Should England have its own national anthem and what should it be (for football matches and such like)

[alecstilleyedye]

View: https://youtu.be/5AywIL5_eYM

sorted, close the thread

tudor is a welsh name boyo…

 

[randynewmanscat]

Ditchwater dull dirges and pompous, often crowing or racist words, not a winning combo for me. No drunk person has ever asked me to play a national anthem, that tells me all I need to know.
The one verse rendition of the Yellow Rose of Texas as performed on a monophonic Casio watch would do for me, played at 2x speed would be better.
Edited to include my pick for England anthem,

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arKFaO206SU
, played at 2x it allows people to crack on with life, hand out the baubles to the smiling drug cheats atop the podium and move on to the next event or get on with the big important meeting after introducing the highly corrupt foreign minister grinning in front of his home countries flag. As for flags, oh never mind.

 

[Beebo]

I see that RFU is reviewing the use of Swing Low Sweet Chariot.
Probably right to remove it as their official song and from advertising hoardings, but I doubt they can stop 80000 people singing it.

 

[swee'pea99]

I see that RFU is reviewing the use of Swing Low Sweet Chariot.
Probably right to remove it as their official song and from advertising hoardings, but I doubt they can stop 80000 people singing it.

...especially when you think about the kind of people who do.

Have to say I'd be sorry if it went away. It's the one decent bit of crowd music we have. Hearing any crowd try to sing the nashnul anfem makes me squirm. As you say tho', I suspect it's quite capable of seeing off any RFU 'review'...

 

[Chris S]

Swing Low Sweet Chariot was originally sung in tribute to Martin 'Chariots' Offiah. It has no racist connotations. And the last people to ban it were the Nazis.

 

[Drago]

At risk of going off topic too much, I read a very interesting piece written by Russian emigre who was likening the current situtation to the Russian revolution and the rise of communism, and some of the parallels - the toppling of statues, for example - were quite interesting.

anyway, as regards the national anthem we need one that was written by someone who won't later be outed as dirty pervert. Something by Cliff, maybe In The Country?

 

[The Crofted Crest]

as regards the national anthem we need one

Why?

 

[Teamfixed]

I want to ride my bicycle.

I can't decide if I am suggesting or reacting here

 

[Drago]

Why?

Because every other country in the world has one, and it would be unacceptable to fall behind in the Anthem Arms Race. It's a matter of prestige, national security, and having a bit of a laugh, which you seem to have missed.

 

[Rocky]

Swing Low Sweet Chariot was originally sung in tribute to Martin 'Chariots' Offiah. It has no racist connotations. And the last people to ban it were the Nazis.

I don’t think you are correct. I remember it being sung in rugby clubs round the SE of England, in the early 1970s. Way before Martin Offiah became famous in the 1980s.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Here we go: traditional, English, written by a King, reminder of the good old days before England was subsumed into the Scottish empire.

Also has that Game of Thrones vibe so it's on point, as they say.

View: https://youtu.be/7F39_-FV00Y

 

[Dayvo]

Swing Low Sweet Chariot was originally sung in tribute to Martin 'Chariots' Offiah. It has no racist connotations. And the last people to ban it were the Nazis.

I don’t think you are correct. I remember it being sung in rugby clubs round the SE of England, in the early 1970s. Way before Martin Offiah became famous in the 1980s.

I'm with BB on this. What fun we had in the clubhouse after a hard game of rugby and even harder drinking. Not to mention the hand motions. That was the middle/late 70s. 🥺😳😒

As an aside, embarassingly, I (being the sole English rugby-playing person in my group of traveller friends) introduced this 'song' to a king and his rugby friends on a Fijian island 30 years ago. They absolutely loved it and I had to sing it (virtually solo, and with the hand movements) about a dozen times that evening. I'm sure that IF the king had a daughter there, he would've insisted I married her, so taken he was by me! 😳

But all god fun.

I HATE the song now with a passion.

 

[Archie_tect]

May I suggest 2 minutes silence in lieu of music, to be able to stand and think in those quiet moments in a hectic life... to reflect on everything we've achieved and what we've lost and are about to lose, so that wherever we are when national fervour wells before a tournament or match we get 2 minutes to ponder.

 

[The Crofted Crest]

Because every other country in the world has one, and it would be unacceptable to fall behind in the Anthem Arms Race. It's a matter of prestige, national security, and having a bit of a laugh, which you seem to have missed.

Oh yes, I belong firmly in the po-faced, miserablist quadrant, but if the only reason is someone else has one so I must have a bigger and better one, then you're part of the problem not the answer.

 

[Hitchington]

The theme to Are You Being Served?
We are supposed to be a nation of shopkeepers after all.