Football and Music

Arsenal

I have a folder with lots of Arsenal songs. Lots and lots of Arsenal songs. There was (I don’t know if they still exist) a group called the Arsenal Away Boyz who took well known chart songs and then re-worded them to fit certain players. For example – Viera – to the tune of Volare, or the one they did for Fabegas using the song ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.’
I will eventually post a “best of” with a selection of these.

But we go faaaar back to 1934 when apparently the club had full band. At least according to the Woolworth’s Museum website (Warning: music autoplays). It was played for Woolworth’s by the Band of the Arsenal Football Club and recorded by Crystalate in Tonbridge, Kent in 1934.

It’s called Blaze Away. The tune is by Holzmann.

Bournemouth

Let’s not forget that the Bournemouth went into administration just nine years ago. It was in that same season (2008-2009) when Eddie Howe became at the time the youngest (at 31) manager in the league.

It was with Eddie at the helm that they went from the very bottom of the leagues to the toppermost. In that time though he left for Burnley for a year but then came back and continued their climb with their eventual promotion in the 2015-2016 season. And I’m very glad to see them surving and thriving.

Found a tune for the team done by Julian Barry an actual fan who is musician. This was released in March of 2015 and he uploaded a lyric video to his YouTube page:

Julian has said he doesn’t care how you download the song, he just wants Bournemouth fans to hear. But I want you to go and buy it.

Brighton

Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim might be the most famous Brighton & Hove Albion fan you’ve heard of, but there was another Norman before him that for me (Clive) is the most honoured. He was Sir Norman Wisdom, the greatest showman of all time.

Norman was a Director at the club from 1964-1970 and he used to go on the pitch at the Goldstone Ground to entertain the crowd before some matches. He even rewrote the lyrics to Brighton’s most well known tune.
Here for you though is the 1983 FA Cup team singing:

Burnley

Whilst all the pundits and journalists were looking elsewhere for their relegation story last season, Burnley just settled down and got on with ensuring that they would not be a part of that. As we’ve also seen it is possible to stay in the Premier League when you have a small budget.

The song I want to feature is one I’ve mentioned before on F&M. This song was written by 9 year old Jasmine Clarkson and her Guitar teacher Andrew Robert Gilmour. Jasmine wanted to write the song in memory of her late Grandfather, who was a life long Burnley fan.

Chelsea

Hmmm… What can we say about the little known Chelsea FC ? That obscure club which is in Fulham actually. I don’t know why The Cottagers put up with that.

Anyway to some music and this is one which is used by a couple of other teams as their running out music, but in the Premier League it is only Chelsea that use the great Harry J Allstars tune.

Crystal Palace

Who is going in to Palace then ? Hang on, Gareth Southgate played for them. They should get him. No he’s not entertaining in the least, but at least it gets him far away from the bloody England team.

The 1990 FA Cup team had to sit on a TV sofa and mime their cup final song. (One of those in attendance actually was Southgate). The B-side of that single was an originally written tune.

Everton

The music I’ve chosen is from that seemingly golden year for football songs. 1972. I have mentioned before about there being so many tunes by football teams released in that year. And one of these days I will look further into that.

But for now this is from the 1972 and after looking at the seasons ’70-72 & ’72-73 I cannot find any particular reason for them to record this single. Side note: Song composed by 10cc’s Graham Gouldman.

Huddersfield

I am very pleased to see Huddersfield in the Premier League. They have a good ground, a good boss, a decent chairman and some great supporters.

This song is from their successful 1982-1983 promotion season and yes, it is a terrible song. But now they are at the toppermost division hopefully it will inspire more of the Terriers supporters to compose some decent tunes.

Leicester

This song was done in 2013 and still the best. What I like that it was done by somebody who lives there and knows there. As you will see in the video he also made. This from the Leicester Mercury:

“A music video posted on You Tube by the singer of an unsigned ‘90s indie band from Leicester has become a mini internet sensation.In the few days since it was uploaded to the internet, music fans and sons and daughters of the city have been logging on in their thousands to watch a video featuring the song “Well Leicester”, by Mike Willis.

Liverpool

There is a big choice of tunes when it comes to Liverpool. I have selected this single released in 1986. I think this was for the FA Cup (They won the league and cup double in the 1985-86 season) but I can’t decide on giving you the A side or B side, so you can have both.
Side note: Produced by Tony Hiller, the bloke behind Brotherhood Of Man.

