I'm on about the pre-match music at SJP.

I must say I'm impressed with the Geordie songs they play during the 10-20 mins before the teams come out. I heard "Big River" some weeks ago and Alan Price's "Jarrow Song" (title?). There's a version (not a good one I'm afraid) of "Blaydon Races". Good selections.

To cap it all, there's a wonderful 20 second blast of Carmina Burana which is electrifying and then our heroes run out to the magnificent "Local Hero" which seems to merge extremely well with the preceding piece. "Local Hero" has been our song for quite a few years now and it still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I hope there are no plans to change things in the foreseeable future. I'd like to say it's worth a goal start to the lads but we prefer to give one to the opposition nowadays to try and make a game of it. :-)

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Answers

Awesome Prelude

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

To be honest, although I really like Carmina Burana and the O Fortuna bit is stirring stuff, I find it a bit cringeworthy when it's played to the team running out. Local Hero reminds me of the promotion season, but it's a bit, well, parochial and twee.

I'd actually prefer no music at all when the lads run out and let the roar of the crowd lift them out of the tunnel.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

I've always felt the pre-match music should be stopped say 10 minutes before kick off to allow the atmosphere to build. Footy fans tend to abhor silence, and I think would fill it with proper footy noise. As it is, it is virtually impossible to chant over the bloody PA system, and I think this stifles the immediate pre-match atmosphere.

They could still play the Carmina Biryani thing to indicate the players are on their way, and even a minute or two of Local Hero - but then please, shut the f**k up and let the fans do their thing.

I used to enjoy "Simply the Best" to introduce the teams, but Local Hero has really become our signature tune in the same way the Z Cars theme is now Evertons. Tradition and all that.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

I know lots of people don't like it, and the Mag even had a campaign to get rid of it, but I love Local Hero. I'm with Jonno, makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. To be fair though, it's possible if they played Celine Dion just before ko often enough I'd get attached to that...... god, what a horrible thought.... Would be nice if we had a few more local heroes in the side, at least the manager, captain and left back are Geordies.....

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

At Whitehart Lane they played a continuous medley of football songs and chants, obviously becuase the fans were incapable of it themselves - inlduding Ooh Teddy, Teddy...Teddy Teddy etc, and even one to the tune of Kummbaya (however you spell it). Laughable and I would have thought insulting if you were a Spurs fan.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Got to agree Peter - when this contrived garbage becomes universal "footy" as we know it can be regarded as well and truly dead.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

The Fans Committee has had a few goes at the club and the current set up, as Jonno describes it is where we ended up. As a group we had different feelings, the same as those expressed on here. We decided to suggets a snatch of the Carmina bit as it was rousing, then Local Hero as the main theme. The Blaydon Races et al stuff was also suggested.

The ground still only looks 50% full at 5 to 3 so turning the music up, down or off would make little difference I feel to atmosphere creation.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Love Local Hero, but if it were to change perhaps pick songs that will really fire the crowd up. Like they did at OT when they played the Peter Reid song and Heeey, Alan Shearer. That was the loudest I've ever heard us sing before ko. ;-D

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Clarky, you mean you can actually here the tannoy in your bit. The only time we can here it is when everyones quiet cos the scores are being read out. At that point we can here the speakers in the gallowgate end (I think it's those ones). East stand obviously isn't piveliged (sp?) enough.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Sorry to be a w**ker, but please - HEAR not here, and it's "privileged"

Living with a school teacher can be difficult... :-)

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Local Hero is the perfect bit of music to lead us out.

Apart from being written and performed by a Geordie, it's got real emotion attached to it, which I reckon is totally appropriate for SJP. They're wor local heroes, after all...and it's a crackin' tune!

If you've never seen the film - or if it's been a while since you saw those Northern Lights - get it out on video/DVD tonight!

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Andy - at the moment the PA in the East Stand is extremely loud: early in the season it was... well, totally absent actually.

I reckon they've finally got the system cracked. However, it only has two settings -

"DEAFENING"

and

"ISN'T WORKING"

!

Who said this was the age of technology? I think it slipped ever so casually by SJP!

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

So that's where our tannoy went! Give it back!

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

"The ground still only looks 50% full at 5 to 3 so turning the music up, down or off would make little difference I feel to atmosphere creation".

Maybe so macbeth - but maybe not. Perhaps the FLC could give careful consideration to why the ground fills up so late.

