EPL Talk » TWI

Interview With Gary Taphouse, Football Commentator

The Gaffer — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:00:40 +0000

The voice of football commentator Gary Taphouse will be very familiar if you watch a lot of Premier League football matches on TV.

His unmistakable voice has graced plenty of EPL commentaries as well as World Cup qualifiers, Chelsea radio and much more.

If you’re interested in what a life is like for a football commentator, read on.

The Gaffer (TG): Growing up, who were the football commentators that you idolized?

Gary Taphouse (GT): Although I watched a lot of football on TV growing up, I only really started taking notice of commentators during the 1990 World Cup in Italy. I would listen carefully to their commentaries and think “what a fascinating job”. I loved listening to John Motson and Brian Moore at their peak, but for me Barry Davies was a cut above the rest – I hugely admired his honesty, vocabulary and genuine passion for the game, which he expressed in the most erudite way. I’m very lucky now that I work in sport myself to have met him on several occasions. One time I was covering a Chelsea Champions League game in Slovakia for radio. He was there for BBC TV and joined a small group of us for dinner the night before the game. As the wine flowed, I bombarded him with tedious questions about his time behind the microphone and even though I’m sure he wished he was sitting at the other end of the table, he answered all of them with great humility and seemed genuinely interested in my own fledgling career. The other commentator I have always admired greatly is Martin Tyler. Again, working for Sky, I’m lucky to have met Martin many times – in fact he lives about a mile away from me – and even though he is a broadcasting legend, he has frequently gone out of him way to help me.

TG: What are your memories from the first football match you ever attended?

GT: Like many youngsters, the thing that struck me most was the size of the stadium when we emerged from the back of the stand. And that was at Selhurst Park, which has a capacity of only 28,000!

TG: How did you get your start as a football commentator?

GT: I think it’s always easier to get ahead in a certain career if you know that’s what you want to do from a fairly early age. I always worked towards doing a journalism degree, which was in the wonderful seaside town of Bournemouth. In my final year I met a cameraman who worked for a local production company. They filmed all of AFC Bournemouth’s home games which were then sold individually and put together for the end of season video. The guy that commentated on the matches was also one of the club’s vice-presidents and wasn’t always available so I was asked if I fancied giving it a go. What an opportunity – I ended up doing an entire season on that little gantry at Dean Court, which has now been completely rebuilt of course. It was unpaid work but I couldn’t get enough and I was left in no doubt that this was what I wanted to do for a living. After leaving university I started work on my local newspaper when another good stroke of fortune came along. Crystal Palace were launching their own matchday radio service and as a local reporter I was invited to the launch. I quickly enquired about commentating opportunities, again unpaid, and ended up staying there several years. From there it was on to a London radio station for my first paid broadcast and eventually TV, although it’s still early days for me.

TG: What’s the biggest misconception about being a football commentator?

GT: There are two: the first is that it’s easy! From the moment you put the headphones on, the director is talking to you while you’re commentating. He or she will be talking about which close-ups or replays are coming up next. Equally you can request shots by talking to the director off air so you always have to be thinking ahead. Also the amount of preparation that goes into a commentary is extraordinary – probably 70 per cent of it you won’t even use but you need to have in-depth facts and stats about every single player in the squad. The second misconception is that it’s terribly glamorous. Many TV gantries are far from inviting places. Some are accessed by the most frightening ladders which would terrify vertigo sufferers; others are covered in pigeon droppings!

TG: How difficult is it remain objective when you’re commentating on your favorite team?

GT: Not hard at all to be honest. Once you pick up that microphone your only concern is the commentary.

TG: Which match has been the pinnacle of your career thus far?

GT: From a TV perspective, it would have to be Portsmouth 7-4 Reading, the highest-scoring game in Premier League history. It wasn’t a stand-out fixture before kick off, but you couldn’t ask for better entertainment. I’ve covered Chelsea and Arsenal, but only in low scoring games. In terms of radio, I was lucky enough to be at the Champions League final in Moscow between Chelsea and Manchester United – what an occasion.

TG: What are TWI Studio’s facilities like in west London?

GT: Superb. A lot better than the view of the Chiswick flyover when you look out of the window!

TG: What are the disadvantages of commentating from a studio compared to being at the actual football match?

GT: Obviously you have no control over the pictures so you are at the mercy of the host broadcaster. One thing you dread is a close-up of someone in the stand when you have no idea who it is! Sometimes you have an agonising wait to get the team line-ups. Occasionally the picture disappears! The good thing is that there are no crowds to fight through after the match.

TG: How many hours of research do you do before a match?

GT: Depends who’s playing. If it’s two teams I’m not very familiar with, I will spend many many hours watching footage and reading up obscure facts about each player. For a Premier League game it’s more a question of updating the facts and stats I already have – but still many hours. Relatively speaking, I’m fairly new and very junior, but you quickly realise that most commentators are pretty fastidious and like to have everything exactly right before a game.

TG: What haven’t you achieved in your career thus far that you’ve always wanted to do?

GT: I haven’t been around very long (my first TV commentary was in 2005) so where do I start? I’ve covered huge games for radio – now the challenge is to try and cover some of them for TV.

TG: What’s the most interesting fact about you that your listeners would be surprised to hear?

GT: I’ve spent ages thinking about this question and have come to the conclusion that beyond being a football commentator I’m not a very interesting person as I can’t think of a single thing!

