathkin had a quaint pavilion a bit like Fulham's Craven Cottage, however that has gone now.”
Weir, who has started an on-line campaign called ‘Friends of Cathkin Park’ to gather support, has just finished shooting a further Scottish based film, Night is Day, and he now spends his spare time meticulously removing debris that has gathered at the ground over the past 43 years.
Weir explained what he was trying to achieve, “Everything I have done is by hand as I do not want to use modern chemicals as they could ruin the walls further. About half the original terracing remains with crash barriers and that has been quite well landscaped with trees, however not much else has been done for years.”
Weir added, “I do not want to rebuild Cathkin, I want to make it something that Glasgow and Scotland is proud of. The council have been supportive of my efforts so far but we need to start raising the profile more to make Cathkin a place where football fans visit. The ground is only half a mile from Hampden which hosts the National Football Museum so there is potential to do a tie up there. I will keep doing what I can in the meantime but it would be great if others joined in.”
The actor needs a hand with his task and people are beginning to warm to his requests for support with Weir advising, "I found a broken sink on the terracing and I have removed it bit by bit over the past week. Local residents have seen my efforts and are supportive and the police are working with them to reduce people wandering in and vandalising it. I am looking to build on that beginning to make Cathkin Park a proud and focal part of the community.”
Weir believes that there should be involvement from Historical Scotland at Cathkin to help draw people from across the world to see the role the ground played in football's history.
The proposed match would raise funds to rebuild the walls that have had 43 years worth of moss picked off from and potentially clear one area of terracing back to its original glory.
Weir added, "I played in the Bobby Moore Cup two years ago at Wembley in a Scotland versus England pro-celebrity match and I am sure some of the guys involved in that would love to take part in this. I usually play as an outfield player, but I played in goal that day and I am the last Scottish goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet at the New Wembley as we won 2-0. Darren Jackson scored that day and Alan Shearer was due to take part but an injury kept him out.”
Weir is looking for the game to be played in the colours and styles of the last Scotland and England clash at Cathkin on March 15, 1884 saying, “The vision I have for our game here is to have a mixture of former players and celebrities and play in the colours of the international from 1884.”
Getting realistic strips will not be a problem with Weir saying, “My wife runs a boutique in Queen Margaret Drive in Glasgow and she stocks old style strips so I am sure we can get strips, but the big tackity boots may well be a challenge. I have an authentic Thirds strip already with a number eight on the back, which was my great-grandfathers number.”
With the 50th anniversary of professional football no longer being played at Cathkin only seven years away, Weir was asked what he would like to see at the ground by July 2017.
“Something permanent to show the role it played,” said Weir before adding, “There is building on the site where a permanent memorial could go, people like the club historian Bert Bell are keeping things alive at the moment but we need to do more. Senior football is unlikely to ever return but perhaps a Junior team could use it or if it has to remain in the amateur game lets make it the best amateur ground in Scotland.”
Despite his obvious love of football and the title of his film, Weir was quick to point out that his new acting venture is not about the great game and that the term Spanking in Paradise does not mean that movie fans, that are also Celtic supporters, will see their side scoring a barrowload of goals against hapless opponents.
Weir said, "No this film is rather different from football as it is set in a sauna in Edinburgh and charts the happenings there over a weekend. It is a seriously funny film, especially if you like dark humour which I suppose most Scottish football fans have to like."
"The premiere was a sell-out and a great event and it was good to see people's reaction to our efforts.”
You can follow Simon's progress at:
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