[Albion] GOSBTS - No words onscreen today

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

And what about all the Mitoma fans and other internationals who don’t have English as their first language and need a visual prompt?.And Steve and others like him who can’t learn/remember the words because of age or any other such reason but wants to sing along anyway? Or the thousands of kids that still need the words?

I thought the Club was more inclusive and cosmopolitan in its outlook than that.

I can’t see what harm it does it do having the words on the screen apart from making maybe a minority of ‘hardcore fans’ feel like it makes them not as Ultra as they want to look in front of opposition fans because their Club has to provide words on a screen to the Club anthem?

Maybe the PA can be turned off/down once we start the song to achieve the atmosphere we want? Or the words can just run in the big letters along the electronic advertising hoardings that are pitch-side if for some fans the big screens are too much like an OHP-guided seminar for the mentally challenged?

However 20,000 people singing in unison is far more atmospheric than everyone singing different lines at different times which happens in large outdoor spaces when the acoustics are not good and when the PA is not audible to lead them.

I'm now torn. You make good points.

When I was a kid and went to church, St Nicholas' in Portslade had a rather traditional vicar, Reverend Hellaby (crazy name, crazy guy) and there was a longish bit where he warbled something and we warbled something in reply, and so on. Luckily, there was a little book with all the lyrics so I could mumble in the right places.

And yet.....there were actual Christians in the audience (I think they call it a congregation) who probably found my efforts annoying. Unless of course they were hoping that by recounting the lyrics they would own my soul. Not sure how it all works.

So it boils down to whether we should post the GOSBTS lyrics on a screen, or print them in the programme.

At the end of the day, the singing sounded great in West Upper yesterday. And until the words were first shown some years ago none of us ever sung anything other than going up to win the cup for Sussex by the sea. So people have made the effort to learn the lyrics. I certainly did - but maybe only 5 years ago. But just because I can do it......

Mmmmm......nnnnnnn.........put the lyrics back. Anybody objecting perhps needs to think about how it was before the words were shown. We didn't sing them. I had actually forgotten that.

Good old sausage by the sea
Good old sausage by the sea
And we're going up to win the cup
For sausage by the sea.

That was it. All of it.

 

[A1X]

I wonder if we can lose the clapping next?

I like this idea of a never ending campaign to strip the rendition of GOSBTS back further and further until it’s one bloke singing it to an otherwise silent stadium

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

I wonder if we can lose the clapping next?

This is for a other thread but one of my ultimate pet hates in life is when people start clapping at the start of a song/performance. Sure it's enthusiastic for the first 12 seconds but soon you realise you are clapping and it's weird and people start dropping out/losing timing/ losing enthusiasm until just Janet and Steve are left clapping alone, creating the sorriest of sorry sights for the last 1minute. Awful business.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

This is for a other thread but one of my ultimately pet hates in life is when people start clapping at the start of a song/performance. Sure it's enthusiastic for the first 12 seconds but soon you realise you are clapping and it's weird and people start dropping out/losing timing/ losing enthusiasm until just Janet and Steve are left clapping alone, creating the sorriest of sorry sights for the last 1minute. Awful business.

Janet and Steve are always making tits of themselves. Can't stand those guys.

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

I like this idea of a never ending campaign to strip the rendition of GOSBTS back further and further until it’s one bloke singing it to an otherwise silent stadium

We tried an opera singer and kept losing important games inexplicably.

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

Could hear the Forest fans singing over it. Embarrassing all round.

Mate, shitting yourself in Asda’s embarrassing, being out sung by away fans? I can live with that

 

[HCxUK]

Thought it was good yesterday, after a couple of trial runs. I imagine it'll only get louder as more get used to it.

Let's keep the words off the screens - didn't seem to be an issue yesterday

 

[Zeberdi]

So it boils down to whether we should post the GOSBTS lyrics on a screen, or print them in the programme.

Don’t be silly, it’s bad enough some Brighton fans get anxiety they may be caught surreptitiously checking the screen for the wording when everyone knows ‘true Brighton fans’ know all the verses to GOSBTS. Do you really think those poor dears should further suffer the ignominy of singing from a hymn boo…I mean programme, if the words weren’t on a screen that they can pretend not to look at?

Edit - the clap should go though - that’s just downright unhealthy.

 

[putthatboarddown]

Did they not put the words on the advertising boards, rather than the screen, like at the Wolves game?

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

worked well today

If a fan of a club doesnt know the words to the clubs official anthem or a new chant for that matter, research and lean it.

 

[Commander]

As I have said before - deciding what works best for the ‘fans’ is not always all about us nice white, English-speaking Soverners …

Well I'm sorry, but I think it absolutely should be. Apart from the white part. We are Brighton & Hove Albion and we are a football club based in Southern England. Our culture should be about Brighton and the surrounding area. If other people want to come and get involved then fantastic, but they should want to immerse themselves in our culture, not the other way around! As I'm sure they do anyway.

