NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND – MARCH 22: Fans of Sunderland celebrate during the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Sunderland at St James’ Park on March 22, 2026 in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images) | Getty Images
I love some of the new songs that are coming out in tribute to our new squad.
It must give the players a huge lift and a boost of self-belief, and when sitting in the North East Corner, I’m in the unenviable position of having to listen to the away fans spouting off — yet some away fans go quieter more quickly than others, depending on what’s going on on the pitch.
There are times when I read that some ‘Fulwell Enders’ have said they barely heard the Brentford fans or the Fulham fans. Well, I can tell you that early doors, all away fans make a bit of a racket. One of the loudest and best away sets of supporters for me this season were the Aston Villa and Everton fans: loud, and with two or three songs that are unique to their club.
One of my pet hates is songs that every club sings, as they’ve become very boring, tedious and almost childlike — the top three being: “Is this a library?”, “Is there a fire drill?” (quite apt for us, as even some of our own fans are annoyed at our early leavers) and “Where’s your famous atmosphere?” (which actually is a backhanded compliment, as it proves we’ve become noted for our atmospheres!).
There was a time at Roker Park when during the warm-ups, each player would have their name chanted by the Fulwell End.
Warm-ups were very different in those days — not the orchestrated exercises, drills and stretches that they are today. Players would come out onto the pitch twenty minutes before kick-off and have a kickabout or do a few sprints to loosen up.
This was an opportunity for the Fulwell to acknowledge each player in the team, and I remember it fondly.
The songs were usually basic and not generally as elaborate as nowadays, but all players got one and in turn, they would applaud back, making it obvious to me that not only are they aware of the crowd and what they were singing, but that it made their chests stick out a little more.
To the rhythm of clapping… “1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4… Chisholm, Watson — England, Watson — England”, “One Gary Owers, there’s only one Gary Owers”, and “Joe Joe Joe Bolton” (repeated ad infinitum). A more recent equivalent would be the “He’s one of our own” chant. Not very inspiring, but simple and direct.
Occasionally, there was a chant or a tune that was never transferred to anyone else: “Vic Halom, Vic Halom, Vic Halom…la la la la la la” — or “E-I-E-I-E-I-O, up the Football League we go. When we win promotion, this is what we’ll sing. We all love…we all love you, Toddo is our king.”
An early memory for me was, “Charlie, Charlie, Charlie Hurley – Charlie, Charlie, Charlie Hurley – Charlie, Charlie, Charlie Hurley…Charlie Hurley is our king.”
Another memory was “Six foot two, eyes of blue, Big Jim Holton’s after you”, to the tune of Has Anyone Seen My Girl — and of course, “Walking In A Rowell Wonderland”.
These were simple, not too wordy and everyone could join in with and get behind — although I often felt sorry for the players that were out there warming up and didn’t get a chant.
This did happen at times but on other match days, you could almost sense the crowd thinking “We haven’t chanted for so and so yet”, and out would come one of the generic songs so the player wouldn’t go back into the dressing room a little crestfallen!
I remember singing “When you’re smiling” at some away games in the 1970s and the final lines used the words “The — whole — world — smiles — with — you”, were distinctly emphasised, then “Sun — der — land” (clap clap clap) was chanted for a while.
I wonder when songs started to get a little more sophisticated — or wordy, for want of a better description.
For me, one of the first complicated songs in this category was Cheer Up Peter Reid, set to the tune of The Monkees’ Daydream Believer (written by Neil Diamond). And in that period, we also had Niall Quinn’s Disco Pants and the simpler “Super…Super Kev…Super Kevin Phillips”.
Lately, we’ve had some fabulous ones — “Oi! Big Man!” for Eliezer Mayenda and “We’ve Got Le Fée”.
Interestingly, both Brian Brobbey and Granit Xhaka’s songs are based on pop songs from the 1960s which are now played over the speakers before or after a game — Brobbey’s to Doo Wah Diddy by Manfred Mann and Xhaka’s to Glad All Over by The Dave Clark Five, the latter of which has really taken off, especially away from home, where the fans have converted almost the entire song.
Of course, in the days of social media, it’s easy for other clubs to pinch an idea and use it themselves, and not many songs remain truly unique.
The Peter Reid song actually reached the top forty, but it was hijacked and once the words were turned against us, we stopped singing it. Another interesting one that I’m sure was created by us is “We’re on our way, we’re on our way… to the Premier, we’re on our way”, which is set to the tune of our post-match song from Paint Your Wagon — a favourite musical of Bob Murray.
Now adapted by most clubs. I know Hull City use Wise Men Say, but recently, I’m sure I heard a Premier League club singing it on Match of the Day. Sacrilege — and I also often wonder why everyone stopped singing You’ll Never Walk Alone.
It was a staple of the 1970s and 1980s, but then it became Liverpool’s song, so other clubs stopped using it. How come they have a patent on that one, but other songs are pinched?
Even the Visitors’ song of The Blaydon Races was sung by other clubs as well as ourselves. “Gannin’ along the Roker Road to see the Sunlun’ aces”. Other than the barcodes, only the nutters from Manchester United still sing that one, and there’s also a social history attached to certain chants.
The current crop of players are hearing more varied chants than they have for a while, I would guess.
Trai Hume and Robin Roefs get the “Goooooch!” treatment; “Dan Ballard, Ballard…he’s big and he’s f****** hard”, whilst Nordi Mukiele, Chris Rigg, Chemsdine Talbi, Wilson Isidor and Luke O’Nien all have their own chants.
Of players who’ve made several appearances, there are no chants yet for Omar Alderete, Reinildo or Habib Diarra — or maybe I just haven’t heard them. During Roker’s warm-ups, they would’ve been given a simple ‘clap, clap, clap’ chant, so I think there’s wiggle room for a songsmith.
Our away supporters — no matter how you view the distribution of tickets — are superb but for me, the trick is to be able to house all these vocal heroes in one area of the stadium. The simpler songs will be picked up and used by everyone, and our ground is really impressive when everyone is singing from all corners.
