Sean

Article in the Guardian today mentioning Wor Flags: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/nov/23/terrace-tunes-viral-source-september-chant When a terrace tune goes viral: the hunt for the source of the September chant Earth, Wind & Fire’s song September has been picked up by fans of several clubs in the way Seven Nation Army once was – but what makes a chant spread like a raspy cold? It is inescapable, the background accompaniment to every Premier League highlight. The words to the chant go “woooooaaahhh [name of club cult favourite], wooaaahhh [skill unique to player] woooooaaahhh he never gives the ball awayyyyyy 1-2-3-4” and then repeats itself. Yes, you do know it. Yes, it has already become a little bit grating. Set to the Earth, Wind & Fire song of the same name, the September chant has yet to acquire the full brain‑numbing ubiquity the Beach Boys’ Sloop John B acquired in recent years, but it is definitely on its way. Watford sing it about Abdoulaye Doucouré, Chelsea about Tiémoué Bakayoko, Aston Vllla about both John Terry and James Chester. At this point, the only hope of your club escaping the craze is by ensuring you have a team full of players unable to keep possession. Everton aside, that means everyone’s at risk. What makes a chant spread like a raspy cold? And is it possible to trace the tune back to a single source? Any attempt at answering the former question would have to acknowledge that creating a terrace hit requires a certain kind of magic. Will Grigg’s on Fire, for example, became the chant of 2016 thanks to the serendipity of events; created to celebrate the unlikely success of an unheralded striker (in League One with Wigan Athletic), it became synonymous with the unlikely success of an unheralded nation (Northern Ireland at the European Championship), which only boosted the signal. At the other end of the scale, Put Your Hands Up for Brighton, the song played to gee up the crowd at the Amex before kick-off is now a club anthem largely because Fatboy Slim recorded it and he is the club’s most famous fan. Some chants, then, make it big because of circumstance. More commonly, though, they succeed because they conform to general rules. “It has to be short, repetitive and simple if it’s going to go viral,” says Tim Marshall, the broadcaster and author of a history of football chants, Dirty Northern Bastards. “Seven Nation Army being the classic example. York City’s short-lived and very localised classic, about midfielder Onome Sodje, set to the complex subtlety of Eleanor Rigby is very, very unusual.” A study reported by the Smithsonian museum in Washington further narrowed the traits of a successful chant. They looked at Seven Nation Army, the White Stripes song adapted first in the Netherlands then Germany then everywhere. It has only seven notes, the report observed, making it especially simple to remember. It also has melody that operates in a step-wise motion – ie only going up or down by a single note in a scale – another quality shared by many successful chants. The September chant, then, might be said to be atypical. It has four lines, which don’t run in a step-wise motion and, in the final line, require the singer to practice a small amount of glissando as they shift between notes mid-breath. It is also slightly mystifying as to why this song at this point in time, some 46 years after its release, should be so wholeheartedly embraced by supporters. (Does it say something about the average age of a season ticket holder?) Another unusual aspect works in its favour: the song celebrates those players who are generally forgotten, or perhaps even mocked. The genesis of the September chant is unusual too in that you can actually pin it down. When I first heard it, it was being sung by Watford fans away at Bournemouth in August. I looked it up and found that Rangers, so often responsible for big terrace hits, had also worked one up for new signing Fábio Cardoso. Predating them, however, were Leeds United, who were singing it last year about academy prospect Ronaldo Viera. Middlesbrough too had been singing it in 2016-17 about Gastón Ramírez (presumably the “never gives the ball away” line referred specifically to his memorable solo goal against Bournemouth because he averaged 1.6 turnovers per game last season). A whole year before it appeared anywhere else, however, the September chant was being sung by fans of Newcastle United. Various YouTube videos confirmed the Toon faithful were using the tune and the “never give the ball away” lyric to celebrate the Frenchman Chancel Mbemba in the autumn of 2015. In fact, by the end of last season, they had already dropped it in favour of incorporating Mbemba’s name into a chant about Rafa Benítez to the tune of Ritchie Valens’s La Bamba. Other bulletin board posts helped narrow the likely source. They mentioned hearing the song in the Gallowgate corner and this made sense. Over recent seasons those in that particular part of the former Gallowgate End (whose official name is Strawberry Corner) have taken it upon themselves to try to improve the atmosphere at St James’ Park. Fan groups such as the Gallowgate Flags and Wor Hyem 1892 have sought to bring more colour into the ground and more noise. On Twitter Wor Hyem 1892 told me they were confident they knew the man who had kicked September off. The man was not seeking publicity, but Wor Hyem 1892 assured me he sat in the Gallowgate corner and was a constant source of new music, always making up chants in the car on long away journeys. His latest, about Jamal Lascelles, is set to the “la la la la lala lala” bit of Iggy Pop’s The Passenger. Someone suggested the song was first sung on 7 November 2015 when Newcastle were away at Bournemouth. Wor Hyem concurred. That was the game the man, who was now referred to as Jack, had first sung the song. But there was more information too, something that turned the story on its head. Jack had prepared the chant, observing that Mbemba was Newcastle’s best defender and that he never gave the ball away. He had travelled to the Vitality Stadium ready to belt it out for the first time (the same ground where, two years later, I would first hear the chant myself). But when the game kicked off, Jack was stunned almost to silence. Somebody else was belting out his chant, before he had even had a chance to sing it. They say success has many fathers and perhaps the September chant was just too good to have been invented by one person. Another, more mundane, explanation is that Jack’s idea had leaked. A Reddit user called Sholaaaa posted the lyrics to the song under ‘Toon chants’ on 15 September. The list of football songs that have been written up online but never sung in a crowd is endless, but this one may have been an exception. Either way Jack can be proud; his song had the x factor. Listen out for it at a ground near you.

