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<\/p>\nWhenever Tom Jones belted out his \u2018Delilah\u2019 hit on the radio back in the day, my mum would go misty-eyed. She\u2019d sing along to the catchy chorus as she worked through household chores, probably never dwelling too much on the rest of the words. Jones\u2019 delivery is powerful and dramatic enough but it tells the story of a woman murdered by her jealous partner.<\/p>\n
Last week, the Welsh Rugby Union finally put a stop to any renditions of \u2018Delilah\u2019 by choirs in international matches at the Principality Stadium. It\u2019s long been a rallying call for fans but the official message is that the song has had its day. The sport is currently embroiled in enough issues, from racism to misogyny. However, the ban has divided opinion across Wales.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Delilah\u2019 issue got me thinking about Robin Hood – not that he\u2019s been banned from our city – or, more precisely, about the song \u2018Robin Hood\u2019. As \u2018Delilah\u2019 gave voice to 70,000 Welsh fans coming together to support their team, our local Nottingham hero used to get a run-out every Forest home game. When the Reds emerged from the tunnel, the City Ground would sing along to the loud-speaker simple lyrics.<\/p>\n
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
\nRiding through the glen
\nRobin Hood, Robin Hood
\nWith his band of men
\nFeared by the bad
\nLoved by the good
\nRobin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood.<\/p>\n
All wholesome stuff. Robin sorts good from bad and helps establish a fairer, more caring society. The song became popular as the theme-tune to a TV series. Called \u2018The Adventures of Robin Hood\u2019, it was my \u2018go-to\u2019 programme as a boy. Forest and the famous outlaw became one and the same thing in my fertile imagination. The Reds had right on their side! They would fight for justice. Pretty high standards for a football club.<\/p>\n
The song was written by an American composer and the shows scripted by American writers who had been blacklisted in their own country for being socialist sympathisers. No home-grown talent there, then, and little did I know of this at the time. I did realise, though, that words mattered. The Robin Hood theme tune that echoed around the City Ground was simple, rousing and connected the team to the city and its history.<\/p>\n
To sing your team onto the pitch is a heartfelt experience for fans. It\u2019s wrapped up in identity, community, a collective sharing and tradition. It\u2019s an anthem. Liverpool remind themselves that \u2018You\u2019ll Never Walk Alone\u2019 when their team appears at Anfield. First sung in the sixties, it became particularly poignant following the Hillsborough disaster and has remained so since.<\/p>\n
West Ham will be forever blowing bubbles – literally at home games! – and have been doing to since the 1920s. The reasons for their choice of song are convoluted but it\u2019s stuck. Leeds United, more straightforwardly, have \u2018Leeds, Leeds, Leeds!\u2019, officially \u2018Marching On Together\u2019, containing vocals by players and fans from their 1972 FA Cup appearance. Gillingham FC – \u2018The Gills\u2019 – bless them, have adopted a song from the playbook of Englebert Humperdinck. His 1967 \u2018The Last Waltz\u2019 hardly sounds like a rallying call but that\u2019s what you\u2019ll hear resonate around their ground.<\/p>\n
An even weirder choice of club anthem is – or was – that of Stoke City: \u2018Delilah\u2019! It\u2019s something of a mystery as to quite why their fans warmed to it but some say it was a hangover from a rock concert version at their old Victoria Ground in the 70s which mutated into the \u2018official\u2019 club song. That said, it\u2019s no longer played over the tannoy at bet365 Stadium (what a name for a ground!) and the stadium bar has been renamed
\n\u2018Ricardo\u2019s\u2019 but it will take time for it to disappear from the terraces. Attachments, once taken-up, are hard to break.<\/p>\n
Which brings us back to Forest and \u2026 \u2018Mull Of Kintyre\u2019. The season is 1977-78, Forest are set to win the First Division championship and Paul McCartney and Wings\u2019 song is the hit of the year. Inspired by its success, the Reds\u2019 fans take the pop-song and give it a twist, transposing the location from Scotland to Nottingham. Same tune, new words: the advent of an anthem from the terraces, a gift from the supporters to the club!<\/p>\n
City Ground
\nOh mist rolling in from the Trent
\nMy desire is always to be here
\nCity Ground.<\/p>\n
Other verses chart the glory days and journeys up and down the country. The words travel well!<\/p>\n
Far have I travelled and much have I seen
\nGoodison, Anfield are places I\u2019ve been
\nMaine Road, Old Trafford, still echo to the sound
\nOf the boys in the red from the City Ground.<\/p>\n
The club first decided to pump the song out prior to their game against Yeovil Town in 2008 when they won promotion back into the Championship. The bagpipes have signalled the collective voice of the Forest faithful ever since. Robin Hood had his day and now the words to Kintyre are standing the test of time. As \u2018Delilah\u2019 (rightly) has been faded out of sports stadiums, the City Ground anthem has increased in volume over the past two seasons, home and away. Singing towards success or not, match day in full voice sends a tingle down the spine as reference to the past fortifies the present.<\/p>\n
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