Hello everyone,

I hope this is okay to post here – if not, moderators please move or delete as appropriate.

I’m part of a team at the University of Sheffield, led by Dr Chris
Stride. We've published a number of academic papers and magazine
articles relating to football history, on subjects such as statues and
replica shirts (see, for example sportingstatues.com, and
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17460263.2019.1578255).
Our current project is investigating the music that football teams have
run or walked out of the tunnel to over the years.

We are looking for the music that Grimsby Town have run out to for as
many seasons in the past as you can recall. We are simply interested in
the title of the song, the artist who recorded it, and for which seasons
Grimsby ran out to this. Any help you can give us to
piece together the different songs that your club has run out to would
be hugely appreciated.

If you have any personal anecdotes around the reasons for the songs
being used, or the changes between them, that would also be fantastic.

I should also add that we are not interested in goal music, or a song
that is played at the final whistle, but just the song that is on the
tannoy system as the players enter the field.

If you think someone else may be able to help, or you have any
questions, please let us know!  We would be very happy to discuss the
project.

Thanks for your time guys,

Joe Headland

Do what you do do well boys,in the 60's

Boys are back in town

Up The Mariners.

Written by Charlie Gibbs, recorded By Les Allen.

Time for Action by (insert band name here)

Quoted from friskneymariner

Do what you do do well boys,in the 60's

I remember it well. The artists name was Ned Miller.

Quoted from Abdul19

Time for Action by (insert band name here)

Secret Affair.

In 09/10 we definitely ran out to Madness - One Step Beyond. Perfect soundtrack to our comical performances.

We run out to The Boys Are Back in Town now, right? Which is perfect for us...(the boys are backing Town :) )

Not sure we’ve ever really had a proper track associated to us in recent times that we’ve stuck with for years (ala Sheff Wednesday and Waterfront by Simple Minds).

Did we used to run out to Tina Turner - Simply The Best in the 90s, or am I remembering wrong? Also remember PJ and Duncan-Ready To Rhumble getting blasted out a fair amount haha, might not have ran out to it though.

Europe - The Final Countdown?

Always look on the bright side of life a couple of times in the late 1980s.

Up the Mariners
Entry of the gladiators

might be breaking an omerta here, but for a time it was "Let's Get Ready to Rhumble" by PJ & Duncan (*shudders*)

Quoted from Cambs Mariner

Secret Affair.

That's it, ta!

Send in the clowns sung by Bignot,  seriously though what else can you think of to waste public money on

Did we ever...or did I imagine/dream this...run out to Tribal Dance by 2 Unlimited during the 90s?

Quoted from cannylad68

Up The Mariners.

Written by Charlie Gibbs, recorded By Les Allen.

Recorded by Les Johnson from laceby I believe he had a recording Studio attached to his parents garage .

UTM

via a loud recording plus fans shouting GTFC, GTFC, GTFC etc. :)

Quoted from Perkins

I remember it well. The artists name was Ned Miller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYlMME5J55c

Was it this version, doesn't sound the same to me but it was a long time ago(wheelchair)

Les Johnson was known as Les Allen, the drummer who once held the World record, in the Guinness book of records, for non stop drumming.

I think it would be great to run out to 'Simply the Best',   Just stop the music when the chorus starts, and everyone sing as loud as possible, 'We're simply the best, Better than all the rest, Better than any team, Any team we've ever met.".  I think that would sound great.

Quoted from sam gy

In 09/10 we definitely ran out to Madness - One Step Beyond. Perfect soundtrack to our comical performances.

We run out to The Boys Are Back in Town now, right? Which is perfect for us...(the boys are backing Town :) )

Not sure we’ve ever really had a proper track associated to us in recent times that we’ve stuck with for years (ala Sheff Wednesday and Waterfront by Simple Minds).

Did we used to run out to Tina Turner - Simply The Best in the 90s, or am I remembering wrong? Also remember PJ and Duncan-Ready To Rhumble getting blasted out a fair amount haha, might not have ran out to it though.

from memory everytime that tune used to start there was a lad at the back of the Pontoon who used to shout the first part,

HEY YOU,
Don't watch that, watch this!
This is the heavy heavy monster sound
The nutsiest sound around
So if you've come in off the street
And you're beginning to feel the heat
Well listen buster
You'd better to start to move your feet
To the rockin'est, rock-steady beat
Of Madness
(Then there was a short pause before he shouted at the top of his voice) One step beyond! then the pontoon around him went mad, great time to be a Town fan.

one season we did fanfare for the common man

thinking of doing olivers army chorus

The only way is up - Yazz

This was played during our double promotion seasons 90-01

Quoted from sam gy

In 09/10 we definitely ran out to Madness - One Step Beyond. Perfect soundtrack to our comical performances.

We run out to The Boys Are Back in Town now, right? Which is perfect for us...(the boys are backing Town :) )

Not sure we’ve ever really had a proper track associated to us in recent times that we’ve stuck with for years (ala Sheff Wednesday and Waterfront by Simple Minds).

Did we used to run out to Tina Turner - Simply The Best in the 90s, or am I remembering wrong? Also remember PJ and Duncan-Ready To Rhumble getting blasted out a fair amount haha, might not have ran out to it though.

Defo ran out to Simply the Best at Wembley in 98.

I seem to remember the team coming out to some classical piece when S&H were in charge :-/

Nothing like O Fortuna from Carmen Burina by Karl Orf to send a shiver down your back.

so what tune do you want town to run out to?

let me entertain you?
jaws theme tune ?
up the mariners?
fish clap clap etc ?

the prem teams some have the same tune, I never understood that as I thought it had to be unique.

