As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Seb, good to see you on a forum different from the Arsenal HT forum (Folenshire United)
I agree that it would be a great thing to have an anthem, but it won't catch on, especially with the shortlist of songs posted, it needs to be better. I wish it luck, but I, an unfortunate realist, don't think it would work.
Now don't get me wrong, I would join in no matter what it was if I was able to, but we have to convince others not minded like us, which seems incredibly hard with the given songs.
Hi gooner.ed, "Before the match, the club starts it off. That is what the club will do at Arsenal once an anthem has been decided upon"
Has this been arranged with the club already? If not, that's fine- but i would be interested to know how this would be arranged and if they would want to put their special spin on this.. On the flip side, there's no point feeling weird (as I do) about how 'unnatural' this process is- the fact is no-one sings all the Arsenal songs that old gooners already know, because they didn't grow up with those songs and those songs don't feel natural to new fans, probably seem naff to them.
This idea isn't going to happen organically; that's not a bad thing. Remember, YNWL is played on their club tannoy; to me, it almost wouldn't be a tragedy if no-one sang any song we chose before the game but that it was played before every home game, as long as we attempt to create some semblance of tradition at the Grove. But I don't think that no-one would sing it- if, If, IF- the club play it before every single home game for next season, i would bet my last pair of socks, half the fans at least would be singing it by the end of the season. And that, would be a result.
In addition to Herd's post RE: RedAction (God bless them for attempting to do something) They've tried other similar things and the club have buried them.
They wanted large flags to wave before games (not even during, just before) a la 'pool. The club dismissed them because they felt that it would disrupt views, then said there were Islington Council mandates that would prevent it. After RedAction went to the Council to ask, they were told that it would be a great idea and there would be no problem. the club still turned them down.
They wanted Banners in the North bank to tribute Rocky and another saying "Kings of London 13 - 4" as well as another for the shamefully abandoned motto "Victory Through Harmony" All were obviously turned down for a myriad of reasons.
Point: The club don't want it, they've priced out most of the element (the working class and locals) who would go along with it, and the new fan wouldn't do it, so the only support would be those on here calling for it, and all of us (even if we were all there in the grove nevermind the many overseas or other fans who simply can't afford to go who post on here) wouldn't be enough for it to catch on with the probable 55k who wouldn't bother or be yelled at by stewards for being the only people in their section standing. I want it to work, I would love an anthem, but would the club? unless the song was "We're in the money" and only they were singing it behind closed doors in the boardroom, I think not.
This has to be the most pointless topic ever, yes I will get shot down for this but it aint neer gonna get off the ground. Our club has sold it's soul and we aint never gonna buy it back, our club as we knew it died at the final whistle agianst Wigan in 2006. As nice as the new stadium is, it has no atmosphere and singing some crap song aint gonna make it feel like home. A decent team and some trophies would help but lets face it, they are as likely as Spurs in the Champions League. I cant believe we are even having to think up songs, it is surely a case of a song fits or it don't? Are they any songs about selling ones soul and best players?
I do think the stands aren't even designed with singing fans in mind- i'm thinking of a North Bank 'wall of sound', gets broken up by the posh seats in between. Only the tops of the North & South Stands have sufficient numbers with potential for volume, but when i sit up there, it's tumbleweed. I remember i sat up there for the liverpool game (green i think), and at the end, the old fella in our row said we needed to be sitting in the North end. my mate and I felt quite chuffed, but at the same time we were still in the minority. If no-one's bothered to make noise when we are 2 or 3 up, then it does make you feel pretty crap about our fans. Maybe we need to go 18 years without a title so we can lose all the glory seekers..
for all the people bashing our attempt to get an anthem going, all I can say is feck off and piss off. We are trying to start a unique song and tradition off, if you don't want to be part of that then fine and sit down like apes at games when we start a song off... I'll be the first to have a dig at you.
