Rangers' iconic John Greig statue: The emotional personal story behind its creation

Renowned sculptor Andy Scott was one of many youngsters praying for the safe return of a loved one from the New Year Old Firm clash at Ibrox.

His father had attended the match which added extra significance and poignance when he was awarded the commission to erect a memorial to commemorate those lost on the 30th anniversary of the tragedy.

He would create a masterpiece in the form of the John Greig statue which stands proudly outside the Main Stand.

Scott, has gone on to create iconic sculptures such as The Kelpies and the three Manchester City statues of Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Sergio Aguero, but he told the Rangers Review that creating a piece marking the darkest day in the club’s history had a personal edge.

He said: “It was a very emotional piece to be involved in as my own father was at that game. He survived I’m pleased to say.

“As a wee boy, I just remember him coming home very late. I remember my mother being worried sick. I would’ve only been six or seven years old so it was all a bit foggy in my memory. Funnily enough, it was a very foggy night, I remember some details about it but when he came home very late, my mother had been losing the plot worrying about him.

“There were no mobile phones or anything back in those days so it was all coming through on the radio. My father had been there and had been assisting as best he could at the scene. It was etched in my memory as it is for pretty much everybody in Glasgow and Scotland. Unfortunately, it sticks with everybody.

“My own personal brush with it made it all the more emotional. Another special memory was on the day of the unveiling of the sculpture when my dad came along.

“He never let me know he was going to turn up because I’m sure I could’ve had a word and he could’ve joined us all in The Blue Room and enjoyed the day but he just stood there in the crowd with everybody else and he didn’t tell me until afterwards that he’d been there. That was very special for me that he’d been there to enjoy the day and see the sculpture being unveiled and I guess, in some way, put to rest some of the memories that he also was carrying from that time.

“All in all, it was a very emotional piece to be involved in. It’s a difficult thing to explain to people when you’re tasked with capturing other people’s emotions and losses with your hands. To be able to convey that somehow in what you make, it’s a profound honour and very difficult for me to verbalise and explain. I just hope I did the club proud and I hope I did the bereaved families proud because it was a very challenging project.”

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Scott grew up only a stone's throw away from Ibrox and explained there was only ever one team that would interest him.

He recalled: “I went to school at Bellahouston Academy just along the road from Ibrox. I was ok at school and I had my eye on maybe doing architecture but luckily for the world of architecture, I couldn’t count!

“Getting such drastic marks in Maths and Physics left me with fewer options. I ended up applying for Art School at Glasgow School of Art and was accepted and really that was me set on my course.

“I didn’t always know I wanted to do sculpture. I thought I’d be a painter or work in graphics but as soon as I tried working three-dimensionally, sculpture really drew me in and that was it for me.

“There were a few twists and turns along the way as there is with any creative career but here we are all these years later, it’s worked out ok.”

“Football’s always been in my life and it’s always been part of my background. Being in Scotland and being in Glasgow more importantly, it’s very difficult to avoid. I’m going to confess I wasn’t a diehard, I never had a season ticket at Ibrox but going to school so close to the stadium, it was always part of my background.

“Going to Art School was all a bit bohemian and football kind of disappeared but I always kept an eye on the scores and then latterly it’s been interesting me more.

“Of course, way back, winning that commission to do the statue of Mr Greig at the stadium was really a fantastic thing to take part in. I was incredibly honoured and it was just a wonderful experience.

“I remember Senga Murray got in touch to say that there was talk about a memorial for the Ibrox Disaster at the stadium and would I be interested?

“Senga was maybe a year or two above me at Glasgow School of Art, she’s such a lovely person and fantastic artist. We had a couple of chats and I said I would put some ideas together.

“Around about that time John Greig had just been recognised as the ‘Greatest Ever Ranger’ and it struck me that one of the best ideas for a memorial statue for the disaster would be to personify the fans and the event in one figure.

“Rangers themselves had an idea of a close-up of a crowd scene. There were all sorts of ideas floating about but I’m pleased to say they warmed to my idea of doing a statue of Mr Greig as an encapsulation of the whole club.

“Rangers were a wee bit slow in giving us the green light shall we say so we didn’t have as much time as we would’ve liked that’s for sure. But we worked very hard and when I say we I really should point out that I was helped in the job by a fantastic artist, a female sculptor called Alison Bell who is really fantastically gifted.

