Bring the Noise

[jrb]

When we’ve had bigger allocations and more younger fans like at Preston, the atmospheres been much more like that of the travelling support we see that come to our ground.
Away supports should be noisy, something special and almost tribal, but our hardcore away support are mostly 50 plus and the novelty of the away day has clearly worn off.

That was more than evident at Wolves.

“King Of The Kippax!” was one of the loudest shouts of the night.

Even though I’m 52, that statement about our ageing and quiet away support is so true.

There were plenty at Wolves who couldn’t be arsed singing just once.

Unfortunately the club have already pushed the away ticket allocation boat out with 5% of away tickets going to younger City fans. City won’t dare rock that same boat and increase it to 10% or to 15%. There would be a mutiny onboard from the old City away crew if they did that.

 

[trevorriley]

That was more than evident at Wolves.

“King Of The Kippax!” was one of the loudest shouts of the night.

Even though I’m 52, that statement about our ageing and quiet away support is so true.

There were plenty at Wolves who couldn’t be arsed singing just once.

Unfortunately the club have already pushed the away ticket allocation boat out with 5% of away tickets going to younger City fans. City won’t dare rock that same boat and increase it to 10% or to 15%. There would be a mutiny onboard from the old City away crew if they did that.

50 is the new 20 JRB ! You and me alike

I do get that not all fans come to games to sing, everybody has a choice and fair enough some want to sit and enjoy the football perhaps cheer a goal on. That is less than half the fans though, majority go for the atmosphere, then a large percentage want to sing but don't. Ive been at away games where an eager singer has shouted "sing you c***s". A bit unfair really as behind us have been a couple in there later 50s hat and gloves on just enjoying the game, they have every right. The following should be a good mix though and as you say in the post we need to up the percentage and make it fair. I am sure the older folk following city would come away from the game hugely satisfied by the noise our away fans made.

 

[City_Sean]

I must admit the whole atmosphere since Pep has joined the club has been disappointing. We're literally in a dream position, we've watched the best team in English history for two seasons and the atmosphere has stayed the same as under Pellegrini in his final two years.

There are groups who really, really try, but I think our song selections are often poor at certain times of the game, and combined with a ground whereby the acoustics aren't great then its evidently a problem.

My feelings on the Family Stand are clear, it should be moved to the third tier somewhere out the way and have another standing section behind the north stand goal.

We're a year on from arguably the best atmosphere we've ever seen in that Liverpool game but we can never get close to replicating it IMO. That for me was how every big game should be.

 

[The zab man]

If you cant/wont sing then clap, if you cant/wont sing then hum, if you cant/wont hum then whistle, im pretty sure the majority of fans can do that beyond 50 ;)

 

[Eccles Blue]

I get really annoyed about this ageism!! It doesn’t matter what age you are and in my experience there are youngsters who sit with their hands on their knees and never say a word unless we score a goal! Then you get the older fans who’ve been there, seen the bad, seen the good and they make a noise.
And vice versa!

Like in life, there are good and loud people but also quiet people. Stop saying it’s the oldies who don’t make the noise! Accept that people like 1894 are trying, individuals are trying. If it happens it happens if it doesn’t well fair enough people didn’t feel like it.

Just leave the oldies alone! It costs me £2.50/£2.99 each game to make a noise!! That’s because after every bout of shouting/singing I get a coughing fit, as I hurt my throat and so I have to buy a bottle of water or coke. You can’t take it in with you so I pay.

 

[TheRemainsOfTheDave]

I get really annoyed about this ageism!! It doesn’t matter what age you are and in my experience there are youngsters who sit with their hands on their knees and never say a word unless we score a goal! Then you get the older fans who’ve been there, seen the bad, seen the good and they make a noise.
And vice versa!

Like in life, there are good and loud people but also quiet people. Stop saying it’s the oldies who don’t make the noise! Accept that people like 1894 are trying, individuals are trying. If it happens it happens if it doesn’t well fair enough people didn’t feel like it.

Just leave the oldies alone! It costs me £2.50/£2.99 each game to make a noise!! That’s because after every bout of shouting/singing I get a coughing fit, as I hurt my throat and so I have to buy a bottle of water or coke. You can’t take it in with you so I pay.

You can take a bottle of water in with you if it's unopened and you can also get free water from the food outlets.

