On the Ball city.....pre-match.

[Yellow since 1977 0]

Does anyone else cringe when we have two people on th pitch and we all sing "On the ball city......" before the match. I know it is a bit of a money earner and it gets us to raise the atmosphere and I gladly sing it during the match but isn''t it a bit naff.

I might be well off the mark here but could we do something else instead which is less cringe worthy, mexican wave, cheerleaders, Aviva the Lima and Captain Canary have a punch up, unisex topless penalty shoot out!

What do other clubs do before kick off, I went to Wolves and they sing Hi Ho Wolverhampton but we just substitued the Hi Ho with two words that start with an F and ends with an F.

Anyone seen any good pre-match crowd raisers?

[Trent Canary 0]

Agree with OTBC pre-game, I think its awful. Sure others will disagree though.Best for me was Wolves in the playoffs, they sang the one you mentioned, then did a version of the liquidator (The song Chelsea have now adopted), that was very loud. 

[shefcanary 2,955]

[quote user="Yellow since 1977"]

Does anyone else cringe when we have two people on th pitch and we all sing "On the ball city......" before the match. I know it is a bit of a money earner and it gets us to raise the atmosphere and I gladly sing it during the match but isn''t it a bit naff.

I might be well off the mark here but could we do something else instead which is less cringe worthy, mexican wave, cheerleaders, Aviva the Lima and Captain Canary have a punch up, unisex topless penalty shoot out!

What do other clubs do before kick off, I went to Wolves and they sing Hi Ho Wolverhampton but we just substitued the Hi Ho with two words that start with an F and ends with an F.

Anyone seen any good pre-match crowd raisers?

[/quote]

In a word, no.  Actually OTBC is one of the best whatever your views.  What''s the point of playing some 1960''s/70''s single with the crowd singing different words on top (as happens with many clubs - Hi Ho Silver Lining @ Wednesday, United by Judas Priest at Sheff U for starters - now they are embarassing) when we can have the oldest football anthem in the world to charge us all up.  Some of you guys need to get out and about a bit more - or at least take your seats at away matches before the kick off!

[Superflash 0]

If you don''t want to join in with the oldest football song still in use, then don''t ''effing well bother, you miserable toads.

[trueyellow 0]

agreed I cringe every time as well, it gives the impression that we cant create an atmosphere ourselves. Hopefully this will stop before the start of next season!

[Trent Canary 0]

[quote user="Superflash"]If you don''t want to join in with the oldest football song still in use, then don''t ''effing well bother, you miserable toads. [/quote]I always sing it, its just having to be prompted that annoys me. Makes it look like we cant generate an atmosphere ourselves. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but as I said earlier im sure some will respectfuly disagree.

[Superflash 0]

[quote user="Trent Canary"][quote user="Superflash"]If you don''t want to join in with the oldest football song still in use, then don''t ''effing well bother, you miserable toads. [/quote]I always sing it, its just having to be prompted that annoys me. Makes it look like we cant generate an atmosphere ourselves. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but as I said earlier im sure some will respectfuly disagree.[/quote]Fair enough, perhaps I jumped the gun a bit. To be honest though, back in the day I''m sure it was a regular occurance anyway. So if anything it''s keeping to tradition.

[shefcanary 2,955]

And every other club in the country doesn''t also try and gee the crowd up before a game?  Sorry but they do and I''d rather it was an original song specific to MY club than something alien forced upon us like every other football club DJ does!  Don''t cringe, join in and test your vocals!  It could be worse, Spurs use their Chas ''n'' Dave songs, what pop record from Norwich would we use - apart from "Love on the Terraces" from Serious Drinking of course!

[Trent Canary 0]

[quote user="Superflash"][quote user="Trent Canary"][quote user="Superflash"]If you don''t want to join in with the oldest football song still in use, then don''t ''effing well bother, you miserable toads. [/quote]I always sing it, its just having to be prompted that annoys me. Makes it look like we cant generate an atmosphere ourselves. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but as I said earlier im sure some will respectfuly disagree.[/quote]Fair enough, perhaps I jumped the gun a bit. To be honest though, back in the day I''m sure it was a regular occurance anyway. So if anything it''s keeping to tradition. [/quote]Well as far as I remember we always sung OTBC pre kick-off anyway, as it should be. The only part that annoys me is that for whatever reason the club decided to make money on it (I assume they are anyway) and get some people on the microphone to lead us on our way. Just to clarify to others, im all in favour of the fans singing OTBC before kick off, just without the prompting part which I feel is a tad embarassing.

[Tubbs & Edward 0]

Sorry to be a ''know-all'', but Chelsea used to play ''The Liquidator'' back in the 60''s, with the only tannoy speaker in the old ''shed-end''. My first visit to the old Stamford Bridge was in 1969, and they were playing it then.Maybe other clubs have adopted it since, but they were the originators, much like us with ''On the ball city''

[Trent Canary 0]

[quote user="shefcanary"]And every other club in the country doesn''t also try and gee the crowd up before a game?  Sorry but they do and I''d rather it was an original song specific to MY club than something alien forced upon us like every other football club DJ does!  Don''t cringe, join in and test your vocals!  It could be worse, Spurs use their Chas ''n'' Dave songs, what pop record from Norwich would we use - apart from "Love on the Terraces" from Serious Drinking of course![/quote]I do join in..Yes they gee up the crowd pre-match, but singing OTBC doesnt need prompting, the crowd always did it themselves! (Therefore dont need geeing up) Anyway. Agree to disagree and all that.

