A New Pre-Match Song For Arsenal’s Heroes?

Arsenal’s choice of ‘The Wonder Of You’ wasn’t widely appreciated by match attending fans as the pre-kick off song to warm up the crowd. It doesn’t quite incite the same passion as ‘Z Cars’, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ or ‘Forever Blowing Bubbles’. It’s a dated song with little meaning to a lot of Arsenal supporters.

Dated songs work perfectly well if there is history behind it. ‘Blue Moon’ sounds incredibly dated to fresh ears but it is a club anthem.

I’ve been to many Arsenal games where the atmosphere has been electric and at others where it has been flatter than a crepe. For whatever reason the crowd doesn’t always want to sing their hearts out. I sat in the East Stand upper for the North London Derby earlier this season with my good friend, fellow blogger and podcast member, Jokman, and within 10 seats of us in any direction were were quite literally the only ones singing. Close to £100 per ticket and not one person, other than myself, stood up when Jok leapt to his feet and bellowed, with frightening ferocity and volume, “stand up if you hate Tottnum”.

If you can’t gee yourself up for a North London Derby at the Emirates when can you?

On another occasion, two elderly ladies sat close to me spent the entire game, and I mean the ENTIRE game, swapping stories about who died, who suffers from what ailment and who has done the dirty on so and so from a bleeding fictional TV show all the while they were KNITTING! Everyone pays their money to go to the game and you’ll forever be in trouble for suggesting what paying fans should or should not do in the stadium but come on, if you’re paying to get in at least watch the match and save your gossiping and crocheting for after the game.

I have many of these stories, including people I know to be season ticket holders who sit and watch the game in complete and utter silence. They barely muster the energy to clap when we score a goal. Clap! No cheering, no delirious screaming, no hugging of a random stranger. Just a few courteous comings together of their palms.

Fan groups do their best to engage with the club and promote a positive atmosphere but possibly more could be done. Maybe an anthem to warm up the crowd before kick-off would help?

Since the tragic news of David Bowie’s passing his songs have been swirling around my head, as I’m sure is the case for anyone who grew up with his music of any era. Once my subconscious had worked its way through a catalogue of Bowie tracks to ‘Heroes’ all I could think of was card displays at the Emirates, slow-motion compilations of success and victories and a raucous Arsenal crowd bolstering the Gunners team and the opposition to shrink ever so slightly.

Arsenal have a good home record because they are a good team. There are teams, however, who have good home records even when they are abysmal because their baying crowd make it seem like you are walking into the Gladiator’s arena or a Crucible to fight for your very existence. A wall of pure noise can sometimes hold even the shoddiest of teams together.

Imagine what Arsenal, a genuinely good side, could become with that little bit extra that comes with a cacophonous crowd.

Now, I’m no video editor but I felt I needed to add a visual aspect to my idea so have put together a compilation to go with Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ song to give you an idea of what I see when I think of Arsenal and this song. I have, along with others who agree with me, presented the idea to the club as a potential song to play on match days where ‘The Wonder Of You’ was once played.

I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think about using the song on match days or what you would use if you could choose.

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