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Former Arsenal striker Ian Wright brings flowers |
Tears, cheers and plenty of phwoooarrring
Farewell to ‘The Bear’ – thousands of Arsenal fans join friends, family and celebrities to pay tribute to Dainton Connell
SOME of the faces in the churchyard bore scars from battles better left forgotten, ridges and dents across the forehead and cheekbones from Middlesbrough away, a night at Everton, or a clash with rivals from West Ham.
Some were better preserved, the unmistakable faces of former Arsenal players like striker Ian Wright and celebrities from the worlds of television and music including Little Britain comics Matt Lucas and David Walliams and Chris Lowe from the Pet Shop Boys.
Some had bought new suits for the occasion. Some thought it more appropriate to wear Arsenal red and white.
Whatever you thought of Dainton Connell, the leader of the Arsenal hooligan mob by day, bodyguard to the stars by night, his funeral service on Friday morning was a rare sight.
More than 2,000 took to the streets, marching from a shrine outside Arsenal’s new Emirates stadium to Mary Magdalene Church, stopping traffic in Holloway Road. Inside the chapel, every seat was taken with at least 1,000 listing to the prayers and tributes on speakers outside.
Mr Connell, 46, better known across north London as “The Bear”, or “Denton”, died two weeks ago in a car crash in Moscow.
There were cheers and tears, and plenty of phwooooarrrrrring (the booming noise that friends said Mr Connell used to make on the terraces).
At one moment, when Reverend Brooke Lunn said Mr Connell would have been delighted that Arsenal were currently riding high in the Premiership, there was terrace-style chanting in the church. “Denton always remained a youngster at heart, almost a Peter Pan figure,” said Revd Lunn. “The wonderful support of all of you present here today brings a very special meaning to the saying follow the bear.”
Pet Shop Boys keyboardist Chris Lowe, a close friend, recited a prayer. Other familiar faces in the chapel included boxer Frank Bruno, former Arsenal defender Lee Dixon and journalist Janet Street-Porter.
Mr Connell’s daughter Tiffany chose to read out an internet tribute which said national newspapers had ignored her father’s death because they were consumed by the celebrity of professional footballers. The Tribune and its sister paper the Camden New Journal were the only newspapers in the country to run an obituary.
On the terraces, Mr Connell, a father of two and grandfather of one, had a fearsome reputation for bruising scrapes with rival fans during the height of football hooliganism in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
But his double life saw him well-known in celebrity circles away from the terraces owing to his security work for the Pet Shop Boys and Take That.
Friend Dan Miller told the congregation that Mr Connell was “the first black skinhead”.
He said: “He got bigger but he mellowed and a nicer person you couldn’t hope to meet. He was cuddly, warm and humble – always skint. Everywhere he went, christenings, weddings, funerals, West Ham away, D made good days great days with his hilarious antics. He never took sides among his own. Now he’s gone, it’s the end of era. Mr Irreplaceable left to float on white clouds. What are we to do? Nothing will ever be the same. He would have wanted us to laugh, sing, stick together. Let us never forget the great times we had.”
In their respective newspaper columns, former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan and Ms Street-Porter, who lives in Islington, paid tribute.
Mr Morgan said: “Dainton was an amusing, smart and ferociously loyal man whose devotion to his beloved Gooners made my own seem lily-livered by comparison.”
Ms Street-Porter said in the Independent on Sunday: “My friend Dainton Connell was probably the most famous Arsenal fan ever. When the BNP tried to infiltrate football clubs decades ago, Dainton was one of those who stopped them from getting a foothold at Arsenal.”
Relatives and friends had approached Arsenal to hold the wake at the new stadium but the club said it could not be accommodated. Instead, it was held at Alexandra Palace, while a private family service was held at Islington Crematorium.
Click here for last week's article, photos and audio clips from the funeral. |
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