Another One For The Chop
October 9, 2007 | Music | Tags: Millwall | 3 Comments »
I was planning to post this and a sequel to it to coincide with some future predictions, but news of Willie Donachie getting his cards have changed that.
I’ve been pondering for a while about what to do about certain songs I’ve found, certain teams and things associated with them. What I want to do with F & M is to post items which give a positive view of football, about the teams and their fans. My policy is to try and find any footie-musical items that sing about the love of a certain team and about the game itself. I am not and I will not post anything that ones set have fans have composed about another set or an opposing side. I’ve found already quite a few done by Man USA fans, some by Rangers fans which are not good natured ribbing but border on hateful.
As mentioned there are teams which when you hear or read their name you immediately know of their reputation. This particular team which gives me a pisspoor excuse to post today’s track is Millwall.
See. You’ve already thought it.
When you hear about them it is nearly always about their fans and about violence.
Side story: In the mid-90's I was in this hotel and one of the guests was somebody sent there by his company for some training thing/seminar or something. He wasn't a suited and booted bloke, but somebody who worked elsewhere in that company, again I don't know where, but obviously not in the offices. What made this obvious was the skinheaded haircut, the tattoo's and the cut-off denim jacket he always wore with Millwall FC patches all over it.
This bloke... I say bloke but he was only a youngish kid really, wasn't the stereotypical footie hooligan. In fact when we talked to him he was the friendliest, nicest guy you could meet. But he wasn't exactly the brightest.
When the hotel bar closed our boy wanted to keep drinking and the only place still open at that time in the early hours of the morning was a dodgy bar not far away. Even though it was obvious he'd get into a bit of bother with the locals he still wanted to go and went he did.
Didn't stay there very long obviously. He sat there quietly and had a few drinks but a few in the bar didn't care for his presence and after slapping him around (nothing serious) they chucked him out. The kid came back to the hotel and told us this story and yes... he was puzzled as to why they objected to his being there. He genuinely didn't or couldn't understand.
So it doesn’t matter if you are a pacifist. If you decide to dress to look like a skinhead to fit in with your culture or surroundings you have to accept the consequences.
I’ve wandered off from my main point… Oh yes, the sort of songs posted here.
I found a band who have recorded a couple of footie-related songs, but this band’s type of music is associated with Oi!
Because there is a possibility that this band is neo-nazi, but so far I haven’t found any solid evidence of such, I’ve been asking myself if I should post their song or not. I need a 2nd opinion on this, so if anyone wants to volunteer and read about what I’ve found then please contact me.
Finally we are back to the beginning subject and the team associated with the song.
I am posting this one because despite their public image of them, this song isn’t about any form of hatred against anybody. It sings about the pride in their team and about being a Londoner.
Despite all this though… when I went searching for more info about the track I found via Google’s new book search excerpts from two books : One is The Changing Face of Football: Racism, Multiculturalism and Identity in the English Game and the other is: No One Likes Us, We Don’t Care: The Myth and Reality of Millwall Fandom. Both which quote the lyrics to this song to demonstrate (as far as I can tell) that Millwall are not as biased as you think.
That saying though there always going to be that hooligan element associated with the club. Unfortunately it will never go away.
» Roy Green – Let ‘Em Come
A sequel to this will be posted next week
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Wow, serious stuff here Webbie.
Anyway, where’s the feature on Aberdeen’s 1983 European Song? It was written for their subsequent 1983 ECWC final victory. To celebrate them qualifying for the group stages of the UEFA cup, and to lighten the mood of the article, I should like to share some of the lyrics with you:
“We’ve taken our team into Europe.
Yes we have, oh oh oh yes we ha-ave.
All the way, every night and day
Singing our European Song.”
Classic.
If you can find an mp3 of it Dave I’ll post it here.
good post, great blog. Have been looking for that Rory Green mp3 for a while, always brings a smile to my face hearing it at the den.