"If you'd told Keir Starmer last summer that just over a year after his election as prime minister he would single-handedly, and by the sheer force of his own personality, have stopped England fans from singing songs about the IRA and Ten German Bombers, he would no doubt have been delighted. I guess they must really like me then. Phase One Goals. You warned me off, Jeremy, but I knew the Arsenal thing was a good idea."
"England fans are not singing about those things any more. They are instead singing about him being a wanker and how he should fuck off, something they continued to do this week from Birmingham to Belgrade. So, a partial success then, Sir Keir. Delivery. Pragmatism. Yes, I think we can work with this. Any stray academics charged with chronicling the oral history of England fandom, its shared song-kitty, its bardic evolutions, will have been fascinated by the content shift of the past few months."
Keir Starmer's personality led England fans to abandon songs about the IRA and Ten German Bombers and instead chant insults aimed at him. The central hook remains the endlessly repeatable Keir Starm-muurs aaa waannnker to the tune of the Seven Nation Army riff. Jack White wrote that riff as a monster needing shape and words, and fans adapted it into a political taunt. Variations have emerged across genres, including a disco version to the tune of Give It Up by KC & The Sunshine Band, first heard away in Andorra. The chant scene is ever-evolving, creative and varied, with new local takes appearing from Birmingham to Belgrade.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]