When You're Smiling before kick off.

[Plastik Man]

11 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

I know I'm in a minority but please no. 

 

It's shit. It sounds shit. It's never worked. The reason it never really catches on with everyone is because it just doesn't sound good. It's a forced tradition that mostly millennial fans want to drive because they want us to have something to rival the great anthems of other clubs.

 

But that's the problem, it's not an anthem. It's not anthemic. The closest version that's ever been to an anthem was Jersey Budd and that's ****ing vile. That level of cheese is what you'd need to make it  "epic" and none of us want that. 

 

I would 100% much rather everyone got behind a Kasabian song, LSF had an amazing vocal hook that sounds superb at Kasabian concerts. That's far more Leicester than WYS will ever be and actually sounds far better. 

 

I do appreciate this is a hugely unpopular opinion but still. Soapbox rant over. 

You're right, it's not an anthem, but I don't think it has to be. There's room for different types of songs.

 

Incidentally the Peter Crebbin Cool Swing Band played a swinging version of WYS yesterday on the Western Park Bandstand. I couldn't help but go a bit "Louis Armstrong" singing along, but I digress, that could've just been the lager.

 

I agree about LSF, that vocal hook really does sound like it was written for the terraces. That would work better pre match in my opinion.

[Vlad the Fox]

Problem is that it’s just not catchy enough for it to catch on in the quieter areas of the ground. In all my years of going it’s only ever been a Kop song or an away chant. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it belted out from all sides and I don’t think it will, the closest it ever got was when they played the Budd version that no one likes. I admire people’s effort and I used to love belting it out with the fancy jazzy hand movements on a cold wet December afternoon with a couple of hundred other diehards at such bleak places as blackburn, but I’ve finally come to accept it’s never going to catch on in the proportions people want.

 

It also really annoys me when people bang on about WYS but have completely forgotten ‘Those Were the Days’ which really does sound epic when a good crowd are all belting it out, catchy tune as well.

 

Or maybe time we marked our recent success with a new anthem, a tune that can be sung by those in the west stand as well as everywhere else, I’d go for ‘impossible dream’ so fitting. 

 

I also agree with LSF, I suggested it years ago, but while it’s been tried a few times it just doesn’t seem to catch on, shame as bouncing that from one side of the ground to another would sound great.

Edited 1 July 2019 by Vlad the Fox

[st albans fox]

I think we should try and make it audible and sound organised during a game before giving it pre kick off status ..... it was much better years ago ..., YNWA it certainly isn’t ..... it could only work as an anthem if it is sung slowly ....... people don’t have the patience and it becomes a mess ....

[The Year Of The Fox]

7 hours ago, SystonFox said:

When was the last time rock in all over the world was played post match? I remember hearing it against spurs in 2006 the de vries game but not since. However I wasn’t at every home game since so if someone can enlighten me?

 

status quo post match was class. Was it played at Wembley in the 90s?

It was certainly played after lifting the League 1 trophy v Scunthorpe. It probably was too after Doncaster and the Championship trophy but I was too pissed to be certain

[mozartfox]

I would prefer 'Fox on the Run' by the Sweet.  

[Finnegan]

8 hours ago, Plastik Man said:

You're right, it's not an anthem, but I don't think it has to be. There's room for different types of songs.

 

Incidentally the Peter Crebbin Cool Swing Band played a swinging version of WYS yesterday on the Western Park Bandstand. I couldn't help but go a bit "Louis Armstrong" singing along, but I digress, that could've just been the lager.

 

I agree about LSF, that vocal hook really does sound like it was written for the terraces. That would work better pre match in my opinion.

 

To be clear, I'd absolutely never bemoan people chanting it (because to be clear, that's what it is - a chant not a song) during a match. It has its place in our repetoir and a lot of people clearly are attached to it. 

 

Just stop trying to force it as a club anthem. 

 

At the risk of sounding even more up myself than normal, I think sometimes people need to stop and think a bit about music. Forget football, forget history, tradition, just think about music. Think about what makes a song successful (specifically as a sing along), what makes a melodic hook work. What songs have caught on the most over the last ten or so years? 

 

We Love You and the Ben Marshall chant always spring to mind. Much derided and sneered at on social media by football chant police, they swept the stadium. Every corner, even end to end of the main stand, joining in. Why? Why do they work when more "clever" hipster chants don't? In the word of Michael Bolton and Lonely Island: a big sexy hook you're gonna really dig. 