Think in modern times Orphan Boy would be song of choice for the boys to come out..

Quoted from friskneymariner

Nothing like O Fortuna from Carmen Burina by Karl Orf to send a shiver down your back.

That's the one, did we run out to that or have I imagined it?

Quoted from mariner83

That's the one, did we run out to that or have I imagined it?

We'eve run out to once in early part of of Hurst Scott and also in Jolley's fight against relegation.

Up The Mariners - Pisces

The original Town song that is uniquely ours and therefore should be the only consideration in my opinion.

There have been plenty of times were we have run out to a trumpet playing, but sadly I have no idea what the song is called. Always considered that to be ‘our song’.

We ran out to the classical one when I first started going to games which was 91ish
And more recently

I'm sure that I remember them playing 'Those magnificent men in their flying machines' after a match if we had won in the late 80's, can't remember if they played it on the run out or if I dreamt them playing it at all.

"The boys are back in town" sits in my affections as it was always played when I first started going '95 and gave me goosebumps

Some nice ideas, but shouldn't the music inspire our team and intimidate the opposition.  Eg. Birmingham  prolonged version of" we will rock you".  The begining of the track repeated for at least 3 minutes before the teams come out. :-/

To get back to the original question from the OP to help with their research, I can definitely remember Town running out to the Toreador Song from Carmen by Georges Bizet, during the Buckley promotions in the early 90s.  I also seem to remember the club using "Anchors Aweigh" from the film of the same name (and the US Navy March) around the same time though it didn't catch on.  Mid 90s was Thin Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town".

Off topic but on thread, we did used to have at the end of matches in the late 80s/early 90s, either "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" (following a victory) or "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" (after a defeat).  I always remember getting back to the car radio or listening to the transistor on the bus, and hearing "Out of the Blue", the BBC Sports Report music at 5pm, so feel this would make a great victory tune if we win as I associate it with warm spring evenings going down Grimsby Road after another Buckley win.

Quoted from HackneyHaddock

To get back to the original question from the OP to help with their research, I can definitely remember Town running out to the Toreador Song from Carmen by Georges Bizet, during the Buckley promotions in the early 90s.  I also seem to remember the club using "Anchors Aweigh" from the film of the same name (and the US Navy March) around the same time though it didn't catch on.  Mid 90s was Thin Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town".

Off topic but on thread, we did used to have at the end of matches in the late 80s/early 90s, either "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" (following a victory) or "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" (after a defeat).  I always remember getting back to the car radio or listening to the transistor on the bus, and hearing "Out of the Blue", the BBC Sports Report music at 5pm, so feel this would make a great victory tune if we win as I associate it with warm spring evenings going down Grimsby Road after another Buckley win.

You’re right about “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. After enduring it for about five games running during a bad spell, I suggested to Tony Richardson that the joke was wearing a bit thin, and it was actually becoming quite depressing. We never heard it again after that, thank goodness!

Quoted from 140348

Some nice ideas, but shouldn't the music inspire our team and intimidate the opposition.  

What with our sound system?

" See the Mariners" by local Grimsby band Good News was played a few times as i remember.

I remember watching Dave Gilbert dance on his toes on the touchline, whilst effortlessly trapping a pre-match Tommy Watson crossfield howitzer, to the crackled strains of "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" by Whitney Houston.

To this day I can't pass the reduced section of any backstreet Tesco Express and not be reminded of Gilbert's calves by the glistening, plump protein hit of short shelf-life chicken breast.

We might not have actually run out to it but I vividly remember the Rocky theme tune being played shortly before the team came out in front of a bumper gate at BP in the early 90s. It really seemed to razz up the crowd.

I loved the trumpet track as mentioned above as well. No idea what it is.

Funnily enough I wasn't a fan of Boys Are Back in Town or Simply the Best back then but really like both tracks now, although the latter reminds me more of a boxer's song as he walks to the ring - was it Eubank senior's song of choice?

I remember O Fortuna (used in The 80s Old Spice and an Only Fools and Horses scene) being blasted out at The Stadium of Light in 97 which was very impressive but I'd rather we had our own unique song. It would no doubt cause the fuse to blow in BP's speakers, in turn tripping the electricity and thereby pitching BP into complete darkness - channeling Brian Potter's Phoenix Club on its grand reopening night!

Just had a flashback to us running out to 2 unlimited's No Limit and Chumbawumba's Tubthumping. Please tell me I'm wrong about 2 unlimited

A big thank you to everyone for commenting and sharing your memories, its invaluable to the project.

To answer a few questions (which is fair enough, it's a niche area!) - the reason we're doing this study is because we're football fans who are all interested in the game and what it says about the wider culture we live in. We're not only interested in what the music is/was, but the why - we're keen to see how changes in style, type of music used relate to a club's status, wider music fashions, the wider fashionability of football, how clubs have attempted to commodify the match going experience and the battle between globalism/localism.  

So far we've got in contact with a number of historians, writers, former pitchside announcers and matchday DJs at a whole host of clubs. But memory is a very malleable thing - so getting a second opinion from each clubs fanbase can only help :)

If anyone else has any songs to share please let me know. If you remember roughly what season a song was played that's very helpful too!

cheers

(and my apologies for bumping the thread up - sorry!)

How about Chumba Wumba's, I get Knocked Down?