Perhaps being deafened by cr@p muzak contributes to it: perhaps it's simply a lack of any real reason to turn up earlier: perhaps a lot more real fans would turn up 15-20 minutes earlier if they thought they'd get the chance to bellow their lungs out with a few chants and actually help create an atmosphere: perhaps the Club could exercise their brain-cells as to what more could be done to both encourage the creation of some pre-match atmosphere, and concurrently reduce the incidence of 40% of the crowd arriving at 2:59pm, creating an eternal bloody nuisance of themselves for those already seated.

One thing I can definitively guarantee - carrying on with the status quo for another 40 years will not improve this scenario one jot.

It's called trying to be creative, and in the absence of any real imagination, relying on simply trying something, anything different to see if it might just work.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Late arrivals are caused by the all-seater/all-ticket system. In the olden days we had to leave the pub earlier to get a good position on the terrace, nowadays your seat is guaranteed.

Maybe your season ticket should not be for a specific seat but for a section so that early arrivals could take their pick... and groups could sit together.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

... the more I think about it, the better my suggestion is ;-))))

It's not healthy to sit next to the same folk every match is it?

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

... on the other hand... the thought of trying to find an empty seat after the match has started might prove interesting :-(

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Just more incentive for people to get there early. ;-)

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

we have tried to suggest means of getting people into the ground early but for some of the reasons mentioned, and others I just don't see it happening.

If we moved the ground out of the city centre put no pubs within a mile of the ground, gave away cheap beer inside this oasis then we'd get people in, otherwise there are better attractions

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

....so that's it then? Out of interest, have the Club come up with a single idea to change the situation - apart from Alan Robson that is?

They'll never get the hardened drinkers out of the pubs - they never came until 2:59pm even in the 60's, but there are other classes of fan who might be attracted by pre-match entertainment of the kind that I felt was reasonably effective at Wembley - designed to build the atmosphere by playing real footy songs. That Blaydon Races record they play right now is by far the worst version I've ever heard!

IMO, blanket muzak as at present is actually a negative influence to getting people into the stadium earlier.

Incidentally, macbeth do you know what has happened to the scoreboard(s) that we were promised at the AGM?

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

We're getting a scoreboard? I didn't know that. I quite like the fact that we don't have one - makes us unique, and I like to think that unlike fans of some clubs we don't need a scoreboard to tell us the score!

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Local Hero and Carmina Burana - Yes

Blaydon Races (or that version with the high pitched horrible noise on it) - Definitely not.

Agree that the music should be turned off. The PA system should have been designed for voice mainly to make the voice clearer. It's made by the same people who do Sunderland's ground's PA - Avalon, and their's is much better.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

A scoreboard could also be used to flash names of the line-ups, who got carded and subs. Things you can't understand through the garble of the PA or see if you are sitting too far from the pitch. You don't need something as big and fancy as a jumbotron video for that.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

When I hear Local Hero and see the players run out on the field, that's when I know that I have come home. The hairs on my neck stand up, the butterflies in my stomach go mental. Pure emotion - I love it and can't wait for the w/e.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Bring back those mini-matches with the kids, they were cracking but I still had to have a piss so missed some of the games. Everyone cheered any good move in either game (although that unfortunate team who chose to wear red got booed a bit).

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2002

The club told us that the scoreboards (two) would cost £700k to install. We said this was ridiculous (costs twice as much as a Warren Barton ??) and could they come back and tell us what you got for your money. They haven't yet done so and I'm not holding my breath.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2002

What if the FLC researched the cost and showed it to the club?

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2002

I may be in a minority here but why do we need a scoreboard?

99.9% of the time I actually know the score of the game I'm watching. (The .1% was away at QPR when I arrived late and kept telling everyone it wasn't too bad as we were only a goal down. Eventually someone turned my head to the scoreboard behind us that said QPR 3...)

Only benefit is to the hard of hearing/aurally impaired (not sure what the PC phrase is)... ok deaf... who can't hear the Tannoy.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2002

£700k for a scoreboard? That one they used to have at the Gallowgate end couldn't have cost more than £70. A few cardboard numbers and letters to identify the matches and we saw all the HT scores nee bother. Progress? Bah!

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2002

It was categorically stated at the AGM, in answer to a question - by plc Chairman, John Fender, I believe - that they were to install a scoreboard or scoreboards (two would probably be required).

Just more lies, I suppose.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2002

Bring back the five and ten minute flags...

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2002

There's a dozen things I'd rather we spent 700k on. The team. The Academy. The pitch. Training facilites. Properly administering away tickets so we always take the max available. Community programmes. Research into the secrets of youth so Uncle Bobby can stay in charge forever. They could buy us all a pie now and again. Give away a few free tickets per game to kids like that lot down the road do to ensure that future generations will be black and whites. The next Robert Lee. Well OK, only 10 things.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002