WE’D LIKE TO SHOW THE WORLD THE WAY TO … SING!

March 11, 2010 | Filed under: Features,News | Posted by: David Stamford Chidge Chidgey - 3,203 views

Passion. Tribalism. Noise and fried onions. Tension. And lots of singing! That’s what football and supporting Chelsea have always been about for me.

When I first moved to the manor in the mid ‘80’s and was supporting the Chels from the pub (we didn’t have armchairs and Sky Sports in those days!), I was enticed and finally drawn to the Bridge by one thing. It was a sound. A loud almost primeval sound. Repeated over and over again like some tribal mantra, reaching an almost frenzied crescendo. You could hear it clearly as I stumbled out of the Chelsea Ram or Ferret and Firkin after a hangover busting pint or three most Saturdays…

As terrace songs go, they don’t get much simpler than the repeated Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea! Simple it may be, but when a packed Stamford Bridge or our ever faithful away following are belting it out, it still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, especially in the days when the chant would seemingly last an entire half. It also had a menacing and defiant air to it – intimidating to opposition fans and players alike. Perfect in it’s simplicity and execution!

But don’t forget, Chelsea has a far bigger repertoire of terrace chants and songs than most clubs. It’s very much part of our culture, humour and yes, history, no matter what the hubcap thieves would have people believe. These songs are what define our character and personality as a group of supporters and I think, a club. As a student of history and someone who needs no excuse to excercise the larynx, loudly, I was keen to learn as many of the songs as I could. But where do they come from? Who takes on the mantle of the Chelsea songsmith?

For the first 50 years of Chelsea’s history, we were known as the Pensioners, and according to the excellent book “The Special Ones – Chelsea by the Fans” our vocal support had about as much energy as your average pensioner! Due to our location, rather than attracting the traditional working class fan base, we had a large floating support from visitors to the capital and migrants from other parts of the country and overseas (not much seems to have changed there then!). Our first title winning Manager, Mr Ted Drake, encouraged a more partisan approach by imploring the crowd to become supporters not merely spectators. He turned us into the Blues and there was no looking back.

It wasn’t until the mid sixties though that our ‘supporters’ found their voice. An early song was the Bud Flanagan song “Strolling”. I am delighted to say that thanks to Phil Norman and his boys, I belted this out in a pub in Bath the night before we beat Liverpool in the Carling Cup Final and in the Blackbird pub, avoiding a bombardment of celery, after we beat the Mancs in the 2007 Cup Final. Happy Days! By the mid sixties, and precipitated by a Mr C Webb of Ockendon, the Fulham Road End became the Shed, at that time armed with a mission to be louder than Kop! On the back of the Beatles and other Liverpool bands success in the charts, the Scousers were gaining a reputation as the loudest supporters. Chelsea supporters were now mounting a challenge. By the end of the decade, via the Tommy Baldwin song, we proudly proclaimed this to have been achieved!

It seems that faced with a blank song sheet, the boys in the Shed took as their inspiration the obvious targets! A whole songbook sprang forth regarding our rivalry with Tottenham, Arsenal and more interestingly Wolves. These were the days when the taking of ends was all the rage, and victories in this area were celebrated in song more readily than the more usual footballing kind. More sinister songs evolved as the 70’s became more violent, but with the clubs on field success our heroes were celebrated in great style too, Peter Osgood’s Born is the King of Stamford Bridge being the most famous example. Many of our deep seated rivalries were established in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s and it’s great to hear some of the songs from that era still sung loudly and proudly today.

In the late ‘70’s and ‘80’s it was a badge of honour to out sing the opposition even if we couldn’t beat them on the pitch. Many of the songs were ‘penned’ on the football specials – trains ferrying our huge away support to and from games. One man stands proud as arguably Chelsea’s greatest songsmith. Legend has it that many of Chelsea’s most famous songs originated from the strangely creative mind of one Mick Greenaway. Mick would often get things going with a blood curdling yell of Zigger, Zagger, Zigger Zagger, with his cohorts responding with an Oi Oi Oi. He is also credited with the infamous Celery song – one of my all time favourites.

With his missionary like zeal to get the boys singing, Mick would often distribute song sheets or as we say on the Chelsea Football FanCast “if you don’t know the words write them down!” But, it seems that Mick Greenaway’s good works are in danger of being undermined. There is no doubt that the singing at Stamford Bridge is not what it used to be. There are many reasons (or excuses) as to why. The average age of a season ticket holder these days is supposed to be early ‘40’s. But hang on. These are the guys who were going in the ‘80’s who should know all the songs. Apparently many of them feel they’ve done their singing and it’s now up to the young ones. But the young ones are being priced out of Stamford Bridge aren’t they? Who does that leave. Well there’s always the Johnny Come Lately’s and the “floating support from visitors to the capital”. Ah, but they either don’t like singing or don’t know the words.

The Return to the Shed campaign should be applauded, and any effort to allow like minded supporters to sit together and even safe standing areas would help and should be encouraged. On the Chelsea Football FanCast, we’re doing our bit. Every week on the show we have a feature called “We’re out to show the world the way to sing!” and in many ways we are, since the show has a global audience thanks to Chelsea’s worldwide popularity and the internet. Fuelled by a few pints of Guinness and the post match pub banter that typifies the show, we sing a terrace classic with the aim of passing on a little bit of history, knowledge and culture. And if you don’t know the words, don’t worry – we’ve written them down on our Facebook group! I guarantee that a Chelsea fan in America, India, Africa or Australia and even London may well be belting out Chelsea Alouette, Chelsea Ranger or In Your Liverpool Slums as a result! If only we can all do the same at the Bridge every week! All together now…We all follow the Chelsea….

“The Chelsea Football FanCast is a half hour internet radio show presented by Chidge, Martin, Chel Tel and the Blues Brothers.

Expect banter, biased opinion, special guests and downright nonsense all in the Blue cause. Also featuring reviews of every match from the only opinions that matter – the fans!

Download the show from http://podcasts.footballfancast.com/chelsea_fancast/ every Monday or by searching for Chelsea Football Fancast in Itunes.

Keep it Blue, keep it Carefree and keep it Chels. Up the Chels!”