Invisible Man Origin...

[ConnorMCFC]

i heard it started durning the 80's i think, when away fans were banned from luton?

 

[BufordUSABlue]

deffo to do with Peter swales and the Tax man.. attendeances of 25k where you could not move in the old ground at least 40k in the so the song started...Peter used to get the attendance announced the crowd and it was so not accurate.. at least the tax man beleived us!!!!

i do remember that period when the crowds seemed much more than what was announced. Bournmouth 3-3 when we got promoted the week after springs to mind. The ground was full yet it was given out as 30 odd thousand.

I don't think the sing came from that, though. I never heard it sung then.

I remember those days, especially the Bournemouth game. The crowd would openly laugh and cheer when the attendances were announced. We were crammed in and they'd announce that there were much smaller crowds.
i also remember how good Bish was that day....for them.
I was the only white guy with a black girl in the whole ground and when
luther Blissett scored their 3rd in the 97th minute to equalise, after we were 3 up at half time, and i though ..."oh Sh
**.
Fair play though, not a bad word from any City fan towards me.
Class, as always

Ahhh the Bournemouth home game..........I remember saying the immortal words to my pal (we had tickets for the Maine Stand for some unknown reason - they must have been freebies!) that "even we couldnt fook this one up" at half-time................the rest as they say is history!! Isnt this the season that we then had to go to Bradford and get something and was it Palace our rivals for promotion or am i merging all the great memories into one here - Didsbury will no doubt put me right on this!!

 

[blu4life]

I went to the Luton game when we were banned and there were hundreds of other Blues there. There was plenty of singing in the pub before and in the ground. I must admit I don't remember the song but I suspect it was sung there.

HOWEVER

I was told it's "rebirth" was at a Prestwich and Whitefield branch do, the funeral of one of the members, where the above version "If you drink, you will die..." etc was sung.

It then caught on when we were in divisions 1 and 2 in the 96-98 era, obviously when we were stood at shitty grounds. I remember it had well caught on by the time we played away at Chesterfield. I remember some used to sing "WE're in Milan watching City in the champions league...we're not really here"

It then kind of morphed into a song used to describe how surreal it was supporting City. The best - and it should have been the final ever - version of it was belted out about 2 minutes before the final whistle at Ewood Park when we got promoted. It had kind of been turned on its head and meant that we couldn't believe we were back so quickly.

Now it's a silly, meaningless song in my opinion.

before we were rich i always thought it referred to the fact that the press was all rag, rag, rag. city could win 6-0, rags would win 1-0 and the papers in the morning would be all rag this rag that... now that obviously isnt the case... its all 'city are ruining football' 'haha stoke beat city' etc

 

[Boney]

First time I heard it was Chesterfield away in Div 3 (3rd tier) 1-1 draw.

 

[Manchester_City_Blue]

As with most footie songs, origins are sketchy but the generally accepted view is that the song 'We are not, we're not really here' is because the Blues found themselves in Division Two (the third tier of English football) for one dreadful season in 1998/9. The City fans were registering their dibelief at playing at such outposts as York, Chesterfield, Macclesfield and Northampton - ergo, 'we are not really here playing against these teams'. The Invisible Man could be traced back to a fan who dressd up as such and his mates are the originators of the song. Like I said, sketchy!

 

[DAGW]

Too young to know the exact origins so my views would be pointless. Love the song.

Anyone know where the big white invisible man banner in "the kippax" has gone?

Also out of interest, Has anyone got any footage of Kevin Horlock's aggressive walking game? I havent seen that in donkeys...

 

[i8therags]

love to hear--he;s not realy here.........................................................
like were suporters of the invisable man

if berti comes on

 

[cyberblue]

I was sure it was down to the prestwich and whitefield thing and not any "city fans in away end" story

Id imagine the song may have been sung in the past,hence why a load of blues sang it after a funeral but my understanding was it was the funeral that was 100% the catalyst for it starting to get sung regularly

You are Nearly Correct it Started in the Forresters Pub In Prestwich when we were all out on the pi*s One of our mates had recently Died & one of the lads Started Singing .If you Drink you will Die .If you Dont Drink you will Die .It Better to Be Drunk Than be Sober When you Die .Just Like the fan from the Invisible man ect Don Price Bill Black & Co then went on to Sing it on Tour in Ireland & for some daft Reason it caught on from there & the first bit over time got dropped

 

[Stoned Rose]

Top song.

Blues humour at its best.

 

[Bilboblue]

I'm not doubting your story, Barry.

i also heard that United sung it when they were banned from all grounds in the mid 70s.

Really Dave? That's disappointed me.