by ferrarilover » 25 Nov 2013, 21:09
I went to Wolves on Saturday. They have a thing where, at the start of each half, when the players come out, they play the first verse of "Hi Ho Silver Lining". At the appropriate time, the music is stopped and the whole crowd (all 17,000 home fans) sing in unison, "AND IT'S HI HO WOLVER'AMPTON!"
They do this without a drum, without "Ultras", without prompting, without fanfare and without being moaned at on the internet. They just do it and it sounds absolutely brilliant. Proof, were it needed, that it's got bugger all to do with anything except the will of the people making up the crowd. All the gimmicks in the world (air raid siren, anyone. Perhaps some goal music [not that we'd ever hear it, arf arf]) won't work unless there is a desire for change to happen.
I'm not against this thread (that would be a truly bizarre state of affairs), but I'm very much afraid that the ever-busy Royal might just have wasted his time. The people who support our club are interested in many things, flat caps, Werther's Originals, The Archers, driving very slowly, endlessly indicating to turn right but never actually doing so etc, but chanting and cheering and being vocal at football is not one of them. Remember, most of our fans grew up in an age where, not only was everything black and white, but moving images were accompanied by subtitles and a man playing the piano. Sound does not come naturally to people whose age can only be determined by carbon-dating. This is the core of our fanbase, so please, keep making these threads all you like and if it, somehow, soothes you, but please don't expect them to make one iota of difference to the manner of the crowd come matchday.
Matt.
I went to Wolves on Saturday. They have a thing where, at the start of each half, when the players come out, they play the first verse of "Hi Ho Silver Lining". At the appropriate time, the music is stopped and the whole crowd (all 17,000 home fans) sing in unison, "AND IT'S HI HO WOLVER'AMPTON!"
They do this without a drum, without "Ultras", without prompting, without fanfare and without being moaned at on the internet. They just do it and it sounds absolutely brilliant. Proof, were it needed, that it's got bugger all to do with anything except the will of the people making up the crowd. All the gimmicks in the world (air raid siren, anyone. Perhaps some goal music [not that we'd ever hear it, arf arf]) won't work unless there is a desire for change to happen.
I'm not against this thread (that would be a truly bizarre state of affairs), but I'm very much afraid that the ever-busy Royal might just have wasted his time. The people who support our club are interested in many things, flat caps, Werther's Originals, The Archers, driving very slowly, endlessly indicating to turn right but never actually doing so etc, but chanting and cheering and being vocal at football is not one of them. Remember, most of our fans grew up in an age where, not only was everything black and white, but moving images were accompanied by subtitles and a man playing the piano. Sound does not come naturally to people whose age can only be determined by carbon-dating. This is the core of our fanbase, so please, keep making these threads all you like and if it, somehow, soothes you, but please don't expect them to make one iota of difference to the manner of the crowd come matchday.
Matt.