If you don't like the idea don't even bother posting you morons. We need an inspiration, especially after Henry has left. The players are probably devastated and I can't think of a better way of getting them up for a game than chanting a spine chilling song at games.
rambo - thank you. there are times when the tide of negativity makes me wonder why i am bothering with attempts to improve the atmosphere. and then i read something like this which makes it all worthwhile. this thing is going to work because the club are thinking along the same lines and willing to do their bit on this particular initiative. and the way i see it is this.
the way chants and singing work is by other people joining in with the fan who begins the chant/song. is it such a leap to imagine that every game, the number of fans singing along to an anthem will double as they come to accept it is not an embarrassing thing to sing something in the style that liverpool fans do at the cue of the PA. so one fan sings at the first game. two at the second. four at the third. so far pathetic (in reality more will join in but let's go with this for the sake of argument). by the time of the guaranteed twentieth home match next season (19 prem plus 1 x CL qualifier), according to the maths, over 52,000 will be singing the anthem.
sure, more will start singing it (in the redsection) in the early days and there are always going to be some who will not join in. but it is possible, and once the idea of the song is accepted by enough, it will become organic in that people will join in by choice when they realise how good such an attempt to create an atmosphere can feel. all we need is for enough people like rambo to believe in what we are trying to do and belt it out in such a fashion that those around them who are a bit nervous about singing will join in. that's how singing and chants take off in a football stadium and that is what is possible before the game as we wait for the teams to come out.
believe. contribute your ideas, but for those who do not think this idea will work, please stop trying to kill the attempt to do something positive for our football team.
Alright gooners, I'm going to try and lighten up the mood a little .
How about we kill two birds with one stone? We can find ourselves an anthem AND protest to the Board about selling Thierry Henry at the same time with this tune:
WE WANT OUR TITI BACK; WE WANT OUR TITI BACK; WE WANT OUR TITI BACK, WE WANT OUR TITI BACK!
Thierry's reasons for leaving really pissed me off last night, i don't think i want him back in the team anymore.
What we do have to think of, is someone that we can sing the thierry song (Tom Hark) to.
Please, Rambo, gooner.ed, do us all a favour and take this even more seriously, it's just an idea you are kicking around, and as with any idea you must face the fact that there are elements that will make it fail, no plan is bullet proof and there is no guarantee this will catch on. Rambo, your insulting and pathetic post only goes to show your lack of education and inability to have an educated debate and a disagreement. To refer to someone who is merely pointing out that the new breed of fan we have will not sing along because they are not interested in it as a "fecking moron" is shallow, and hopefully you feel like more of a man for calling someone you've probably never met a "fecking moron" on an anonymous internet forum. Do us all a favour; grow up and calm down. Oh, and I've sung at games only to be kicked out, so calling my being a supporter into question is also quite shallow and incorrect, and if you'd like to have a pissing contest go to a boozer in N17, I'm sure some Neanderthal would be obliged to assist, maybe you can find the one who broke my jaw when I was 12 and walking out of WHL.
Nobody wants a better atmosphere at the grove than I, and I've even said that I would assist no matter what, but face the facts that the middle class are the ones who create it, and they're all in the boozers during the games because the tickets cost way too much. Why does it work for liverpool? I'll tell you why, because they had ynwa as their anthem for years, when it was still middle class fans in anfield and not the tourists and chic *word censored* who populate most of our seats today. They started it at the correct time, oh, AND THEY STILL HAVE THE WORKING CLASS IN THEIR STANDS.
If you want to be like liverpool so much, go up to anfield, your penis envy is really quite embarrassing. If simple songs such as "Come on Arsenal" don't get picked up while being sung 2 or 3 times a match, what makes you think playing a song over the tannoy will work when trying to convince people to sing. That's what we call trying too hard, pool started playing ynwa over the tannoy because the fans were singing it so much and it caught on. Forcing it on people will never work. Best of luck, but you need better songs that the ones you have to get a result.
We are the Arsenal, the Gunners, surely there must be some songs of military origin we could adopt. Any of our older fans know any good marching tunes, they are usually easy to sing ? We had a marching band once. The only modern one I can come up with is Billy Joels' "Goodnight Saigon"
"Remember Charlie, remember Baker,
they left their childhood on every acre"
i dream as the hammer strikes the anvil
i think its a winner adjust the words and it goes a little
i dream as the arsenal strike a handful
i dream as the crowd give out the roar
as my scarf is set a loft
its the only team i love
as we look out on the pitch that glisens green
(Folenshire United)
