Drumming up support

[YF Dan]

Given that I'm feeling all democratic, here's another poll:

Drums at football matches:

Love 'em

Hate 'em

I must admit, I love 'em.

But then, I've always said I ever buy the club, I'll change our shorts to royal blue, put green trim on our yellow shirt, and introduce Brazilian drums and beautiful women all around the ground.

Minchery Farm desperately lacks atmosphere, I think drums would liven it up no end. Both Aldershot matches this year have been by far the best atmosphere, and it's largely thanks to their drum.

Discuss.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

Drums?

Half the population here leaves town every Easter to get away from them.

[GodalmingYellow]

Given that I'm feeling all democratic, here's another poll:

Drums at football matches:

Love 'em

Hate 'em

I must admit, I love 'em.

But then, I've always said I ever buy the club, I'll change our shorts to royal blue, put green trim on our yellow shirt, and introduce Brazilian drums and beautiful women all around the ground.

Minchery Farm desperately lacks atmosphere, I think drums would liven it up no end. Both Aldershot matches this year have been by far the best atmosphere, and it's largely thanks to their drum.

Discuss.

Hate em, along with all musical instruments played by fans during games.

Are you saying the Oxford women are not sufficiently beautiful for you Dan?

[A-Ro]

Hate 'em along with goal celebration music.

[SteMerritt]

Hate 'em, but my god we need something to get the home crowd to wake from it's slumber. Perhaps Maraccas instead.

[Kernow Yellow]

Hate 'em, in general.

Actually, I think there's potential to use them well, but that would never happen in the OM stand - there are already too many people there who think that clapping along when a few people behind them sing is creating atmosphere.

If you had a good number of people singing a decent, varied repertoire of chants then a drum might well help to keep things going. But it ain't going to fix the problem on its own.

Incidentally, Dan, it's interesting that a self-confessed &quotnon-singer&quot like yourself should take such an interest in improving the atmosphere. The best way to do that is to sing more. And that goes for the rest of you who sit quietly moaning in the SSU (or anywhere else for that matter) and then complain that the crowd was shit.

[YF Dan]

Whoooah!

Me - a non singer?

Wouldn't ever say I was a big singer, but similarly, wouldn't say I was a non-singer. I'm somewhere in between. I sang a quite a few songs on saturday, inspired by the low roof, a much improved performance and the good atmosphere.

My real problem is the sheer shitness of most of our songs. I can't remember the last good song we had. (Although, &quotYou're supposed to be at war&quot on Sat was quite funny, but didn't catch on.

We have a lot of divvy fans, who sing too many songs about hating this that and the other. I prefer songs supporting our team, or at least being amusing about the opposition, not just rude and insulting.

[SteMerritt]

We have a lot of divvy fans, who sing too many songs about hating this that and the other. I prefer songs supporting our team, or at least being amusing about the opposition, not just rude and insulting.

....which i believe is half the problem. Last home game, the loudest song was the Jim Smith Yellow And Blue Army one, but hardly anyone bothers with all the anti-Slumdon stuff (and build a bonfire - is this the worst song ever sung by Oxford fans?). I am sure that back on the old LRT we never used to sing so much negative stuff.

[Mally]

We have a lot of divvy fans, who sing too many songs about hating this that and the other. I prefer songs supporting our team, or at least being amusing about the opposition, not just rude and insulting.

This is becoming a trend certainly in the lower leagues . I noticed last night that Bristol City fans at the Riverside spent most of their time chanting such things as &quotAre you Rovers in disguise&quot, &quotPremiership? your having a laugh&quot and hardly anything positive to support their own team.

For our fans what's the point of chanting &quotwe hate Slumdon&quot away at somewhere like Stafford or Stevenage, or even at home for that matter? All it does is highlight the fact that we're not good enough to play them anymore.

I dug out Desmond Morris's &quotSoccer Tribe&quot to look at the analysis of Oxford chants from almost 30 years ago. Interestingly there was no category for chants specifically aimed at local rivals but there was one aimed directly at the opposition. (60 out of 251 different chants for the period studied). The most interesting facts compared to today was the number and variety of chants. On average at each Oxford game there was a massive 145 chants per game made up of an average 67 DIFFERENT chants per match! If you told that to the youth of today ........... [cut to Monty Python sketch with old men wearing flat caps]

[theox]

Whats the point in drums though? how are they positive support when they drown out all the 'positive' singing?!

sorry, i just think they sound really pathetic like playing music after a goal. bloody awful. if you cant just sing then dont bother doing anything.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

If you told that to the youth of today ........... [cut to Monty Python sketch with old men wearing flat caps]

In fact it's from At Last the 1948 Show.

[Kernow Yellow]

I prefer songs supporting our team, or at least being amusing about the opposition, not just rude and insulting.

Then start them up. It's not difficult. I'm sure you'll find that most people prefer positive songs, and everyone prefers amusing ones. It's just that the 'divvy' fans will fill in any quiet gaps with the standard anti-Slumdon stuff.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem, innit?

Of course, it was much easier to start new chants on the London Road than it is in the OM stand, but that leads on to a whole new rant about how all-seater stadia are killing the atmosphere at football matches, which I'll spare you for now...

NB - this post is not aimed at you personally, Dan, but at anyone who thinks the atmosphere could and should be better. We're the fans, it's up to us to change it - it's no good just bemoaning the fact that Pluggy and Brendan and Nappy aren't around any more to do it for us.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

Are they in prison?

[Mally]

Are they in prison?

Nappy is dead. He died just before we moved from the Manor

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[YF Dan]

&quotAre you saying the Oxford women are not sufficiently beautiful for you Dan?&quot

That's a whole new poll for another day.

Songs:

Must admit the current crop of players don't massively inspire me into song, but how about a little competition to see if anyone can come up with something funny and catchy by Saturday.

Kernow &quotLloyd-Webber&quot Yellow, you lead the way.