 

Why do Living On A Prayer and Summer of 69 refuse to go away no matter how cheesy they are or how much nearly everyone pretends to hate them? No matter how many people claim to be singing along ironically? Because they feel good to belt out. Those choruses are fantastic works of pop art. 

 

And that's what a successful chant needs to be. Pop. 

 

When You're Smiling is a valid piece of music, people like it, it's got appeal, different strokes for different folks. But it's never gonna be a pissed up, gone midnight karaoke pop classic with the whole pub singing along because it just isn't satisfying in that way. 

 

Nobody had to force Annfield to sing YNWA, the whole ground wanted to, it was a catchy pop song with a catchy chorus that was and is appealing to sing (not awkwardly chant at hundred miles an hour.) Sure it started by being played before kick off but they used to play all sorts of music before kick off and the crowd would sing along, that one stuck because it works musically. 

 

WYS has had plenty of opportunity to stick over the years, it's not new. Petitioning to have the club help you force a tradition is awkward and a bit weird. It probably won't be successful and if the club help you try we'll just end up with a weirdly awkward attempt pre match where a few more determined fans give it a go for half a season mostly sounding shit while everyone else pulls faces unsure what's going on. 

Edited 2 July 2019 by Finnegan

[SpacedX]

5 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

To be clear, I'd absolutely never bemoan people chanting it (because to be clear, that's what it is - a chant not a song) during a match. It has its place in our repetoir and a lot of people clearly are attached to it. 

 

As I recall, about four months ago you declared that it "is fundamentally shit" and that the only ones that do sing it "do so because they're desperate for us to have something vaguely traditional in our song book out of envy for clubs that do."

[Finnegan]

29 minutes ago, Line-X said:

As I recall, about four months ago you declared that it "is fundamentally shit" and that the only ones that do sing it "do so because they're desperate for us to have something vaguely traditional in our song book out of envy for clubs that do."

 

Yeah and that's my genuine opinion on it. Maybe "wouldn't bemoan" is the wrong turn of phrase given I'll moan about basically anything going but my point is, I'd never campaign for people to stop singing it. They can do what they want. 

 

Grinds my gears and unpopular opinion is full of my soap box rants about things I hate but it doesn't mean I insist people stop doing them. 

 

For me, that's the point of those threads. It's somewhere to generally gripe without taking action. 

 

Edited 2 July 2019 by Finnegan

[dmayne7]

I don't even like it being sung during the match let alone being our main song

[indierich06]

10 hours ago, Finnegan said:

I know I'm in a minority but please no. 

 

It's shit. It sounds shit. It's never worked. The reason it never really catches on with everyone is because it just doesn't sound good. It's a forced tradition that mostly millennial fans want to drive because they want us to have something to rival the great anthems of other clubs.

 

But that's the problem, it's not an anthem. It's not anthemic. The closest version that's ever been to an anthem was Jersey Budd and that's ****ing vile. That level of cheese is what you'd need to make it  "epic" and none of us want that. 

 

I would 100% much rather everyone got behind a Kasabian song, LSF had an amazing vocal hook that sounds superb at Kasabian concerts. That's far more Leicester than WYS will ever be and actually sounds far better. 

 

I do appreciate this is a hugely unpopular opinion but still. Soapbox rant over. 

Absolutely agree. It's never really worked. 

[Voll Blau]

Song that's been consistently sung by our fanbase for more than 50 years has "never caught on". OK.

 

I get that it's not a simple melody to do unless you know it, but it still sounded fvcking brilliant at Cardiff last year - like, genuinely spine-tingling. Keep Right On isn't the easiest tune to pick up straight away and yet Birmingham belt that out every week just fine. We're just a lazy fanbase these days who can be arsed with most chants unless it's a fad 50 other teams have sung first (see "Vichai had a dream"). Any noise is better than no noise, but that's just how it is with us.

[AKCJ]

10 hours ago, Ashley said:

@Walkers why the ? 

 

 

Take it you didnt go Cardiff then Finners? 

The chant is brilliant, the music isn't.

 

 

[davieG]

16 hours ago, Plastik Man said:

I actually think it would be better played after the final whistle.

 

A lot of European teams seem to play old or traditional songs after their games have finished, which seems to work well.

