<\/p>\n
Date:<\/strong> March 2014.<\/p>\n Time:<\/strong> 10:30am<\/p>\n The Scene<\/strong>: An Oak lined office at Celtic Park. A sharp dressed man stands at the window and smiles as he looks out. He controls everything he sees. A phone rings. He waits. It rings again. He waits. He knows they will wait for him. They all do. It rings again. \u201cThird times the charm\u201d he utters as he makes his way back to his desk. He sits on his finest leather chair and presses the Speaker button.<\/p>\n Man:<\/b> Yes?<\/p>\n \u00a0Voice:<\/b> Hi Is that Peter Lawwell?<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell :<\/b> It is I. To whom do I grant the pleasure?<\/p>\n \u00a0Voice:<\/b> Peter, its Bob, well Sir Bob, but you can call me Bob<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Sir Bob?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Aye, Sir Bob Geldof. How you doing my man?<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Err, Im fine, thanks<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Great, listen Pedro, can I call you Pedro?<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell :<\/b> Well actu..<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Smashing. Listen Pedro, Im in Dublin, and I have Bono here with me, say hello Bono<\/p>\n \u00a0Bono <\/b>: Pez my man, respect<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell :<\/b> Err hello Bono, Ive always been a big fan<\/p>\n \u00a0Bono:<\/b> Really, is that because we played Celtic Park or d\u2019you just like the Joshua tree maybe?<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell :<\/b> Err no, it was more your tax avoidance schemes but the songs are okay I guess<\/p>\n \u00a0Bono :<\/b> Oh right, say no more, I\u2019ll put Bob back on, you might like what he has to say!<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Hey Peds, listen, we\u2019ve been having a wee discussion here in Dublins fair city. We have a wee project idea we\u2019d like to run by you.<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Okay, whats on your mind?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Well its 2014 and in 2 years its gonna be the 100 year anniversary of the Easter Uprising, as I’m sure you know<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Oh, err, yes, yes of course.<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Well. Its gonna be massive. And I mean MASSIVE. Can you imagine the amount of Irish looking to celebrate our fight for Liberation.\u00a0This is gonna be the biggest St Paddys style party in history. And its gonna be GLOBAL!<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell :<\/b> Oh right, you think?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob :<\/b> For sure,\u00a0 Im talking Band Aid massive. And thats where you come in<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Me?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Well Celtic, you, Celtic, its the same thing, right?<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Well, i suppose. You say this is where I come in?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Yeah. Bono and I, we reckon this is crying out for a Global gigfest, just like Band Aid.<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell :<\/b> Oh right, and?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob :<\/b> We thought where to stage it, Dublins blocked up, daft feckers have the rugby booked by accident. We can\u2019t go to Wembley for obvious reasons so\u00a0 we thought, right, we need somewhere that can handle a massive international event but it has to be somewhere which has big historical links with Ireland and is used to appealing to the Irish diaspora and knows a wee thing about marketing to them tae eh!<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Go on<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob :<\/b> And then Bono reminded me of Celtic Park and Jim Kerr banging on about the club being founded by Brother Walfrid, Wullie\u00a0Maley and all the players\u00a0and we remembered James Connolly was Scottish so it seems rather perfect<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Aha..and what exactly were you thinking?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> We\u2019re thinking a big massive concert, the biggest Irish celebration on the planet. All eyes on Celtic park as the cream of Irish music gives it big licks for the 100th<\/sup> Anniversary. So far we have a confirmation that Bono will bring U2 to headline, not just the biggest band on the planet but then we also have a thumbs up from Westlife to reform for a one off special appearance.\u00a0 Boyzone say that theyre game, The Corrs, Clannad, Cranberries, Divine Comedy are all in. The Script, Stiff Little Fingers, The Pogues, Jedward, Saw Doctors, Snow Patrol, Two Door Cinema Club and Thin Lizzy\u00a0 are up for it too.<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Sinead O\u2019Connor?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Only if we have to but she aye brings us her home baking and it aw ends up messy back stage, anyhows. We might even let The Waterboys and Simple Minds join in just for the Craic. Oh thats good, Craic Aid…make a note of that Bono..<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell :<\/b> Is Bono there?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bono:<\/b> Yeah Pezman?<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Do we have to have the Boomtown Rats?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bono:<\/b> Yeah, Just for ‘I don\u2019t like Mondays’ though, I\u2019ll put Bob back on<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> So we\u2019re talking a big concert here then, telly and that?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob :<\/b> Telly? Theres an understatement. Im talking Global coverage, Im talking relayed around the world via satellite, Im talking beam back into cinemas and stadiums, Im talking Global TV Rights, imagine the diaspora wanting to celebrate all around the Planet.\u00a0 This is bigger than any Champions League game.<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> And you want to hold it at Celtic Park, you\u2019re gonna have the gig here?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Yeah. We\u2019re thinking, pack in easily a\u00a0 100\u2019000 crowd, say. They\u2019ll pay say \u00a3100 bucks a ticket with gazillions watching more around the world! You\u2019ll be well compensated of course, we don\u2019t expect you to stage this without suitable recompense.\u00a0 Imagine the cut from tickets, then theres all the Premium Advertising Revenue, TV, Trackside, Stageside, Stadiumwide. Corporate hospitality will be through the roof too.<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell :<\/b> Keep talking<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> We cant even comprehend Sales of CDs, DVDs, Special documentaries, you\u2019d get a cut of course. Christ can you imagine the Irish Memorabilia flying out that Superstore of yours.\u00a0 We\u2019re into the multi million bracket here, all for a single days work, roll on Easter Sunday 2016 eh.<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Wow, that sounds brilliant.<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> I am just concerned a little, are you confident that you could handle such a thing?, We\u2019re talking logistics nightmare, infrastructure, the biggest VIPs and all that on a massive scale<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Shouldnt be a problem, we\u2019re hosting the Queen and the Commonwealth Games this year<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> The who, the what,\u00a0 Is this a big deal?<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Big?, not half..its only every country that was ruled by the British Empir…errr, doesn\u2019t matter. Yeah, yeah\u00a0 its big alright.<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Excellent. Okay. No worries there then. We can get the paper work drawn up.<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell:<\/b> Thats brilliant. Anything else you need to check before we get lawyers involved?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Let me see…err availability, what about if you have a game on? Wont that stop you hosting the event if there\u2019s a Celtic game scheduled and all your fans from Uk and Ireland\u00a0 are expecting to travel and attend a match?<\/p>\n \u00a0Lawwell :<\/b> Oh don\u2019t worry about that, we reschedule games all the time and we don\u2019t need to worry about consulting or the affect on the fans.<\/p>\n \u00a0Bob:<\/b> Oh right. Err nothing else for me then, Hold on a sec, anything else you need Bono?<\/p>\n \u00a0Bono:<\/b> Err, no, i think we\u2019re fine….just the usual stuff…mind now Pezzah,\u00a0 I like to climb the scaffold waving flags and all that. As long as theres a nice big massive Tricolor next to the Stage that I can wave about with everyone singing, thats us sorted<\/p>\n \u00a0<CLICK..dead phone tone><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Bono:<\/b> So that us then Peter,..err.. Hello..hello…I think he\u2019s gone Bob?<\/p>\n Bob:<\/b> Hello, Peter, are you there? Peter…you there? He\u2019s hung up! Feck it, Fenway Park here we come!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Date: March 2014. Time: 10:30am The Scene: An Oak lined office at Celtic Park. A sharp dressed man stands at the window and smiles…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/capture-BONO-IRISHFLAG.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-16a","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4226"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4240,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226\/revisions\/4240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}