You only sing when you’re winning

As England seemingly stroll to qualification for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, a Teesside academic has examined the role of music’s links with football.

Football fans may well remember New Order’s 1990 hit ‘World in Motion’, a collaboration with the England team which topped the charts during the World Cup of that year.

Older fans might also remember the 1970 number one, ‘Back Home’ recorded solely by the England team. However, few will recall Lonnie Donnegan’s vinyl offering in 1966, ‘World Cup Willie’, which failed to chart in the UK but bizarrely sold well in Germany.

Mike McGuinness, Senior Lecturer in Sport Studies, has explored these football anthems and other links between music and sport as part of a text Sporting Sounds: Relationships Between Music and Sport, edited by Anthony Bateman and John Bale.

He has published a chapter in the book, entitled ‘Friday Night and the Gates are Low: Popular Music and its Relationship(s) to Sport’. This title is a song by Merseyside group Half-Man, Half-Biscuit, which refers to Tranmere Rovers’ policy of Friday night games to try and maximise the crowd.

Music creates atmosphere in big stadiums Mike said: ‘The literature about links between sport and music is quite limited. The book has quite an eclectic mix of chapters from an international group of contributors with something for everyone.

‘When you look there’s a whole wealth of available material about the relationship between popular music and sport, it hasn’t been exploited yet. My chapter looks at how music can provide a link for communities to join in a shared experience.

‘Pop music can’t be ignored in football matches, sometimes it’s integral to what’s taking place. Now that football is played in big stadiums the games aren’t as atmospheric and fans can feel isolated.

‘Songs become associated with particular clubs and some clubs play particular songs to try and re-create the atmosphere and keep the relationship with the fans.’

Footballers are top of the pops In addition to examining the association of songs with clubs, Mike also looks at footballers’ who actually hit the charts with their own recordings, including Kevin Keegan in 1979, Glen Hoddle and Chris Waddle in 1987, and Paul Gascoigne’s top five placing in 1990 with ‘Fog on the Tyne.’

Mike added: ‘While some of the football songs, such as Nice One Cyril for Chelsea have lifelong associations, the footballers’ records didn’t have a long life.

This book also looks at the importance of music in alternative sports, such at snowboarding, surfing and skateboarding. It’s an ideal text for undergraduate students.’

Sporting Sounds: Relationships Between Music and Sport is published by Routledge.

---