nufc.com say
Amid ongoing rumblings from some fans over the "theme from Local Hero" tune, we've inevitably had requests from various quarters to either back calls for its reinstatement or mount a campaign to try and achieve that.
At the risk of infuriating the Mark Knopfler fan club though, can we just say that we won't be adding our weight to any protests of petitions.
Quite simply, we don't miss it and can't quite understand why some people seem to be getting quite so het up about its removal from the SJP pre-match running order.
After all we're talking about an instrumental track originally composed by a Glaswegian living in London for a film set in Scotland.
The ring tone generation seem up in arms because the tune is part of our "heritage", but for us, the tune first heard here in the mid 1990s became synonymous with Alan Shearer and lost whatever relevance it had after his retirement.
And given the globalisation of our squad, it's a moot point who the local heroes actually are now - the nearest perhaps being Greenwich- born Steven Taylor or Nigeria's Shola Ameobi.
And unlike the pre-match rituals at Liverpool (You'll Never Walk Alone) and West Ham (Blowing bubbles), there's nothing participatory about Local Hero, no words to sing - and to our mind the only contribution to the atmosphere were the cheers of relief at the end after the final drum beats.
The current Sham 69 ditty probably isn't the answer, but in a perfect world we'd like nothing to be played - and the crowd build up their own atmosphere.
Those days seem to have gone, sadly - not helped by the teams coming out together - not separately - and fannying about with handshakes and introductions that were once only seen before cup finals and internationals.
We can't claim credit for an original suggestion, but how about an attempt at the Blaydon Races - and not the traditional old version that only seemed to be aired before losing home cup ties in extra time or penalties.
Surely some local beat combo could supply a souped-up version of Geordie Ridley's genuine Tyneside ode that could be played and turned off in time for the crowd to supply the vocals for the chorus?
A sign of the times would be that some sort of lyric sheet would probably be required - unless the club can run to a new scarf giveaway, with the lyrics woven in.....