If you went to watch Boca Juniors, would you feel aggrieved that they didn't put the words to their songs on the screens in English for you?

 

[Commander]

And what about all the Mitoma fans and other internationals who don’t have English as their first language and need a visual prompt?.

They have come to Sussex to watch Mitoma and Brighton. And it's brilliant that they do. I would not expect, or want, to go and watch a Japanese team and have their club do things in English for me, or pander to me in any way. It would detract from the experience and feel Americanised and sanitised.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

If you went to watch Boca Juniors, would you feel aggrieved that they didn't put the words to their songs on the screens in English for you?

They have come to Sussex to watch Mitoma and Brighton. And it's brilliant that they do. I would not expect, or want, to go and watch a Japanese team and have their club do things in English for me, or pander to me in any way. It would detract from the experience and feel Americanised and sanitised.

Surely, the equivalent to that would be if we started putting the words up in Spanish or Japanese?

 

[Zeberdi]

Well I'm sorry, but I think it absolutely should be. Apart from the white part. We are Brighton & Hove Albion and we are a football club based in Southern England. Our culture should be about Brighton and the surrounding area. If other people want to come and get involved then fantastic, but they should want to immerse themselves in our culture, not the other way around! As I'm sure they do anyway.

If you went to watch Boca Juniors, would you feel aggrieved that they didn't put the words to their songs on the screens in English for you?

I think we differ what singing the anthem is about for Brighton football fans or why people support a Premier League football Club. I don’t live in Brighton and no longer part of Brighton culture, does that mean I am not a proper or dedicated Brighton supporter anymore?

I don’t sing it because it was a marching song of the Royal Sussex Regiment during the Great War and it is about the men of Sussex - I sing it because it is the adopted anthem of the football Club that I have supported for 50 years or so.

It’s a little dismissive to our overseas fans (for which the Club derives a very significant income) to say they should get involved and immersed in ‘Brighton culture’.

As for going to “watch” Bocca - I don’t support Bocca, nor do I support the many other teams I have been to watch in my time - therefore I wouldn’t want to be singing their Club football anthems - so whether they are in Spanish, Greek or Japanese - who cares.

 

[brighton_tom]

worked well today

If a fan of a club doesnt know the words to the clubs official anthem or a new chant for that matter, research and lean it.

Yep im with you. Yesterday worked well, and felt more natural without the words on screen. With the words it becomes a bit like some forced karaoke. Yesterday felt more organic. The words on screen always felt so cringey. If you dont know the words and want to sing, then 2 minutes of research does the job.

 

[Zeberdi]

They have come to Sussex to watch Mitoma and Brighton. And it's brilliant that they do. I would not expect, or want, to go and watch a Japanese team and have their club do things in English for me, or pander to me in any way. It would detract from the experience and feel Americanised and sanitised.

You are moving the goal posts and equating all international fans/those whose English is not their first language with being non-supporters/club members.

You don’t support a Japanese team, nor are you a paid up member of one (afaik) so why would you expect them to put up the words to their club song in English for you if you happened to pay them a passing visit?

I was responding to your suggestion that Brighton & Hove Albion was just for ‘ English speaking Southerners’ who got ‘immersed in the Brighton culture’.

Narrow minded and not the reality of our fan base anymore - nor can we afford it to be if we want to stay competitive in the Premier League.

But all this is going off topic slightly- the point is, not everyone has the capacity to understand audio lyrics nor to retain them to longterm memory.

Leave the words up - just turn down the PA once the singing takes off.

 

[Withdean11]

I liked it.

But the bit before as the players are coming onto the pitch can be improved. It should be 'Right Here, Right Now' or 'Funk Soul Brother' and played right up until the player announcements instead of than awful PL thing.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

These are the words from what I remember:

Now's the time for Mike Ring
Or-Yan Kuba Minteh
Perhaps Imari Samuels
But not Craig Conway

So let's boo Harding, not Aaron Mooy
And cheer Matt O'Riley
Remember Gez Armstrong
Remember Gaetan Bong
Of Sussex by the Sea

Oh Sussex
Sussex by the Sea
Good old Sussex by the Sea

Peter Small
Or Seb Carole

For Sussex by the Sea

 

[Sue1983]

Did they not put the words on the advertising boards, rather than the screen, like at the Wolves game?

Unfortunately not! I thought it was a good compromise! No words on the screen for those who moan about them being there and words for those of us who need them

worked well today

If a fan of a club doesnt know the words to the clubs official anthem or a new chant for that matter, research and lean it.

If only it was that easy for those of us that are unable to retain lyrics

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

I just wish they'd left well alone. GOSBTS being played with the players already on the pitch, with Forest doing a huddle in their penalty area and their fans singing behind them all just felt wrong.

I thought it worked out very well.

Drowned out the Forest fans