Annesleyred
First Team Squad
Still got mine
The ‘I have something to say about Forest that doesn’t warrant its own thread’ Thread
- Thread starter Magic Forest 89
- Start date
Still got mine
Was rummaging in the garage the other day for something - Forest v Dynamo Berlin, 1980, personally signed by the FormerRedsCaptain, John McGovern:
Trents
Stuart Pearce
Some kindly person settle an argument for me please. I don't remember much nowadays but I'm sure there was a time when the old ticket office had the seating plans with rows and seat numbers for each stand on big sheets on the wall inside. I've been told I'm talking bollocks.
Anyone else remember that?
Anyone else remember that?
Yeah I remember that! I think it may have been on the wall behind that white model of the CG with a reimagined Main Stand, but if not right behind it then certainly on that side
Absolutely, in the days when you had to go down to the ticket office to buy your tickets.
+1 - they definitely did, back in the 90s when there was a model of the ground in the Ticket Office, there was a big plan that showed where all the seats were.
Talking bollocks, you are not.
Talking bollocks, you are not.
I remember that. I reckon they probably came down about 20 years ago.
valspoodle
Ian Bowyer
Like our trip charts in the days before computers. Now it's all on hard disc or something , but those days a squad of girls would pore over piles of paper with intersecting lines drawn all over them.
Bobby The Brain
Weasel
Northman Ireland started it I think, it was a song for Will Griggs.
Pogue Mahone 67
A. Trialist
I think it started with Will Grigg, Wigan Athletic Striker?
Professor Wolfgang Schnell BSc. PhD.
Fulchester United
It was definitely a Wembley DJ thing too, way before we got there.
Ian Moore Gone Little
Geoff Thomas
Much as I went with the flow and sang along with it at the play-off final, I would happily never hear that, nor Sweet Bloody Caroline, at a sporting venue ever again.
Notcher
Ian Bowyer
It was only sung by Northern Ireland for Will Grigg previously but there's little doubt that a combination of the Forest fans and the DJ playing it several times at Wembley popularised to another level as the clips of us went viral. The DJ at Wembley then started playing it for every final after and it's grown ever since.
Redofheaven2
First Team Squad
Claims of first use go back to Bohemians in 2011, the first “xxx is on fire” chant is claimed by Stevenage in 2012. Newcastle and Fulham sang, “Mitro’s on fire” and NI adopted the Will Giggs chant from Wigan fans. As @Professor Wolfgang Schnell BSc. PhD. said it was regularly played at Wembley before our play off.
Notcher
Ian Bowyer
It was played a little bit but not regularly. As I said it just took it onto another level after we sung it at Wembley and became far more regular.
Professor Wolfgang Schnell BSc. PhD.
Fulchester United
I think it was probably a lot more to do with the Lionesses rather than Forest.
FBS
Steve Chettle
I think the lyrics (what there are of them) took on extra meaning for us.
Forest were freed from the desire to get back to the Prem. We had made it. It was something we all desired for decades and now it was happening. No more dreaming.
Our minds and sense are purified of the Championship and League One days.
It might sound silly, but the depth to how that song represented a lot of what we, as a club and fanbase, were desperate for meant it hit a little deeper when played after the final whistle.
Redofheaven2
First Team Squad
@FBS is spot on in terms of the meaning for us but in was sung by multiple sets of supporters prior to our play offs and much as it would be great if true it is fanciful to claim that have been responsible for global popularity at sporting events.
Notcher
Ian Bowyer
It's not fanciful at all in the modern age where hundreds if not thousands of times a year a nobody teenager can create something globally popular from their own bedrooms.
Professor Wolfgang Schnell BSc. PhD.
Fulchester United
Notch is clinging to this like a limpet 
I remember hearing Freed From Desire at the final whistle and being disappointed that it wasn’t I Just Can’t Get Enough.
Chappers85
Can't Play Left-Back
It was cleansing. I think a lot of us really started to think promotion would never happen. There were so many false dawns over the years and it messed with our heads - what if we hadn't given Platt all that money, what if we'd just backed Paul Hart and signed Huckerby, what if we'd kept Nicky Shorey, what if Billy Davies could have just been normal, what if we hadn't bottled it under Lamouchi etc etc etc ad infinitum. The moment that full time whistle blew against Huddersfield, I just let all of that go. Freed From Desire - and I Just Can't Enough for that matter - are pretty terrible songs. But I love them because of the context. I know we weren't the first to use them, but they just resonated because frankly we were awful for a quarter of a century and it was a pretty miserable experience supporting Forest. And suddenly, it wasn't. It was joyous. It was liberating. It wasn't such a bloody chore any longer. That Albatross around our necks, fell off into the sea. And those two crappy songs are the soundtrack to that moment.
But no matter what was played, we'd have probably tried to find meaning in it - "Yes, we really do live in A Gangster's Paradise", "Supporting Forest really is like being on a Helter Skelter" or "We really were Born to Run"
Redofheaven2
First Team Squad
You stated that it was only sung by NI prior to our playoff - factually incorrect, multiple fan bases sung it.
What your describing about someone in their bedroom creating something is exactly what happen (Sean Kennedy) but that was 6 years prior to our playoff. The place of the chant in sporting culture was then cemented by NI in the 2016 Euros. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36310845
It is more synonymous with other teams than us. Particularly the Lionesses as @Professor Wolfgang Schnell BSc. PhD. pointed out.
We can’t claim the credit but that’s ok…
Notcher
Ian Bowyer
My mention of NI was because that was the only one of any note.
In terms of someone creating something in their bedroom I wasn't narrowing that down specifically to someone creating a chant or a song. It's much broader than that, it can be absolutely anything from a dance, a game, absolutely anything. It's not outlandish to suggest a football club with a fairly global brand that was viral for a short time during that week enhanced the notoriety of the song.