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Play up Wednesday! The song of 1924...


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Nobody interested?

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I am Lee, I remember the Cartoons of the 50's There used to be a boxed set of half a dozen cartoons featuring most of the big 6 on the front page of the Green un.

The Big 6 were all the 5 usual suspects plus Mansfield.

Then the Star had a regular sports cartoon called 'Litte Sport'

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I am Lee, I remember the Cartoons of the 50's There used to be a boxed set of half a dozen cartoons featuring most of the big 6 on the front page of the Green un.

The Big 6 were all the 5 usual suspects plus Mansfield.

Then the Star had a regular sports cartoon called 'Litte Sport'

Heap's cartoons were fantastic first thing I looked at the pile of balls in the net to tell me the score /and sum up the match in a picture - brilliant

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I was thinking of something along the same lines. I sure we'd all agree we need an anthem for the players to run out on, not the usual rubbish. This could perhaps be it.

I would love us to have an anthem, that could be sung by 30 odd thousand, to run out to, but to get one established you'd need to pick something that has already been recorded so it could be played and gradually taken up by the crowd. Once it is established it can then be sung spontaneously. You'll Never Walk Alone is a good example. Written for a 1950's musical, it was recorded by Gerry and the Pacemakers in the 1960's and adopted by the Kop. Having the record to play though is what made it easy for eveyone to pick up on.

The song doesn't have to relate to the team, it just needs to be easy to sing and sound good when sung by a lot of people. Something original would be great, but unless it was recorded, would be difficult to get going. So if anybody has got any suggestions feel free to .... suggest.

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I would love us to have an anthem, that could be sung by 30 odd thousand, to run out to, but to get one established you'd need to pick something that has already been recorded so it could be played and gradually taken up by the crowd. Once it is established it can then be sung spontaneously. You'll Never Walk Alone is a good example. Written for a 1950's musical, it was recorded by Gerry and the Pacemakers in the 1960's and adopted by the Kop. Having the record to play though is what made it easy for eveyone to pick up on.

The song doesn't have to relate to the team, it just needs to be easy to sing and sound good when sung by a lot of people. Something original would be great, but unless it was recorded, would be difficult to get going. So if anybody has got any suggestions feel free to .... suggest.

How do you think it was done in the days before mass publicity (record charts, tv etc) They had a live brass band and dished out song sheets week after week. The crowd soon got to know the tunes and the lyrics, that's how various songs were associated to different clubs (west hams bubbles for instance) ...........so, song sheets and a tannoy bob's yer aunt! :biggrin:

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Forgot that one.

Trot, trot, trot, trot Trotter, score a little goal for me.

Trot, trot, trot, trot Trotter, i want one before my tea.

I haven't had one since sunday?, and now it's half past three.

So, Trot, trot, trot, trot Trotter, score a little goal for me.

Or something like that.

I think there is a video of an elderly chap singing it somewhere.

My Dad used to sing:

Roll along Sheffield Wednesday Roll along,

Put the ball in the net where it belongs,

With a little bit of luck

we can win the FA Cup,

Roll along Sheffield Wednesday, Roll along.

He reckoned that the crowd sang it in 1935. I think it is adapted from a music hall song of the era.

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Heap's cartoons were fantastic first thing I looked at the pile of balls in the net to tell me the score /and sum up the match in a picture - brilliant

2.16611

Harry's brilliant cartoons put him top of the Heap

Published on Friday 7 September 2007 13:53

HIS last work appeared more than 40 years ago but few Green 'Un contributors across 100 years are recalled with greater affection than Harry Heap.

In recent weeks so many people, when told of the Green ’Un’s forthcoming centenary, mentioned the Heap cartoons.

Heap was a popular cartoonist with The Star and Green ’Un whose scope ranged from the political scene to the sporting one.

For the Green ’Un, this usually meant carrying on its front page the Heap ‘take’ on the afternoon’s football, an example shown here.

He had his own inimitable style and they were a quite brilliant feature which adorned the Green ’Un’s front page most Saturday nights for almost 20 years up to his retirement in 1964.

On Friday nights, Heap would be in The Star previewing the weekend’s action and doing so notably through the character he invented, the flat-cap wearing Alf who would be offering his views. He was Harry’s mouthpiece.

Come the Green ’Un and Heap – either at the ground or working from the office – would sketch as the game proceeded, thus compiling the afternoon happenings.

A few goals always helped and would offer up the familiar sight of the net bulging with balls and Heap capturing the joy or anguish whichever suited best for the locals. His skill and wit were legendary.

Heap was especially proud that he created history one Saturday by being the first to send a sporting cartoon by wire for a paper the same evening.

This was in 1949 when he attended the Lincoln City v Sheffield Wednesday game.

He had to have the cartoon completed two minutes before the end of the game. But in those final minutes there was a goal and a missed penalty.

However, Harry still got all those details into his piece and met a 5pm deadline, the work being sent via a portable transmitter installed at the paper’s branch office in Lincoln about a quarter of a mile from the ground. He dashed and made it.

A native of Burnley, Harry came to Sheffield as The Star and Green ’Un cartoonist in 1928. After retirement in 1965 – and an estimated 10,000 cartoons across 37 years with the paper – he lectured at Sheffield College of Art on drawing. He died, aged 67, in 1968.

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Just reading pages 86 to 88 inclusive of the 1926 book 'Romance of the Wednesday'. Almost 3 pages devoted to 'Play Up Wednesday boys' and other football anthems and songs. Fans place this song at about 1890 but no written evidence seems to be in place.

All seems a bit mushy nowadays- but strong stuff then.

Scans of old Green Uns are fascinating. I have Times newspapers from the Monday after we won FA Cups in 1896 1907 and 1935. Too large and fragile to risk scanning unfortunately.

I had a collection of Green Uns(A huge pile) from when I first went to matches in 1958 up to about 1963. My mam chucked them all out in a springclean. Never forgave her. Just happened to cover the best 5 years we have had since WW2. :sad:

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Guest GrahamHydeFanClub

What was the error you eluded to Kivo? Can't really read the clipping on my phone so wouldnt be able to spot it if I wanted to.

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I remember reading the book 'sheffield gang wars', in it the fowler brothers (i think) .. were hung in leeds,

What was particularly poor justice ( they both would have been acquitted by todays standards) was that one brother was hanged one day, and the other followed the day after.

One of the fowlers, can't remember which one, in is last letter to his mum from his condemned cell, he wrote of his innocence, and wished his mother well and not to grieve too long etc.

In his closing paragraph, he wrote 'Play up Wednesday'

At the time I read it, probably 20 years ago, I didn't know the significance, he was hung on a wednesday and thought at the time he was taking the micky out of his execution day. It was my dad a few years later whom told me, 'Play up Wednesday' is the early version of 'Wednesday till I die'..quite poignant

If you ain't read the Sheffield gang wars, i would advise you do

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