You can also sneak things* in a bobble hat because they make you take that off when scanning you with the wand, but they always forget to scan the hat you're holding.


*Erm, erm, apparently.

 

[quiet_riot]

We're a year on from arguably the best atmosphere we've ever seen in that Liverpool game but we can never get close to replicating it IMO. That for me was how every big game should be.

You can't possibly expect to replicate that every week. They were unbeaten, we were close behind, but in danger of losing touch. It was a must-win game, everyone was still off work so had been on the beer, night game, full strength sides, it had everything.

Contrast that with us now, wrecked by injuries, out of touch in the title race, playing against mid-low able sides whose own fans don't make much noise.

 

[Eccles Blue]

@TheRemainsOfTheDave I know about taking the unopened bottle in with you, but to be honest I find that not every steward knows this and, as I am not a confrontational person and also I don't want to hold up the queue, it is easier on my BP to buy one when I'm in there. Plus with the free water, they give it in a beaker which gets kicked over when I have to stand up to let people in and out, or when we score someone kicks it over!!

Thank you though. It is easier for me to be a true BlueMoaner on here!! (Sorry folks just kidding) :-)

 

[Blue Til Death]

I get really annoyed about this ageism!! It doesn’t matter what age you are and in my experience there are youngsters who sit with their hands on their knees and never say a word unless we score a goal! Then you get the older fans who’ve been there, seen the bad, seen the good and they make a noise.
And vice versa!

Like in life, there are good and loud people but also quiet people. Stop saying it’s the oldies who don’t make the noise! Accept that people like 1894 are trying, individuals are trying. If it happens it happens if it doesn’t well fair enough people didn’t feel like it.

Just leave the oldies alone! It costs me £2.50/£2.99 each game to make a noise!! That’s because after every bout of shouting/singing I get a coughing fit, as I hurt my throat and so I have to buy a bottle of water or coke. You can’t take it in with you so I pay.

I have one of my kids following me with a dust pan n brush to collect anything that drops off me, only a quid though ;-)

 

[M18CTID]

I get really annoyed about this ageism!! It doesn’t matter what age you are and in my experience there are youngsters who sit with their hands on their knees and never say a word unless we score a goal! Then you get the older fans who’ve been there, seen the bad, seen the good and they make a noise.
And vice versa!

Like in life, there are good and loud people but also quiet people. Stop saying it’s the oldies who don’t make the noise! Accept that people like 1894 are trying, individuals are trying. If it happens it happens if it doesn’t well fair enough people didn’t feel like it.

Just leave the oldies alone! It costs me £2.50/£2.99 each game to make a noise!! That’s because after every bout of shouting/singing I get a coughing fit, as I hurt my throat and so I have to buy a bottle of water or coke. You can’t take it in with you so I pay.

I'm hardly a spring chicken myself EB so my intention was never to be ageist - it was more an observation about our away following which others have backed up to be fair (people who, like me, aren't exactly young!) - and of course I've stated on here recently that if we had a stand full of people like yourself then we wouldn't even be having an ongoing conversation about atmosphere problems ;)

You are right that it's not just an age thing - I too have seen some of the younger lot not joining in with songs either and don't get me started on the curious case of the "concourse singer" where it seems like 90% of them forget they've got a voice when they get to their seats! - but I do believe all fanbases need fresh blood so to speak in order to try to achieve a better atmosphere.

Anyway, tomorrow we're going to be up against it with 8000 Port Vale fans bouncing round the South Stand 2nd and 3rd tiers and basically having a party, but some of the 1894 lot have moved over to 113 for this one so hopefully we and 110-111 can get things going in unison for a change, rather than being split up and having about 3 or 4 songs going at once which the respective blocks can't hear or when they do hear it, it's too late as the song has already died off.

 

[City_Sean]

You can't possibly expect to replicate that every week. They were unbeaten, we were close behind, but in danger of losing touch. It was a must-win game, everyone was still off work so had been on the beer, night game, full strength sides, it had everything.

Contrast that with us now, wrecked by injuries, out of touch in the title race, playing against mid-low able sides whose own fans don't make much noise.

I'm not saying it should be like that every week, my point is that's what can happen when everybody in the ground is up for it. We've had plenty of big games recently and we're not giving the lads the backing they deserve.

