Ally Begg sometimes laughs at the unorthodox path his life has taken.
He wanted to be a professional footballer when he was growing up in the north-east of Scotland in the 1980s and, at that stage, had no idea he would become a chart-topping boy band member in the following decade.
Even now, he seems astonished when we looked back at the pictures of him and his Bad Boy Inc colleagues on Top of the Pops, serving up three-minute bursts of teenybop plastic and carefully-choreographed dance moves which, briefly, wowed their fans.
It’s a world removed from how he got his kicks as a youngster when he won the Aberdeen International Football Festival with Stoneywood Thistle in 1987.
But, more than 35 years on, the successful author and sports producer can reflect honestly on his peripatetic journey on and off the pitch and the recording studio.
‘I knew that I wasn’t good enough’
He said: “I started to realise my dream when I was invited to Pittodrie to train with the crop of the youngsters from the region on a Tuesday and Thursday night.
“But, despite my best efforts, I knew I was not good enough and suffered what was one of the biggest disappointments of my life when I was told I would not make the grade.
“I then spent a couple of years drifting in the local leisure industry in Aberdeen, not knowing what I really wanted to do, until an opportunity to move to London presented itself when modelling agency Lorraine Ashton spotted me and took me on their books.
“I spent six months with them before renowned agency Models 1 came calling and I made the move across town. It was not long after that my photograph was presented to a record producer who had ambitions of launching a new boy band.
“After going through a short audition process, I received a call telling me that I had been successful and would I like to become a member of a band called Bad Boys Inc?
“For the next three years, we enjoyed six top-30 hits, a top-10 selling album and won numerous awards on a global scale. The experience was a one-off, but left many unanswered questions after we went our separate ways in the spring of 1995.”
Ally has never been a person disposed to let the grass grow under his feet, so he didn’t hang around after his transient flirtation with fame. The young footy fan had developed into a man with a passion for broadcasting and it was time to bring that to fruition.
Interviewing The Boss was a dream
He told me: “I have been very lucky to have forged a relatively successful sports broadcasting career after I was given an opportunity by Manchester United’s own in-house TV station MUTV in 1999.
“Interviewing the likes of David Beckham and Roy Keane was great fun, but nothing beat interviewing ‘the boss’. I was fortunate to have built a relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson, mainly thanks to my late grandpa, and he always gave me great advice and looked out for me. I pushed him to talk about the Dons before the cameras started rolling and he always obliged – I loved it.
“In 2007, I accepted a presenting role with ESPN Star Sports and moved to Singapore. That was an incredible experience and I travelled all over south east Asia, but the highlight of my time there was meeting my wife Miriam and having our first child together, Lennox, who was born in 2013.
“That year, I was offered a senior producer’s role and moved to Qatar where, for the next seven years, I worked across their vast football productions. I produced a Champions League Final, Europa League Finals, the 2019 Asian Cup, World Cups and European Championships. My second son, Harvey, was born in Doha in 2015, so we will always have a connection to Qatar.”
Memorable atmosphere at match with Bayern
Ally grew up during Aberdeen FC’s heyday in the 1980s and rarely missed a match as the Pittodrie club reached unpredecented heights and jousted with giants.
There are two games that will always stick in his memory, the tussle with Bayern Munich at Pittodrie and the European final against Real Madrid in Gothenburg in 1983.
These were nights when normally smart, respectable people were transformed into wild-eyed, hoarse-voiced supporters. Heady occasions when history was made.
He recalled: “For the Bayern game, I have never witnessed or felt an atmosphere at Pittodrie like it and I have so much to thank my late parents for.
“I’m not sure I will witness anything like that again in my lifetime but I hope I’m wrong!
The final was the icing on the cake
“Gothenburg was incredible and it was an amazing 24 hours for all of us. I will never forget the rain, the cold and feeling completely damp, but thrilled to bits.
“When John Hewitt scored the winner, it was a moment like no other and the whole stadium went completely nuts. To this day, I still get goosebumps every single time I watch that goal, it’s timeless as far as I’m concerned.
“I still sometimes have to pinch myself that I was actually there.”
A new channel has been launched
Ally has just launched a new online football channel with his friend, former Dunfermline captain, Scott Thomson, and he is striving to avoid the saturation Old Firm fixation which pervades much of the sporting media in Scotland.
He told me: “For a while, I have believed football coverage could be so much better, that fans of our game deserve better from our national broadcasters. The trend has always been to focus on Celtic and Rangers – which I understand – but that does not mean the rest have to be ignored or made to feel like they are an afterthought.
“I had always wondered if there was some sort of platform that could promote the game as a whole and find the stories that could be of interest. We have 42 League clubs in Scotland with so many great personalities and stories that need to be told.
“I approached my old mate Scott who I knew ran a successful production company and pitched the idea to him – he had also been thinking about the same thing, so we decided to go into business together and have launched The Scottish Football Channel online.
There are so many good stories
“We launched a YouTube page where free content can be viewed, but for the business to work, we needed to put our premium content behind a paywall.
“For the first bank of content, we spent a brilliant day with Dunfermline Athletic FC where they basically gave us the run of the place to film whatever we needed.
“We spent fascinating mornings with David Robertson, Paul Hartley and East Fife FC manager Greig MacDonald where they all told us of the challenges they face managing a part-time football club as well as having some fun in the North Sea.”
It hasn’t been a conventional route to prominence and Ally’s first book had the title Begg to Differ. But he’s an engaging personality with a love for his sport and a strong desire to create new initiatives and escape the status quo.
Just don’t ask him to listen to the Bad Boys Inc back catalogue!
The new football channel can be accessed at the Youtube page: www.youtube.com/@official_s.f.c
FIVE QUESTIONS FOR ALLY BEGG
1)What book are you reading? “Kevin Stirling’s new book, Aberdeen’s Greatest Games. It’s a brilliant read.
2)Who’s your hero/heroine? “Willie Miller! He always has been and always will be. I always try and be really cool whenever I am in his company and not come across as a complete fan boy but it’s difficult. And Annie Lennox, I’ve always been a big fan of the Eurythmics and have always looked up to her as a person.”
3)Do you speak any foreign languages? “I speak German, I am far from fluent but I can certainly get by.”
4)What’s your favourite music or band? “U2 and the Arctic Monkeys.”
5)What are your most treasured possessions? “My wife Miriam and my children Lennox and Harvey.”