 

I think it it would fit well whilst we applaud the players or wait miserably to stumble down to the concourse and off home,whether we win or lose, we'll keep on smiling.

 

I think we should reserve Always Look on the Bright side of Life for after the game. 

 

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As for WYS, whether it's an anthem or not surely having 30k people singing it in unison and at the right pace would look and sound pretty impressive and impactful and it doesn't stop anyone else singing something else. How or when that's achieved is more debatable. 

[Finnegan]

30 minutes ago, Voll Blau said:

Song that's been consistently sung by our fanbase for more than 50 years has "never caught on". OK.

 

I get that it's not a simple melody to do unless you know it, but it still sounded fvcking brilliant at Cardiff last year - like, genuinely spine-tingling. Keep Right On isn't the easiest tune to pick up straight away and yet Birmingham belt that out every week just fine. We're just a lazy fanbase these days who can be arsed with most chants unless it's a fad 50 other teams have sung first (see "Vichai had a dream"). Any noise is better than no noise, but that's just how it is with us.

 

It absolutely hasn't caught on the scale that a vocal minority on here want it to though and deep down you absolutely know that. I know you do. 

 

I'm pretty confident you're one of the folk on here that long for a better national anthem, right? I'm pretty sure you're a fan of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau? Our anthem doesn't just sound better because we're better singers than you soulless Saxons (although we are obviously) it's better because it's a more appropriate rousing anthem for a sporting occasion. Or any occasion that's not a funeral. 

 

Sunshine on Leith, "Hi Ho Wolverhampton", Lords my Shepherd, Glad All Over, Blue Moon, YNWA, bunch of very different songs at different tempos but all with a really solid hook. 

 

WYS may very well sound good at times when people get in to it but it's not got a weighty, powerful hook that's going to inspire the masses to join. 

 

 

Don't complain about a lazy fanbase. A lazy fanbase is what you have, it isn't changing, news flash - all of those clubs have lazy fanbase too, we're no worse than any of those clubs. Their songs just encourage participation more than WYS does because they're more appropriate. 

 

OK going to risk getting shot here or banned and say even Mull of Kintyre is a better pre kick off song than WYS (although only just tbh) would be. 

 

WYS, as it currently is performed - even at its best - is a chant, not a song. You'd have to change it drastically, beyond recognition as "tradition" for it to be anthemic and then I'd bring you back to the prior suggestion anyway, if you're going to change it and make something new then pick a Kasabian song with a solid hook anyway instead of having some journeyman like Budd write something. 

 

What's wrong with setting your own, new, tradition? Everything was new once. 

Edited 2 July 2019 by Finnegan

[Voll Blau]

1 hour ago, Finnegan said:

 

It absolutely hasn't caught on the scale that a vocal minority on here want it to though and deep down you absolutely know that. I know you do. 

 

I'm pretty confident you're one of the folk on here that long for a better national anthem, right? I'm pretty sure you're a fan of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau? Our anthem doesn't just sound better because we're better singers than you soulless Saxons (although we are obviously) it's better because it's a more appropriate rousing anthem for a sporting occasion. Or any occasion that's not a funeral. 

 

Sunshine on Leith, "Hi Ho Wolverhampton", Lords my Shepherd, Glad All Over, Blue Moon, YNWA, bunch of very different songs at different tempos but all with a really solid hook. 

 

WYS may very well sound good at times when people get in to it but it's not got a weighty, powerful hook that's going to inspire the masses to join. 

 

 

Don't complain about a lazy fanbase. A lazy fanbase is what you have, it isn't changing, news flash - all of those clubs have lazy fanbase too, we're no worse than any of those clubs. Their songs just encourage participation more than WYS does because they're more appropriate. 

 

OK going to risk getting shot here or banned and say even Mull of Kintyre is a better pre kick off song than WYS (although only just tbh) would be. 

 

WYS, as it currently is performed - even at its best - is a chant, not a song. You'd have to change it drastically, beyond recognition as "tradition" for it to be anthemic and then I'd bring you back to the prior suggestion anyway, if you're going to change it and make something new then pick a Kasabian song with a solid hook anyway instead of having some journeyman like Budd write something. 

 

What's wrong with setting your own, new, tradition? Everything was new once. 

Well, it did catch on well enough otherwise it wouldn't have survived for five decades. Has its appeal diminished among our fanbase over the time I've supported us though? Yes. I wouldn't deny that.

