Here We Go! The Art of the Football Chant

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Documentary

Summary

Sociologist Les Back charts the history of football chants, discovering if they are modern-day folk songs, and why they form an important barometer of social change. He starts at his own club Millwall, where he revisits recordings made during the 1990s to see what has changed in terms of the relationship between players and fans

Review

Simon O'Hagan

Folk singer Martin Carthy thinks football chants are “the one surviving embodiment of an organic living folk tradition”, although the sense one gets from sociologist Les Back’s admirable exploration of the topic is that the glory days of he chant are well and truly in the past — gone the way of terraces and the working-class culture that underpinned the game for decades.

To still hear “proper” chanting you need to head to the lower leagues, which Back does by visiting Dulwich Hamlet FC in south-east London. Nearby Millwall is the club Back supports, and Tony Witter, one of its ex-players, is great on what it’s like when the crowd chants your name.

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Credits

Crew

rolenamePresenterLes BackProducerAlexandra QuinnProducerFreya HellierExecutive producerJane Long