[Trent Canary 0]

Thanks Steeno, I stand corrected. I always thought they had ''Blue is the colour'' as their pre-match theme, didnt realize the liquidator had been kicking around for that length of time as well.

[Bury Yellow 2]

But most clubs do something so the ''can''t we generate our own atmosphere'' is not, I think, an embarrassment.

I go to most away games and other than the Wolves example most clubs try and fail.

Where we are not anywhere near as good is the choice of pre match build up music. Now that is pants.

Credit where it''s due though, I did like the announcements when we scored, giving the scorers running tally for the season. A nice touch.

[Yellow since 1977 0]

Glad I have been able to start an interesting debate. I agree with Trent Canary, i like to sing OBC but not being prompted.

What about if the club recorded the crowd singing OBC before a match and then played this over the PA at volume with us singing along as well, this would probably double the noise level. If the club wanted to make money out of it perhaps have a sponsor for the pre-match song which is read out before we sing.

 

[Trent Canary 0]

[quote user="Bury Yellow"]

Credit where it''s due though, I did like the announcements when we scored, giving the scorers running tally for the season. A nice touch.[/quote]Agreed.I also happen to be favour of the goal music when we score, whereas some people on here think we should scrap it and just leave the noise to the crowd. So I clearly have no idea what side I stand on!

[DDD In The Fine City 1]

[quote user="Trent Canary"]Agree with OTBC pre-game, I think its awful. Sure others will disagree though.

Best for me was Wolves in the playoffs, they sang the one you mentioned, then did a version of the liquidator (The song Chelsea have now adopted), that was very loud. 




[/quote]

Goes along the lines of "F**k off west brom! the Wolves!"

very loud

[Trent Canary 0]

[quote]

Goes along the lines of "F**k off west brom! the Wolves!"

very loud

[/quote]Thats the one.Id also add I enjoyed the singing of ''Daydream believer'' back in the day pre-game. That was prompted, and It got the crowd going well before the game started. I just think that when the teams are out its different and the fans should be able to do it themselves (Which we most certainly can).

[Adam NCFC 0]

I think the reason we are prompted to do it, is so the N&P know that they are alowed to sing atleast once!I love it, great way to start the match. [:)]

[Bill 1,788]

I wouldn''t mind if it was sung. The awful cuckoo clock version now is cringe worthy.

If you''ve never been at Carrow Road and heard it ''sung'' you''ve not lived.

Clue - it''s a song, not a chant.

[GenerationA47 864]

Interesting angle CIty1st - I know you''ve been around a while. I''ve heard the honky-tonk retro version on utube versus what we sing now.

When did it get sped up / the notes get lost? And did anyone EVER sing any of the verses at matches??

Agree with OP by the way, it''s embarrassing to be corralled by men with mikes (or tannoyed tunes). I thought it was just a German ''strictly organised spontenaity'' thing having seen it at games over there years ago, but now it''s happening here as well.

Maybe the football business feels that customer vocalisation as one of the last non-commodified elements of the game is out of hand and is now ready to be brought under commercial control.

[can u sit down please 0]

I like it apart from the 3-2-1 part....

What I like that arsenal do is when announcing the teams.

For example the PA guy would say "number 4, Cesc........" then the crowd shout out the last name.

[GenerationA47 864]

Funnily enough that seems to be copied from German football too, cusdp. They used to do that (this was 10 years ago now) in the team announcements and also when announcing who just scored.

[CDMullins 498]

How do we make money from been promt to sing OTBC before matches?

Most clubs have run out songs that are related to the club and start a song. Hull and Derby are 2 off the top of my head, also Man Utd play Country Roads so they can join in with there own version.

[morty 0]

[quote user="CDMullins"]How do we make money from been promt to sing OTBC before matches?

Most clubs have run out songs that are related to the club and start a song. Hull and Derby are 2 off the top of my head, also Man Utd play Country Roads so they can join in with there own version.[/quote]Because the person / people that come on the pitch to start it off pay to do so. I think its a lot of money too.

[e10_yellow 0]

The whole dictated OTBC thing was made to look a bit stupid at one game last season (can''t remember which, definitely after Christmas) when pre-match the crowd sang a very loud rendition, then as soon as it finished were prompted to sing it again straight away by the PA guys just cos a couple of people on the pitch had paid for it.

[Felixfan 53]

Be better if we could sing along to a recorded version. That way we would all sing the same words at the same time.

[GenerationA47 864]

True - we wouldn''t even need to sing, just listen along

[Chris. 0]

We need a discrete signal so we give the away fans a suprise !!

[Dame to Blame 108]

Being prompted to sing OTBC is naff always has been always will be, and i don''t join in as i hate the whole idea  of it.  Prehaps i am too old school and the new generation of fans love all this sing along prompting and jumping up and down to that awful yankee style goal celebration  music ,but not for me i prefer the crowd getting my emotions going it feels more real and genuine to me anyway.

[William Darby 0]

[quote user="morty"][quote user="CDMullins"]How do we make money from been promt to sing OTBC before matches?

Most clubs have run out songs that are related to the club and start a song. Hull and Derby are 2 off the top of my head, also Man Utd play Country Roads so they can join in with there own version.[/quote]Because the person / people that come on the pitch to start it off pay to do so. I think its a lot of money too.[/quote]So why not after 3-2-1 the crowd follows up with ''**** off''