Battle Of The Highlight Shows: Match Of The Day vs Premier League Review Show

The Gaffer — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:28:14 +0000

Which is the better Premier League highlight show? BBC’s Match Of The Day or TWI’s Premier League Review Show?

Millions of people around the world watch the highlight packages that feature the best bits of each Premier League match, so the shows should be quite similar, right? Wrong.

Read on to learn the major differences between the two:

Match Of The Day
BBC
Running Time: 1 hour 24 minutes (with no commercials)
Player and Manager Interviews: 20
Pros: Classic opening and closing tune, better on-screen graphics, in-depth analysis by co-hosts, more impartial to clubs outside the Big Four, no commercials, more interviews, goal of the month segment and Gary Lineker.
Cons: Highlights from Saturday matches only, Mark Lawrenson states the obvious far too often and no interviews with Sir Alex Ferguson.

Premier League Review Show
TWI
Running Time: 1 hour (with commercials)
Player and Manager Interviews: 16
Pros: Interviews with Sir Alex Ferguson and Martin Tyler’s commentary. Plus it has highlights of all the matches through Sunday.
Cons: Some highlights feature voiceovers instead of actual commentary, too focused on the Big Four and includes TV commercials.

The above statistics are from this past weekend where I watched both shows side-by-side. Of course, we were treated to everything from Liverpool against Man United to West Brom versus West Ham.

TWI’s Premier League Review Show opens with the song “My Saturday Self” composed by Peter Lawlor. The visuals paint a picture of a futuristic space-age world where some of the top Premier League players beam a football from player to player.

In last weekend’s episode, the program began outside Anfield as it showed footage of the Spirit Of Shankly supporters union protesting against American owners Hicks and Gillett. After a lot of build up and hype, the producers then began to show the highlights of Liverpool against Manchester United, undoubtedly the biggest match of the weekend.

A big difference between both programs is that the Barclays Premier League Review Show always plays the biggest matches at the beginning of the match and winds its way to the smaller teams near the end of the show. While Match Of The Day began with highlights of the Liverpool match, it tends to mix things up quite a bit and often begins with the match that has the most interesting story. For example, when Hull played Fulham on the opening day of the season, that game was the opening one showed on Match Of The Day instead of the typical clash involving a Big Four club that the Premier League Review Show would highlight.

To me, the Premier League Review Show is a glitzy package that reinforces the belief that the Big Four is what really matters in the Premiership.

Match Of The Day, an important fabric of the English game, began in 1964 and hasn’t changed much over the years. The biggest thing going for the program and the true differentiator between it and the Premier League Review Show is the analysis provided by the co-hosts.

In last week’s episode, it was Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson on the seat. Hansen’s analysis was eye-opening. For example, there was good insight by Hansen where he showed onscreen the workrate of Robbie Keane in the game who, despite not achieving much up front, was chasing the ball and pressuring Man United’s midfield quite effectively, forcing them to make mistakes.

Hansen continued by showing excellent replays of Albert Riera in action during the game with some beautiful touches and Hansen pointing out how much of an impact Riera made down the left wing by floating in dangerous crosses into the Man United penalty area.

Hansen then turned his focus to Gerrard and Giggs, and how both of them made some awful mistakes after coming on the pitch as subs. Gerrard letting Giggs through who almost scored. And Giggs letting Mascherano through to pass the ball to Kuyt and then to Babel for the winner.

The list goes on and on. While Lawrenson wasn’t as insightful as Hansen, Lawrenson later provided some good analysis of Chelsea. He discussed how Scolari lets the full backs be more adventurous coming forward than Chelsea with Mourinho, and how Ashley Cole and Bosengwa had wonderful games down the wings.

When it comes down to it, it all depends what you’re looking for in a Premier League highlight show. If you want analysis to show you things that you might not have seen, Match Of The Day is your ticket. If you want highlights of just the goals and most of the focus and priority on the Big Four, then the Premier League Review Show is your cup of tea.

What are your feelings about either show? Share your feedback by clicking the comments link below.

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Could ESPN Steal Andy Gray From Sky Sports?

The Gaffer — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:05:37 +0000

Modern day football coverage is such that the commentators don’t even need to be in the stadiums anymore. ESPN’s Euro 2008 commentators are all huddled in Bristol, Connecticut. Most TWI commentators, meanwhile, broadcast Premier League games out of their studios in west London.

With the world being a much smaller place today plus with the global popularity of the Premier League, this opens up opportunities for football commentators who are interested in working overseas. Gone is the need for commentators to work from the actual stadiums.

What this does is open up mouthwatering possibilities. Imagine if ESPN was to capture the rights to Premier League coverage when it next comes up for bid in the United States.

It’s entirely possible that the American broadcaster would attempt to sign Andy Gray as their lead co-commentator and pundit. When it comes down to it, most people have a price tag and ESPN could be willing to sign Gray to a long-term contract in the future if it makes business sense.

At the same time, if ESPN offered most of the top football commentators in England a chance to live and work in the United States and make more money, many of them would jump at the chance. All it would take is someone like Andy Gray to lead the way and many top broadcast professionals would follow.

Don’t believe it? The last time I spoke with a Premier League commentator at TWI, he expressed his interest in working in the United States and asked that I keep an eye out for any opportunities.

For the exodus to happen, though, ESPN’s TV ratings for football will need to grow and advertisers would need to express an interest in sponsoring the Premier League. ESPN used to have the TV rights to the Premier League in the States, but a lot has changed since this happened. Could the timing be right for ESPN to get behind the EPL?

Share your thoughts on the story by clicking the comments link below.