“I managed to call Alison in to help me on that job because by the time Rangers had finally given us the go-ahead and with the deadline that we had with the anniversary of the tragedy at the stadium, it had left me so tight for time that it would’ve been impossible to achieve it on my own so I had to call in Alison.

“She was fantastic and the two of us worked very hard on it and we pulled it off. It worked very well in the end but I could’ve done with a wee bit more time but necessity is the mother of invention as they say!”

The statue was carved in Bronze for many reasons, not least to fit in with the Ibrox surroundings.

Scott explained: “I was more drawn to doing a Bronze piece than steel for that particular sculpture. Bronze has a certain gravitas that suited the subject matter and it also has very great longevity, it’ll last a long, long time,” he said.

“They’re still finding Bronzes at the bottom of the Mediterranean Ocean so it stands the test of time as long as you look after it.

“I do many clay sculptures which are then cast into Bronze but I’m much better known for doing the steelwork because it’s more unusual and you could say more contemporary.

“It has more modernity to it but in some instances such as the Ibrox Disaster Memorial, Bronze really spoke out to me as the best material for the job and I’m pleased to say that Rangers agreed.

“I’ll counter that by saying that just recently I did three statues for Manchester City down at the Etihad but they very definitely wanted the steel approach because it was very modern and it suited the architecture of the Etihad stadium whereas the Bronze of Mr Greig really suited the Edmiston Drive façade of the famous Archibald Leitch stand.

“It all worked in Bronze much better than what it would’ve done in steel so we definitely made the right decision.

“We also had to consider, what proved to be quite a challenge, was getting the right type of facing brick because the original stand is a listed building so we had to get the right type of brick that would match the facing brick of the stadium which they didn’t make anymore.

“The club had to get them specially made so it was all very carefully considered and thought through. It all makes for quite a fitting part of the stadium the way it blends in against the building, it really looks pretty special I think.”

But just what did the greatest player ever to don the light blue jersey think of being immortalised to mark such an event?

Scott says it was a humbling experience and one the Greig family were bowled over by.

He recalled: “I know from when I met him myself and also from what I heard from the club, he’s very modest and he’s a very unassuming man,” he explained.

“I can only imagine that it must’ve been a very peculiar experience for him, especially, connecting to those very tragic events which must still bear heavily on his mind.

Andy Scott and John Greig in front of his statue

“It must’ve been a very peculiar experience of someone making a statue of you while you’re still alive and kicking so I understood completely he was hesitant but I think when he came to the studio and he understood why I had chosen that and why the club had decided it was the right thing to do, I think he warmed to it.

“I remember it well when he came into the studio. His wife was quite emotional when she saw him standing there in clay in my studio as a young man but much taller. It’s about one and a half times life size so it was quite an imposing thing.

“I’m eternally grateful that Mr Greig allowed us to capture him the way he was back in the day as a remembrance of that event.

“I thought it was much more appropriate and much more poignant to have him posed the way he is. What I did was I kind of imagined how Mr Greig would be standing in a moment’s silence as you often see at matches when there’s some tragedy or they’ve lost a great player. I quite deliberately posed him as if at a moment’s silence.

“I was very conscious that Mr Greig had to attend many of the funerals or as many as he could have. You or I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like for him and the other players representing the club who had to do that.

“So I chose to do that to give some degree of pathos and I guess emotional impact for the sculpture. Sometimes you see memorial statues that are a bit clawing and it’s a little bit over-sentimental. I wanted this to be respectful and also reflect the sombre nature of things and the attitude of the club.

“If you look at the statue you can see that he’s wearing an armband on his sleeve and he’s also posed, his head is downwards which is almost looking at the spectators below but also turned ever so slightly round to where the incident happened at the stadium.

“I didn’t want to make it too clawing, too sentimental or too over-the-top but with just enough emotion that captured people’s hearts and be very respectful to the people who were lost and, of course, their families that they left behind.

“It was a tremendous honour for me to have John Greig himself come to my studio in Maryhill and see the sculpture when we had it near completion. That was a real high point, it was wonderful.

“It holds a very special place in my heart, it was a really lovely project.”