What happened to the songs we used to sing?

By apb on 27/6/2003
June 27 2003

Listening to Radio 5 Live this morning, I was caught out a little bit. They started off a discussion about what songs the England supporters would sing during the RWC in Oz. They came up with a pretty nasty version of "Swing Low", and then started touting for ideas about what else could be sung.

Sure enough the texts rolled in, and they managed to decipher some of them and actually sing a few. A fairly harmless exercise which successfully filled a few minutes of licence-payers airtime.

"Blimey", I thought, "that's not too dissimiar to what we were doing on the messageboard last summer!" That was quite a successful exercise as it goes. We had a good exchange of views and finally settled on two choices: An aggressive and intimidating chant of "Leeds! Leeds! Leeds!" that continues on until the spectators lose their breath, and a full set of tunefully sung and rousing choruses of "Marching on Together".

Marching On Together?

Hold up, when did we last hear that sung on the South Stand? Thinking about it, about the same time as they last played it over the P.A. System, wasn't it?

When was that then?

Yes, after a fairly successful introduction of the song as the team's anthem (in which apparently the players were to be seen warming up while singing it live on Sky TV), and several plays over the P.A., it seems to have dribbled away, and we neither hear it played, nor sing it ourselves anymore.

So whats the problem? Have we gone off it? Of course not, we've just got out of the habit, that's all. Its still very much in the mind of the remaining players anyway - they were witnessed by yours truly, through the fug of a beer-induced haze at the awards dinner, singing an almost tuneful version of it! Why don't we as fans follow their lead. So when the season starts in September, lets just remember what started so well, and keep it going all season this time!

Here are the words again, just in case you need them....

Every day, in every way we love you Leeds, Leeds, Leeds!
Everywhere, we're gonna be there we love you Leeds, Leeds Leeds!
Marching on Together!
We're gonna see you win
(La la la la la la)
We are so proud,
We're shouting out loud
We love you Leeds, Leeds, Leeds!

Oh, and for the Toulouse matches, here it is in French, courtesy of Bablefsh at Altavista.co.uk:

Chaque jour, de chaque manière nous vous aimons Leeds, Leeds, Leeds!
Partout, nous allons être là nous vous aimons Leeds, Leeds Leeds!
Marcher dessus ensemble!
Nous allons vous voir nous gagner
(La de La de La de La de La de La)
sommes si fier,
nous crions dehors fort
nous vous aimons Leeds, Leeds, Leeds!

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