 

And I also agree with you on the Chant v Song thing. Sung as a chant, properly, belted out, it still rouses - as it did at Cardiff. Is playing a version of the song with an entirely different melody before kick-off going to help it appeal to a new generation who literally haven't grown up with it being sung en masse very often home and away? Sadly, probably not.

 

For what it's worth, I do think WYS has as solid a hook as some of those others you mention - again though, only when people properly belt it out as you do with Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (which isn''t exactly "Camptown Races" melodically, is it? It is slightly complicated if you've not heard it a few times). 

 

Re lazy fanbase, I'm not really complaining. I'm just accepting it. But apathy is a factor in why WYS is not as strong an anthem as it could be. It's also why LSF hasn't caught on the numerous times it's been tried in SK1 the past few years.

[BlueSi13]

The fact that we don't even know which version we should be singing is absolutely damming.

[Bayfox]

23 hours ago, davieG said:

 

I think we should reserve Always Look on the Bright side of Life for after the game. 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

As for WYS, whether it's an anthem or not surely having 30k people singing it in unison and at the right pace would look and sound pretty impressive and impactful and it doesn't stop anyone else singing something else. How or when that's achieved is more debatable. 

We did at Wembley during the play off years. Made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as a kid hearing so many join in. It can be done.

[Mike Oxlong]

Sort of song I’d expect in a Tommy Steele film

 

We can do better 

[davieG]

7 minutes ago, Mike Oxlong said:

Sort of song I’d expect in a Tommy Steele film

 

We can do better 

Maybe but we are allowed to sing more than one song.

 

If someone's got a better one then get it sung but it seems it's just as hard to find and get another one going as it is to get WYS going. Maybe the problem is not the song(s) but the fans?

[Mike Oxlong]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

Maybe but we are allowed to sing more than one song.

 

If someone's got a better one then get it sung but it seems it's just as hard to find and get another one going as it is to get WYS going. Maybe the problem is not the song(s) but the fans?

 

Yeah, it had occurred to me that we are allowed to sing more than one song. It’s just that I don’t want our “anthem” to be one that for some reason I associate more with cheeky cheery cockneys - the pearly kings and east end whistling chimney sweep types

Edited 3 July 2019 by Mike Oxlong

[davieG]

2 minutes ago, Mike Oxlong said:

 

Yeah, it had occurred to me that we area allowed to sing more than one song. It’s just that I don’t want our “anthem” to be one that for some reason I associate more with cheeky cheery cockneys - the pearly kings and east end whistling chimney sweep types

If someone came up with a better option that people took on board even if WYS got going the ultimate anthem would be whichever of the two or more were sung the most and with the most gusto. They would find their own level.

 

But I doubt it'll be an issue as I can't see either WYS or some other song ever getting to the stage where it was sung by all and regularly.

[Analysethis]

I cant say I have been to Leicester at home much over the years as I moved out of the area and abroad at various times but what I can remember from the late 80s and early 90s is that WYS was anthemic. We may only have had 12-15k fans for home games back then but the atmosphere was cracking with WYS sounding a belter. Personally, what I like about it is its unique. Its something not anyone else does which is what its all about. Learn the words, bang it out and if song properly it does sound like a proper footballing song.

[Leicester_lad_92]

On 01/07/2019 at 16:49, Ashley said:

signed ! would love this and more appropriate to Leicester than The  Beatles

 

 

[koop.]

On 01/07/2019 at 22:53, Finnegan said:

I know I'm in a minority but please no. 

 

It's shit. It sounds shit. It's never worked. The reason it never really catches on with everyone is because it just doesn't sound good. It's a forced tradition that mostly millennial fans want to drive because they want us to have something to rival the great anthems of other clubs.

 

But that's the problem, it's not an anthem. It's not anthemic. The closest version that's ever been to an anthem was Jersey Budd and that's ****ing vile. That level of cheese is what you'd need to make it  "epic" and none of us want that. 

 

I would 100% much rather everyone got behind a Kasabian song, LSF had an amazing vocal hook that sounds superb at Kasabian concerts. That's far more Leicester than WYS will ever be and actually sounds far better. 

 

I do appreciate this is a hugely unpopular opinion but still. Soapbox rant over. 

I have to agree 100% 

I cant stand WYS 

[Cheshfox]

wys was awesome in the late 70s early 80s when done properly by the spion kop. It was Leicester's chant, bring it back and do it right.