*ahem* http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/130093_youll_never_walk_alone_is_our_song ONE of the most bitter rivalries in football has taken a new twist with the claim that Liverpool fans stole their famous You'll Never Walk Alone anthem from Manchester United supporters. Grandmother Jane Hardwick says she was left seeing red after reading a letter in a newspaper which said the song, made famous by Gerry and the Pacemakers, was first belted out on the terraces of Anfield. Jane, a lifelong Reds' supporter from this end of the East Lancs Road, claims it was originally sung by her and thousands of fans at Old Trafford long before it became associated with Liverpool. Jane, 61, was a teenage opera singer when many of her footballing heroes were killed in the tragic Munich air crash in 1958. And as her own special tribute to the Busby Babes, heartbroken Jane convinced her friends from New Mills Operatic Society in Derbyshire to join her in a rousing rendition of the song at one of the games following the tragedy. The tune was written for the 1945 musical Carousel, which Jane and her friends were rehearsing at the time. The pals started the singing but soon You'll Never Walk Alone was being belted out by thousands of fans at Old Trafford. However, during the 1960s the song was adopted by Liverpool fans.
The important part is... In other words, Liverpool fans cannot say they own it - the rights are owned by the estate of Rogers & Hammerstein for a start. There's also the not inconsiderable fact that the song isn't sung by one of the leads, but by one of the supporting cast. There's a certain irony in that...
Exactly the point I was trying to make. There's also a certain irony that Liverpool fans have taken a song from a musical about a bank robber and made it their own..................
Loads of teams sing it, All over the world. Also loads of teams have an End called the KOP. But we are most famous for singing it and we have the most famous Kop, says all you need to know about LFC>>>(Cue waste of space nonsenscial reply.)
The first recorded reference to a sports terrace as "Kop" related to Woolwich Arsenal's Manor Ground in 1904. A local newsman likened the silhouette of fans standing on a newly-raised bank of earth to soldiers standing atop the hill at the Battle of Spion Kop. In 1906 Liverpool Echo sports editor Ernest Edwards noted of a new open-air embankment at Anfield: "This huge wall of earth has been termed 'Spion Kop', and no doubt this apt name will always be used in future in referring to this spot". The name was formally consummated in 1928 upon construction of a roof. It is thought to be the first terrace officially named Spion Kop. Many other English football clubs and some Rugby league clubs (such as Wigan's former home Central Park) applied the same name to stands in later years. Villa Park's old Holte End is historically the largest of all Kop ends, closely followed by the old South Bank at Molineux, both once regularly holding crowds in excess of 30,000. By the mid 1980s Hillsborough's Kop had become the largest roofed terrace in Europe, with a capacity of around 25,000. Not the first, and not the biggest.
But just the most well known. You say 'Kop', everyone will say 'Liverpool'. Don't try and argue, you know it's true, and quite frankly don't know why we are debating this anyway
A few people might not know what you're talking about and assume you're talking about a member of the local constabulary. By "a few people", I'm referring to the majority of the world's population...
It always drives me nuts when someone uses the "everybody knows x" defence - for example, when Oasis fans bang on about how everyone knows their songs, despite them selling about six records outside the UK during their entire career which implies nobody cares enough to name their songs to begin with.
To be fair to Oasis though Croydon, everybody does know their songs. They nicked them from bands like The Beatles, T. Rex and Gary Glitter.
I still bridle with indignation when I recall a Man U spokesman, around 1963 or 64 announcing that from now on 'Glory Glory Man United' would be the official club song. Cheek! Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur had been ringing round our ground from the '60/61 season. We sung it regularly, with gusto and on european nights it almost lifted the stands off their foundations. Ok, everyone nicks or adapts each others songs, Southampton for example, 'When the Saints go marching in'. Everyone has nicked and adapted that BUT they have not made an OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!
This shows two pictures, one is a small section of supporters waving blue scarves the other is almost a full stand of supporters waving red scarves, if you took the top left or top centre section of the red picture and enlarged it to the same size as the blue picture the only difference would be the colour of the scarves. Do i get a prize
no not at all. wrong answer Diego! the correct answer is that all the FLAGS in the first picture are the same and are freebies from Abramavich to get his rent-a-crowd cheering. The second is some originality and fans brining their own custom made flags, scarves and banners to add to the already stellar atmosphere of Anfield.
One is a football crowd cheering on their team and the other is a bunch of delusional scouse pricks with red scarves?