He's not, but he knows the same bloke who works in the media out there. Thanks.

Don't think he is their source as I am sure they said the person they spoke to was a journalist. That Neil Mitchell is a dentist who did some work for fanzines. @geordiedentist on twitter Ahh I get it now, was getting mixed up.

Is Neil Mitchell Uncle Bingo and Paully's source by any chance? Would make sense. http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/middle-east-view-newcastle-takeover-13939851

Exactly how I feel.

Rafa's in the process of doing what we as fans haven't been able to, and that's giving us our club back. Mans a legend.

Interestingly (or not) a couple of posters on Rawk have been convinced that the clubs already sold. Posted at 2pm yesterday by N11RED: "Sold to the Arabs via PCP, done deal over the weekend. Game changer for them." Guessing or not, the timing is interesting. Also, on 2nd November Anfield Red posted: "My friend a fellow Labour member is the uncle of Jamaal Lascelles and Jamaal has been informed that the club has been sold." followed by this yesterday: "Yep this was 'done' a while ago but they had to follow the process." Now probably bollocks but they seemed convinced well before this news of a bid has broken. I know Paully posts on there, not sure if he's heard any other rumours?

Has it been accepted? Please fucking god!!

West Brom fan at work is over the moon right now. Why couldn't they have just held out 2 more weeks ffs.

What fucking goalkeeping!! Of course Elliot would have saved them too though

Get in

I'm still amazed they felt the need to be so petty by not giving the ball back to Elliot after his injury, instead forcing us to take a throw in by the corner flag. Wankers.

The fans don't see training and haven't seen him play for Norwich. It's only normal they'll call for the lad they've actually seen perform. They should be trusting the world class manager we've got. Or at least listen to him when he tells fans not to abuse players all the time. But they know better than Rafa of course Maybe i've missed this. People are entitled to their opinions which based on what they've seen - makes sense. I don't think anyone in their right mind doubts Rafa but they are allowed independent thoughts. Oh yeah theres nothing wrong with differing opinions, not trying to get at anyone who has a different view on things. We do have a sizeable number of idiots who like to go overboard though, and Rafa has had to repeatedly point this out.

I actually assumed that you'd made this one up, fucking hell man.

He looks mentally ok for the first time in about 6 months which is massive for him and us.

The fans don't see training and haven't seen him play for Norwich. It's only normal they'll call for the lad they've actually seen perform. They should be trusting the world class manager we've got. Or at least listen to him when he tells fans not to abuse players all the time. But they know better than Rafa of course

To be fair pretty sure Lejeune played Callum Wilson onside against Bournemouth for a great chance where he had all the time in the world - even though he missed. Think he was partnering Lascelles at this point. Lejeune looks to have a real touch of quality to his game, but he seems to have a mistake in him at the minute. Funnily enough the same criticism levelled at Clark. Hopefully he just needs to settle into the team a bit.

The replies I like this one: "Fuck off man, Newcastle are bigger than all of them. Stop giving them material to throw back in our face."

If you accept that football fans are, generally, morons, it becomes much less astonishing. He showed some promise yesterday which has to be a positive. I'm still convinced confidence is the biggest issue with him at the moment. Morons messaging him on twitter with abuse won't help.

Fair play to BT Sport for showing the Spanish banner and then translating it into English there

Sanchez

The Independent are saying that Pogba is going to start. Heres hoping he's rusty and not fully fit.

That's my biggest fear in all of this, although the lad I know who spoke to her was utterly convinced about how genuine they were. That and Ashley's ability to change his mind at the drop of the hat, and general cuntishness. After 40 years of (mainly) being let down by this club, I've geared myself for the inevitable bad news. But you never know! Agree 100%. I'm hoping your man is correct in what he's been told first hand. Just find the best thing to do is expect the worst with this club, although praying for the best obviously!

It'd be the most Newcastle thing ever for this too all go tits up. Also with Ashley it's probably the most likely scenario as past history suggests. Something seems to be going on, but none of the press actually have much of an idea at the minute. Staveley has looked into buying Liverpool previously, it is feasible that we're being used as a pawn in a larger game here. The one thing giving me hope this isn't the case is that surely Rafa wouldn't have been fooled and he seemed pretty happy when the news first came out. Anyway, I've tried to ignore this and not get my hopes up but the silence is killing me now. The next few weeks/months could be the most important in the clubs history, for once we need a positive outcome, if it all comes crashing down the comedown is going to be on a scale not even imagined. Fingers crossed!