Man City

Continuing the notable songwriter/musician and/or producer theme – Here is a very funky B-side from that year again, 1972. The A-side is like many of the football songs released that year, with the team singing and a full brass band behind them. But the on the other side the writers (Mr G. Gouldman [see also Everton] along with K. Godley and L. Creme) were allowed to do what they liked.

Man United

I am really not sure what to make of this one…
It is a fan made effort released in 1979 and apart from that, there is no information about the record. The A-side is very ’70’s English funk singing about the FA Cup that year. And the B-side is… the B side is.. I think you’d better go over to 45Football and have a listen for yourself. If you know more about this release, please get in touch.

Newcastle

There’s always an asterisk because of their current owner. He’s always up for selling the club, there are always rumours that somebody is going to buy them. I’ve just googled and there are news items that this might happen, again. I will believe it when I see it.

In relation to that, this is from 1989 and released when NUFC were threatened with relegation that season (they eventually went down). It is a comedy record from Alan Robson & the Flashing Blades who want to sack the board. No it wasn’t John Hall and his cronies. The farcical period was still in their future.

Southampton

It seems that the Saints miss their Argentinian boss Mauricio Pochettino that they had a few years ago because they’ve just appointed the Argentinian born Mauricio Pellegrino. The last couple of seasons have been a manager merry-go-round because they had the aforementioned Pochettino for one season, then Koeman for two seasons and then Puel for one term.

You might have forgot but Southampton played in the Europa League in 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. The musical act The Red Stripez took the opportunity to record a song about being there.

Support the band and purchase this track via their bandcamp page: https://theredstripez.bandcamp.com

Stoke

Gordon Banks was one of the greatest keepers of all time. That’s not just me saying that, Pele said that too. (If you don’t know watch this video)
After a disappointing 1970 World Cup (apart from that save), Banksy went back to Stoke City and at the end of the following 1971-72 season he helped them win the League Cup.

Sadly a few months later he was in a car crash and lost sight in one eye which ended his time at Stoke and for England. But it didn’t stop him playing football ! In 1977 he signed for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the NASL and played a few seasons there.

His time at Stoke was celebrated on this song released in 1973:

Swansea

Here’s something I don’t normally find – the story behind the song. Via an article at WalesOnline:

It began in early 1978 when local poet Mervyn Read had an idea for a Swansea City song. He met with the chairman but was told they already had a song, by Roger Evans. He was played the tune but Mervyn Read felt it was too folky and needed rearranging. Eventually he teamed up with Roger Evans and they re-did the tune and lyrics.

This also involved them going down to Vetch Field and recorded some of the players at the time – including Tommy Smith, Ian Callaghan and player-manager John Toshack singing on the song.

Tottenham

Another team with a very well known musical act who have supplied nearly all their songs over the years. But for this one I am going with their other well known singing duo (as in – the ones who also played for the team).

This was released as a follow-up to their epic Diamond Lights and word is that Hoddle preferred this one. They couldn’t promote the single though because Chris was sold to Monaco and Glenn obviously couldn’t do it alone. The video is via Bob Puzey, the keyboard player in the video and writer of the song.

West Brom

I am reposting this one from Ray King, the one-time lead singer of Cymande. Sadly I can’t find any more information about him. If you haven’t heard anything from this early 1970’s funk/calypso/reggae group then get yourself over to YouTube and treat your ears.

This was released in 1978 and mentions Brendan Batson in the lyrics. He was one, along with Laurie Cunningham and Cyril Regis, which Ron Atkinson dubbed as the footballing ‘Three Degrees.’

This track is on my greatest football and musical songs ever list.

Watford

Sadly they’ve once again left it to their biggest and well known supporter to supply the music. There are no fan songs to be found anywhere.

– The man himself released an album in 1978 called A Single Man and two of the tracks on the LP have credits for ‘Watford Football Team.’ That’s right old Elton got the players in to do backing vocals on ‘Big Dipper’ and ‘Georgia’:

West Ham

Everybody knows the most famous supporters of the Hammers are the Cockney Rejects (and not that Russell Brand, although if he was to release a song about the team…) But I have decided to go down a different path with this one.

Like a few of the other teams above, West Ham also adopted a very old traditional song as their own. The earliest I’ve found is from 1919: