Up Yours Herb
I too began attending matches on the 80’s, albeit the late eighties. There were around 24000 there at my first game. At various times since, I stood on the North Bank and Clock End, sat in East Upper/Lower and West Upper. I finished my Highbury days in the Clock End. I now sit in the Blue section Lower Tier.
As I stated in previous posts, if people want an anthem fine. It instinctively does not sit well with me. If a suitable one is adopted, then I will partake, as I always try to.
The fact is MOST people who go to games DO want to sing. In the days of terracing you could sing and apart from a few squashed bodies around you no one knew where the voice was coming from. Therefore it was easy to start songs and invariably most would join in. However, football fans (like us English in general) can be a shy bunch and it takes balls to start a song when sat in a chair surrounded by silent people. If you fail everyone will look at you like you are some *word censored* for the rest of the match. With terracing this was not an issue. Furthermore, the average age of the supporter is now so much older (due to ticket prices) that we now have support which is more likely to 'join-in' rather than have the enthusiasm to actually start a song or try a new song for the first time.
On what do you base the assertion that most people want to sing? If we take the position where we are now, the majority of people around me ( in my block) DO NOT take the option to sing, even when it is presented to them by others who make a start. This echoes my experience of Highbury when, certainly in my time (see above), the East/West stands did very little towards the stadium atmosphere and, with a some notable and great exceptions, we had one of the quietest terraces around - if one takes into account size and number of fans. So my assertion is that this is not a new problem, just one that has been prompted by the feeling that with 57000 Arsenal fans, the atmosphere turns out to be worse than at Highbury.
Is it because we are shy and don’t want to look like *word censored*? There is certainly an element of this. However, that does not explain why at some stadiums, in England, the atmosphere is significantly better than it is at The Arsenal.. Even to the extent of Arsenal comparing unfavourably with fans in a similar area and of similar social, cultural and financial background.
I sit in the Orange upper tier. At times the noise from RedAction drifts up and the upper tier join in on mass. However, this does not happen often enough and there is certainly no effort made to start songs in the upper tier. I think we need to accept that there is one section of the crowd who will start the songs (Orange Lower) and we need to work on getting everyone to join in. So how do we do this ?.
Perhaps we need more of the RedAction sections, providing the impetus as the terracing used to. The noise does not drift left I am afraid! If we had a more balanced split within the ground between those who want to support their team in one way, and those who wish to support in another way, then this problem would be solved. We are now in an all-seater stadium If you have 10 people around you who chose to sit in the seats at Highbury and primarily remain quiet, what makes us believe that they now WANT to change? As they are also unlikely to be in their youthful prime (under 30!), they are less likely to want to change - as you have eluded to above. I am not equating all people who sat in seats with the bad atmosphere, I am just establishing that in the past we always had areas who generated the atmosphere for the benefit of those others who didn’t. Therefore, the issue of those people not contributing was rarely highlighted to this extent.
RedAction deserve every credit for their efforts - but it is not enough. More needs to be done. You may think you are loud but you can only be heard in the Orange section. If you sit in Green the noise does not travel at all. Has no one at the club thought of wiring up the ground so that the noise generated in the Orange lower section (RedAction) can be broadcasted into the other sections of the ground via speakers ?. For a few games last season I sat in the Green section to sample the Ashburton 'clock-end' experience. It was embarrassing to say the least. Arsenal fans were silent and on each occasion we were outsung by the away support - which was not hard as no Arsenal fans were singing at all. Now, if there were hidden speakers at the back of the upper and lower tier which was broadcasting the noise from the Orange Lower I am sure it would have brought the Green section fans to life. If the same was done with blue and yellow sections we could get the whole stadium rocking - just with a few speakers to kick start everyone.
I can just imagine the club hijacking this idea and pumping subliminal messages, encouraging the fans to spend, spend, spend at the club shop!
I understand the principle behind this but the nature of watching a live event in this country is being steadily eroded as it is - and this Americanisation (Example - the tannoy at basketball matches leading the chant of ‘Defense…Defense.. For the home team) is a step that would go too far. Would the speakers go at every area of the stadium? What if the Redaction section goes quiet? What if the fans in other areas of the ground do not like having these speakers?
As for an Anthem, I have looked at various forums and ideas being put forward. There are some good suggestions. However, it is important to really think about what makes a good anthem and what type of song would encourage everyone to join in. For an Anthem to work it needs to be a fairly SLOW song which can be sung with passion. This is what makes YNWA such a success. Likewise, Blue Moon can also sound good when Man City fans decide to sing it on mass. It needs to be something which will appeal to ALL fans old and young. Most importantly it needs to be relevant to Arsenal or London.
Does the anthem idea exist in an attempt to get everyone going, to set the tempo for the match? Nothing wrong with this - but I fear that the set-up of the stadium as I argued earlier works against this. I for one would have no problem belting out a suitable anthem, should it be adopted in some form - as I think that, for exmaple, Abide With Me is extremely moving. Also agree that Streets of London is as you note below.
I was quite keen on an Arsenal version of Wonder Of You (Elvis) which I think would sound very impressive when sung by 60,000 people. However, for me the best song put forward is STREETS OF LONDON by Ralph McTell.
As someone who regularly watches Arsenal in away Champions League matches it sends a shiver down my spine just thinking of singing Streets of London at these away days. The idea of this brilliant song being sung by 60,000 at AG would be very special indeed.
Same for me.
In conclusion, I believe that the set-up of Ashburton Grove does not lend itself to the creation of atmosphere. With the exception of RedAction, there are no areas people can identify with. In addition, us Arsenal fans are a peculiar bunch, probably unique in that our habits as fans in terms of backing the team, do not fall into any consistent category , even when compared with teams of similar background.
I believe that we need the return of limited terracing at both ends of the stadium. If not, then an extension of the RedAction areas, although this causes headaches regarding stadium safety certificates or a change of policy towards seating.
And an in-depth scientific study of Arsenal fans
