When Cologne beat Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany’s Bundesliga, they celebrated the Rhine derby victory in a unique way.
The music was turned off at the RheinEnergieStadion after the 3-1 victory in October as the players stood in front of the fans for a rousing rendition of En Unserem Veedel, a Kolsch ballad that pays homage to the sense of unity and togetherness.
It went down well with ESPN reporter Archie Rhind-Tutt. He tweeted: “Less mindless music pumping, more of this please.”
Well done FC Köln, not just on the derby win but on turning the music off as the fans celebrated with the players. Singing a very famous Kölsch ballad, En Unserem Veedel, to celebrate.
Less mindless music pumping, more of this please 🥰 pic.twitter.com/V8NVJ0pQOu
— Archie Rhind-Tutt (@archiert1) October 22, 2023
Katharina Hillen, responsible for matchday events at Cologne, says: “We have turned off the music in the stadium so the atmosphere emanating from the fan chants is transmitted to the whole stadium.
“This often happens after wins and ensures special goosebump moments, as the entire stadium joins in. We want to give all spectators the best possible football experience that they will remember fondly. The Kolschen songs have a traditional and unifying character.”
Post-match choreographing with music is part and parcel of the glitz and razzmatazz of the occasion for clubs in England. Each club has a way of doing things, with a common goal in mind — to make every game feel special, putting on a show for supporters inside the ground and the global audience.
The city of Leeds is the domain of the Kaiser Chiefs, the band who named themselves after the South African team where Lucas Radebe — one-time Leeds United captain and all-round legend — started his playing career.
Simon Rix, the Kaiser Chiefs’ bass guitarist, has become prominent at Elland Road. A season ticket holder for many years, Rix is the president of the Leeds United Supporters’ Trust (LUST). One of the songs he helped to write serves as Leeds’ post-match soundtrack.
I Predict a Riot was initially synonymous with Josh Warrington, the former IBF featherweight champion who fights out of Leeds. It has been his ringwalk song for much of his career, including the night he beat Lee Selby for the IBF belt in front of 20,000 spectators at Elland Road.
The Kaiser Chiefs played live inside the ground for that bout, blasting out I Predict a Riot as Warrington made his way through the crowd beforehand.
Warrington is himself a season-ticket holder at Leeds and his large following sees a huge amount of crossover from United’s fanbase. Eventually, the club took to playing I Predict a Riot after home wins — and few songs are quite so good at tapping into a sparky atmosphere. Warrington loves a scrap and Leeds love a scrap. As tunes go, it was made for them.
I predict a riot! pic.twitter.com/3DdGQo0toA
— Leeds United (@LUFC) February 23, 2024
The walkout choice of music before matches is usually the club anthem. At Brighton & Hove Albion, for example, it is Sussex by the Sea, a military marching song that dates back to the First World War.
That is quite a contrast to what happens after games at the Amex Stadium when Roberto De Zerbi’s side win. They are not the only club to tap into the buoyant mood of home fans by pumping out the European-wide hit Freed from Desire by female Italian singer Gala.
It carried over to the dressing room, too, at the end of last season, as De Zerbi, his staff and players celebrated Europa League qualification with a 1-1 draw against Manchester City.
The Brighton boys are having a party 🥳
Europa League football is on the horizon for the Seagulls.
And the party begins with ‘Freed from Desire’.#PL #OptusSport pic.twitter.com/vNJ1oHiFru
— Optus Sport (@OptusSport) May 25, 2023
Ring of Fire by American country singer-songwriter Johnny Cash is usually part of the medley, along with the favourite choice on an especially good day for an individual player. Brighton are still waiting to blast out a tune by The Proclaimers to mark the first goal from Scotland international midfielder Billy Gilmour. On standby in the event of a draw is Praise You by locally based music icon Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim.
At Brentford, they also play Freed from Desire, along with Rockin’ All Over the World (Status Quo) and Hey Jude (The Beatles). The players always go on a lap of honour when the first two of those songs are playing.
At Newcastle, the pre-match song, Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero by Mark Knopfler, is changed to True Faith by New Order with a victory for Eddie Howe’s team. At Tottenham Hotspur, there has been plenty to get excited about under avuncular Australian Ange Postecoglou.