 

[Eccles Blue]

@M18CTID it’s a hard one to call because as you (& I) say sometimes it’s one group sometimes another.
As I can’t always decide where the singing lot are up to (or not as the case may be) I sometimes start my own shout/song/chant so we probably end up with another song. We’ll make someone sit up and take notice one day!! :-)

 

[berryblue]

There are thousands of young fans in the North stand and they don't make half the noise we used to make in the Kippax. Spend less bloody time singing anti United songs and start singing about City and lift the team!

 

[trevorriley]

@M18CTID it’s a hard one to call because as you (& I) say sometimes it’s one group sometimes another.
As I can’t always decide where the singing lot are up to (or not as the case may be) I sometimes start my own shout/song/chant so we probably end up with another song. We’ll make someone sit up and take notice one day!! :-)

Fair play fans of any age having a sing song, noticed against sheff untied and posted on here some guys near me in 115 and a couple of years older where belting their hearts out.

What I have noticed is that if in the PL it is a low key game so there aren't as many fans that start a song off, it works out quite well as we don't have this 20 songs in 10 minutes or two songs starting at the same time. Last home game was great for the first 10 mins, I turned to my mate to say ten minutes and only 4 songs, but works perfect as bernardo song lasted 6 minutes and others didn't get mixed up. It doesn't work when after 5 mins if there is silence somebody decides to break the silence with stand up for the champions. Songs do need a relevance to the game, stand up for the champions gets going if we are two up in the second half.

Anyhow tomorrow will be very interesting, full lower tier for city fans and fingers crossed 113 full of good singers not fans that choose to site down as sometimes happens. Can we link kippax and 114 / 115 / 116 ? We have a few flags and banners out, feel free to grab one. The 3m square telescopic flags are a tad difficult to wave though !

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I get really annoyed about this ageism!! It doesn’t matter what age you are and in my experience there are youngsters who sit with their hands on their knees and never say a word unless we score a goal! Then you get the older fans who’ve been there, seen the bad, seen the good and they make a noise.
And vice versa!

Like in life, there are good and loud people but also quiet people. Stop saying it’s the oldies who don’t make the noise! Accept that people like 1894 are trying, individuals are trying. If it happens it happens if it doesn’t well fair enough people didn’t feel like it.

Just leave the oldies alone! It costs me £2.50/£2.99 each game to make a noise!! That’s because after every bout of shouting/singing I get a coughing fit, as I hurt my throat and so I have to buy a bottle of water or coke. You can’t take it in with you so I pay.

I think age does matter across all supports.

Yes, not all young people sing and not all older people don’t.

But all of the louder sets of away fans that visit have younger demographics. Whenever we seem to have a larger young (and I don’t mean just 18-21 year olds, I’m even talking 30somethings who are young when it comes to our away support) demographic at away games our atmosphere is always miles better.

I’m 37 and I’ve been to some away games where I’ve looked around and felt young amongst our fanbase.

You never get a group of twenty 65 year olds standing on seats and ballooning away to songs, singing them over and over. The younger groups of lads do that though (in fact there have been times when that has happened and threads on here pop up moaning about the younger fans in our support).

 

[trevorriley]

every age group has its pro's and cons, wolves away I would say had the best home fans. Its a mix of all ages and I was surprised. True though the younger fans tend to stand on seats, bounce around and go wilder.

If we had 750 fans in 115 like all of us on this thread we'd be the loudest in the PL by far !

 

[Deleted member 77198]

every age group has its pro's and cons, wolves away I would say had the best home fans. Its a mix of all ages and I was surprised. True though the younger fans tend to stand on seats, bounce around and go wilder.

If we had 750 fans in 115 like all of us on this thread we'd be the loudest in the PL by far !

That’s the thing about this thread. We’re all vocal fans who like vocal atmospheres and we’re all talking amongst ourselves about it.

It’s the rest of them that need to read this, hopefully they do (even if they don’t post).

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

If we could get south stand level 2 standing and as a singing section that could make the difference. Port vale fans were joined by the middle tier singing.

Much better have an entire end of city fans as well

 

[quiet_riot]

Considering they had twice as many as they do for a home game, they weren't that loud.

 

[urban genie]

Vale were very quiet, but so were we.

In my stand we had a fair few of non regulars and for once area was all sat down, the usual chants and noise never really went on.