THE TOMMY BURNS STORY

With the lockdown finally beginning to ease this month, many businesses re-opened but alas our industry still remains in a precarious position however we are delighted to be forging ahead with a new show!

Delighted to be producing THE TOMMY BURNS STORY in November, from the 9th to the 13th, which will be performed at Celtic Park, in the Kerrydale Suite. For all ticket information, please check out the new website: The Tommy Burns Story We also plan to tour this show in 2022.

Written by David Carswell and Directed by Felix O'Brien and with Tommy's son Michael Burns as our Executive Producer, the show stars Liam Harkins as Tommy with a fantastic supporting cast. The show is already selling out so please check out the website for further details. 

Restoration - Week 42

Carried on with levelling of the track again this week and clearing more moss from the top of the old surrounding pitch wall. As you can see we are back to square one with this area and it has quickly been overtaken by weeds and moss in the time we have been away with THE BENNY LYNCH

STORY tour! But was great to be back at the ground and to help clear up the rubbish from the terraces as well this week. Got another 5 hours of graft in and pleased with the results, as seen in the photos here!

In other news we are working on another show to take on the road next year, so check back for further updates.

Restoration - Week 41

Following our successful 6 week run of THE BENNY LYNCH STORY we have returned to the ground to restart the restoration work and to be greeted by the ravages of nature as the terraces have again become overgrown and slippy underfoot. Amazing to see how quickly the ground has once

again become covered in weeds and rubbish in the 3 months we have been away! The pitch looks id decent condition again despite more vandalism of late and the sterling work by the Council & JJFA in letting the surface recover over the close season. Huge thanks to Rab at No9 Services for his superb

work on removing the weeds on the West Terracing this month, which should make a huge difference in the weeks to come. We always knew the summer would be fighting a losing battle with the weeds and so will buckle down again this autumn to get the terracing cleared again and try to stay on top

of this for 2020. The maintenance is once again the difficult part of restoring an old football ground but am pleased with the condition of the concrete beneath from the work we did last season. The running track has again disappeared and have begun levelling this in the East end of the ground

again as well as training there every morning! Still far from perfect but the track is improving and one day will be back to full usage. Great to be back at the work in beautiful sunshine this month and the old ground has lost none of it's magic...

The Benny Lynch Story

Taking a break from the restoration work at Cathkin to launch our first theatre production, THE BENNY LYNCH STORY on a nationwide tour over the next 6 weeks. The brilliant cast of Stephen Purdon, Holly Jack, Billy MacBain, Paul Kelvin, Clare Gray & Cammy Fulton have been hard at work in the rehearsal room getting the show ready, under the brilliant direction of Steven Duffy.

Having started working on this idea in 2012, it is a real thrill to finally see our own version of Benny's life brought to the stage with this wonderful & talented ensemble cast and all of the hard work has paid off as we launched into our tour with the premiere in the beautiful Ayr Gaeity Theatre on Saturday. With the script by Davie Carswell, Stage Manager Kat Siebert and our ASM Andy, we had

the most amazing opening night, culminating in a full house and a much-deserved standing ovation!! A dream start to this tour and please check out our website for venue & ticket details for the remaining 8 venues here thebennylynchstory.co.uk

We are hoping to raise more funds through future tours to help restore Cathkin Park and support the Statue For Benny Appeal and were honoured to have members of the group with us at Ayr, including Steph Bradley who brought along Benny's own watch! Huge thanks to the Statue Group for these

photos and for their help & support in the writing and research process last year. We are back in Ayrshire this week again with another show at Kilmarnock Palace Theatre and hope to see you there! We have been inundated with stories, memories, tales & some amazing photographs of The Little King Of The Gorbals throughout the last 3 weeks and it is fitting that our company is named after the football ground in which he fought successfully on 5 occasions.

Also this month we were delighted to welcome former Celtic stars Bobby Petta and Rudi Vata along with James English and Tommy Sheridan & Paul John Dykes to star in a photo shoot to promote the ACSOM podcast's sponsorship of the Celtic Greats shirts this season. Thanks to Stephen Cameron

and Into Creative for a memorable day and for Jim & Kenny at the Jimmy Johnstone Academy for their hospitality once again in the Pavilion. We will be returning to the ground later next month to continue the terracing work and will post more updates on this tour and upcoming productions in the weeks and months ahead.

Restoration - Week 40

Lovely weather again this week and cracked on with the stone cleaning on the East terracing, managing to clean & refill another two 1/3 terrace steps with red blaes. Removed another ten buckets of spoil from this terrace this week and almost finished this 1/3rd section of the ground.

The slow work this week has been chopping out and digging up the deep roots left by the removed small trees between the missing concrete, but pleased to say we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel! Obviously we are only a year in to the work and have a mountain to climb but the work is

now quite obviously improving the old ground. We also worked hard on reducing and flattening out the running track and cleared around another 20 feet of it and brought it back down 2 inches to it's original level. This will be rolled and packed hard before we can resurface it lightly but it is much

much improved already this year. Also began trimming the edges of the playing surface to define it properly and cut away the weeds and line out a natural drainage level below the grass for rainwater to escape into which should really help the pitch recover after bad weather. This has pooled here in

recent years and become overgrown and exacerbated the waterlogging of this part of the pitch in recent years, turning it into a bog and the aim is to dry out the pitch as much as we can naturally by restoring the original levels of both the playing surface and the surrounding track.

As you can see above this is looking much better and becoming a much safer surface for runners as we go along. Then it was back to the stone cleaning as the weather dried up and restored another couple of terrace steps this week. Lots of hours put in this month already but getting results now!

Restoration - Week 39

Squeezed in another few hours this week and got another 1/3 section of the East Terracing cleaned up and refilled with red blaes and almost finished this first part of the old knackered terrace! Only 3 more steps to clear before we move up the terrrace and start the restoration of the existing stonework.

Grafted hard on the running track as well and delighted to report we have now cleared a complete 50 foot section of the 400ft running track, which has been levelled and packed over the last 3 months.

And also cleared another 12ft of pitch wall now in the East end of the ground, removed more rubbish and made a start on another section. Aiming to complete this whole section by the end of the summer!

New Trailer Released!

Delighted to share the full trailer for our upcoming tour of THE BENNY LYNCH STORY..! Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6PDp8mvAeg and check out the website for all ticket details here: thebennylynchstory.co.uk