So much music has been played that Postecoglou called the stadium “a nightclub” after beating Fulham in October. At the end of that game, there was Islands in the Stream by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, Angels (Robbie Williams) — so everyone could sing the Postecoglou adaptation — plus a speeded-up version of an old Spurs favourite, Can’t Smile Without You (Barry Manilow).
Robbie Williams singing ‘I’M LOVING BIG ANGE INSTEAD’ 😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/fttlqrjdjo
— The Spurs Watch (@TheSpursWatch) August 27, 2023
Chelsea have an apt choice of band for their celebration tune, considering the extent of the churn in staff and players at Stamford Bridge since the Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital consortium took over the club in May 2022 — One Step Beyond by Madness.
Fulham have opted for 1960s nostalgia with Can’t Take My Eyes Off You by Andy Williams. Pre-match at Craven Cottage they play the Steve Sharples version of Bolero, the closing credits to Moulin Rouge — they are a sophisticated bunch on the banks of the River Thames.
At Wolverhampton Wanderers, the regularity of Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears has given way this season at Molineux to a changing selection. The atmosphere post-match is dictated by results.
Victories have been rare for strugglers Sheffield United. When they won for fun in the Championship last season, the Greasy Chip Butty Song, with their own lyrics to the tune of Annie’s Song by John Denver, would get an airing…
“You fill up my senses, like a gallon of Magnet
Like a packet of Woodbines, like a good pinch of snuff
Like a night out in Sheffield, like a greasy chip butty
Like Sheffield United, come fill me again”
Former Sheffield United assistant Stuart McCall was the manager at Bradford City in 2018 when DJ Stephen Midgley was asked by club bosses for an explanation of why he played Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads following a 4-0 home defeat to AFC Wimbledon in League One, a fifth successive loss in all competitions.
Before the advent of carefully choreographed pre- and post-match playlists, it was quite common for clubs when money was tight to let loose volunteer fans on the PA system. That was the case at Brighton from 1997 to 2011 when they were in League Two or League One, groundsharing at Gillingham for two seasons and playing home games at Withdean Stadium, a converted athletics track.
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Supporter John Baine, better known by his stage name Attila The Stockbroker, was used to performing for crowds as a punk poet, musician and songwriter.
He offered his services free of charge to then-chairman Dick Knight. Baine says: “I said to Dick, if I’m going to do it, I’ve got to do what I want. As long as you are OK with it being punk, ska and reggae.
“At Gillingham, I would arrive early, have five pints and get on the PA box. I played (Karlheinz) Stockhausen and Welsh language hip-hop, all kinds of things. People at Gillingham and Withdean thought it was great, different.
“I didn’t just play punk stuff, but obvious references to our ‘exile’ status, too, tracks like We Gotta Get Out of This Place (by The Animals). We Shall Come Home by the Oysterband became our theme tune. Every week, I tried to come up with a couple of musical jokes or comments to cheer up and encourage our faithful fanbase.”
Music was only allowed 15 minutes before matches at Withdean to avoid upsetting neighbours in the leafy Brighton suburb. “At the end of the game, if we won, there was a ska version of Sussex by the Sea, which I put together with actor Ralph Brown playing saxophone,” Baine says.
“If we lost we didn’t play anything. We weren’t supposed to play anything, win or lose, but I got away with that. Now it’s very different, very corporate. I cycle (to the Amex) and get there 10 minutes before the game. The music they play is execrable!”
Baine’s musical tastes landed him in trouble when Colchester United were Brighton’s opponents at Gillingham on Boxing Day in 1997. “I decided to play Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols,” he says. “It had been on for about a minute when a policeman burst into the box. ‘You can’t play that record at a football match. It’s banned. It’s on the list. It incites violence in the crowd’.
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“Brighton received a formal letter from Kent Police banning me from doing the PA at Gillingham any longer. Dick Knight spoke to them and the ban was rescinded, on condition that I didn’t play Anarchy in the UK again. So I didn’t.
“I did play Smash It Up by the Damned and The Clash’s version of I Fought the Law in the next couple of weeks, though. No policemen appeared in the box. Obviously, those weren’t on the list.”
(Top photo: Leon Kuegeler/Getty Images)