Kevin Graham with A Celtic State of Mind – Tommy Burns: Poetry in Motion

The voice of Kevin Graham will already be well known to listeners of the award-winning A Celtic State of Mind podcast.

His poetry will also be familiar to readers of the Scottish Football Periodical, Nutmeg, and Irish Celtic fanzine, More Than 90 Minutes.

Back in September 2018 at the Glasgow Film Theatre, these two elements – the haunting tones and those emotional words – combined to astonishing effect when Kevin opened the evening for the premiere of Purple TV’s latest documentary on Tommy Burns.

Burns was one of Kevin’s childhood heroes back in the eighties, and the delivery of his poignant poem quickly went viral online.

The poem had grown men crying in Glasgow aisles and in homes all over the country and beyond, where tens-of-thousands have watched the touching video on social media.

Following the groundswell of positive reactions to his performance, Kevin commented:

I had been working for a few years on memorable events in Celtic’s history but had never attempted a piece that focused on one player. We interviewed Margot for the podcast and she told us that she planned to make the documentary.

“I started thinking about players that represented Celtic for me growing up. The first two that sprung to mind were Tommy and Paul McStay. Like most things I do, I wrote an idea, a few lines, then left it!

“It wasn’t until we played Kilmarnock towards the end of last season, when there was a tribute programme that I went back to it. The programme fired some memories and it came together pretty quickly.

“Margot then announced the filming and I sent her the written piece, then a recorded version with backing music by Kevin Miles… The rest, as they say, is history!”