May you rest in peace, terrace wit!

This has bugged me for a while, I guess a number of things contribute to it – increased prices, all seater stadia and the generally more sanitised way football is now presented to us consumers (see what I did there?), but what on Earth became of the wonderful array of songs and humour we could reel out at a moments notice? It was a sad day for me when I realised the loudest chant that would go up at the City Ground of an afternoon would be “Who are ya?” or a throwback to Big Daddy’s “Easy! Easy! Easy!” mantra. Thanks a bunch, Soccer AM!

Before we were an all seater, I was necessarily a younger fan, still in awe of the experience I’d be in the ground earlier, in the seats with my Dad at first, before graduating to the terraces – when you were standing, you often got in early because you wanted to get a good spot. You’d get to see the players warming up, they’d each get their chant reeled out in turn, it was great! Of course, being the age I am, we all wanted to be there for the team coming out, because we’d as one unleash a barrage of “PSYCHO!” chanting to our illustrious captain, who didn’t used to warm up on the pitch before the match.

Now we’re lucky if our players actually have “a chant” – a few do, Jack Lester, Nathan Tyson or Wes Morgan spring to mind, and they get reeled out if they score, or do something of note – but well, where are the rest of them? Why is nobody quite sure what to chant for Grant Holt – our player of the season so far, or Paul Smith, who ain’t far behind him. Nicky Southall? Does he have one? He may have, and I guess if you’re a regular away follower you might hear ‘em more – but I’d love to hear the City Ground once more cycling through a chant for each player.

Imagine if you were a Forest player – would the regimented and dogmatic cheer as the each of the team are read out make you feel proud and motivated as much as the crowd chanting a song specifically created to show their appreciation of you? No chance! Let’s get ‘em all songs and get ‘em sung audibly at home like we used to! Come on you creative types and you chant starters – we’re not doing too bad on the noise making front, certainly not vs Chesterfield, let’s maximise its effect!

12 Responses

  1. Too many people happy to sit & fester in sterile ‘stadia’ nowadays mate. All the post euro 96 mob who think football was invented in 1992 when the premier league started havent got a clue.

    Footballs dead.

  2. I hope you’re wrong, I fear you’re not :(

  3. It’s a shame really, players like Breckin, Southall, Holt…they all deserve songs.

    Breckin, top scorer and player of the season last year, no song, Danny Cullip comes in and plays a handful of decent games and gets the “there’s only one danny cullip treatment” why not Breckin?

    Grant Holt, been on fire this season, did ok last season aswell, no song, Junior Agogo comes on as sub and he’s even got a chant…

    Nicky Southall, arguably our most consistent player over the past year, no chant…

  4. He’s a vegitarian.

  5. Perhaps we should sing “Grant Holt… There’s only one Grant Holt” as was sung in the late 90′s for “Stanley” and in later years for “Stern John”.

    Of course in the old days, even Tommy Gaynor would get a song….
    “Ooooh Tommy Gaynor, Ooooooh Tommy Gaynor, Ooooooh Tommy Gaynor” and so on….

  6. No1 is Brian Rice….

  7. he’s here, he’s there
    he’s every fcuking where
    grant holt, grant holt

    or

    he’s red’ he’s white
    he’ll kick (name of team we are playing) to shite
    grant holt, grant holt

  8. I like it!!

    On a forum I read occasionally someone suggested the chorus bit to ‘Hey Jude’, along the lines of:

    “Na, na na, na-na-na-naaaaa, Grant Holt!” :)

    Difficult to express in words, tho!

  9. Gumbo your a clown…ANOTHER post ruined by your drivel

  10. I did discover at Yeovil that Grant Holt does have a chant, and it’s quite a good one, in my opinion!

    Based on ‘Hello’ by Oasis, it was sung something like:

    “Whoa-oh! Whoa-oh!
    Super Grant Holt!
    Super Grant Holt!” and repeated.

    (to the bit of the song that goes ‘Hello, hello, it’s good to be back, it’s good to be back)

  11. BR – I’ve never left a message on any other post so technically this is the first post ruined thanks to my drivel. Get your facts right, son! I bet you’re a County fan.

    Oooh Tommy Gaynor! Oooh Tommy Gaynor! Oooh Tommy Gaynor”

  12. [...] Hopefully it will be more along these lines that the collective of Forest fans will select their next ‘hero’ rather than for a one season wonder.  That said, I would rather each and every player had a chant and they were all backed fully, which I might have mentioned before! [...]

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