Steve Bloomer's Watchin'

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The song Steve Bloomer's Watchin' has been the official club anthem of Derby County Football Club since Boxing Day 1997, where the finished version of the song was played for the first time before the league game against Newcastle United. Derby won the game 1-0. The original version of the song was first played before the Manchester United home game in October of that same season.

The idea for the song began in November of 1996 when two Derby County supporters Mark "Tank" Tewson and Martyn Miller heard an old Australian Rules football song entitled "Up There Cazaly" which was composed by Mike Brady, in 1979, for an Australian TV show. Martyn Miller had previously heard about the song from friend, Gary Sadler, who had been on a coach tour in the United States, and heard a selection of sporting anthems from around the world. In October of 1996, Martyn was at his next door neighbors house watching a Derby County game with a couple of visiting Australian friends. He asked them if they had heard of "Up There Cazaly". The Australians promised to send Martyn a copy of the song and the cassette tape duly arived some three weeks later.

Within days of first hearing the Australian song, the two Derby fans had rewritten the lyrics of the song completely. Friend and musician Stephen "Massa" Halsten-Reid was brought in to re-vamp the musical composition, and the first recording of the song was made in the living room of Mark Tewson's Kilburn home. Nine friends and Rams fans stood around a microphone which dangled from the ceiling light shade. Martyn Miller sang lead vocals on the original copy which goes under the artists name of "Oil Slick and the Tankers," of which, very few examples exist.

Caption

The two Rams fans had a song that they thought was catchy, and perfect for a footy crowd to sing; somehow they had to bring this to the attention of their beloved Rams. The media offensive began and contact was made with the local BBC radio station, Radio Derby. The Pam Steele show was the first to air the original recording in March 1997 and the song was planted into the consciousness of the Derby public. There was another song at that time which was being touted as a possible club anthem, "The Derby Stomp", written by persons unknown. The two songs were put into a Radio Derby phone-in contest and "Steve Bloomer's Watchin'" garnered 97% of the total vote.

Further visits to various local radio shows, including airings on the Ram FM [1] Adrian Eyre show, as well as another visit to Radio Derby, this time on the Andy Whittaker show, which included interviews with Miller and Tewson.

All this local media coverage was well and good, but Derby County itself, was still in a state of relative unawareness. So, a meeting was set up with Jim Fearn, the Derby County Press Officer, at the Baseball Ground on April 4th, 1997.

Upon hearing the original version of the song, Fearn told Miller and Tewson that he thought they had something here that could work, however, a more professional version of the composition would be needed if this was going to be the "Rams anthem" of the future. Upon hearing this the two fans tossed around some ideas. Living in Kilburn, and as luck would have it, across the road from Mark Tewson, was one Paul Tyson who had his own recording company Sine Records [2]. Upon hearing the idea and song, Paul agreed to help with the project. The original recording of the song was played over the loud speakers before the home game against Manchester United in October of 1997. The song, while sounding ok, was definitely in need of an upgrade in terms of recording quality and volume so as to establish itselves as the new Rams anthem.

Also at this time, Miller and Tewson thought about the need to get someone relatively famous to sing lead on the finished version of the song. The obvious choice was, Robert Lindsay. Lindsay was well known to most Britons as "Wolfie Smith" from the sitcom "Citizen Smith", and later starred in numerous Broadway Shows. In more recent times Lindsay has starred in the wonderful "Hornblower" series, portraying Captain Pellow. More importantly, of course, Lindsay was a huge Rams fan. Contact was made with Lindsay's agents, the William Morris Agency, and emails were then exchanged between Tewson and Lindsay regarding a request for him to sing the lead vocal. Lindsay jumped at the chance and eventually the recording date was set for mid-November. Paul Tyson had been to the Pride Park Stadium and recorded some crowd noises to embed into the song, and finally all was ready to go ahead and record the finished version of Steve Bloomer's Watchin'.

At the time, Lionel Pickering and Jim Smith were Derby's owner and manager respectively; they also agreed to be part of the recording group. Many of the squad's players at the time also took part, with team Captain, Robin Van Der Laan, squad members Ron Willems, Robert Kozluk and many others being part of the ensemble. All interested parties gathered into a Pride Park conference room and recorded the final version of Steve Bloomer's Watchin' under the guise of "Robert Lindsay and the Pride Park Possee".

Caption

Paul Tyson went home to work his magic and produced a marvellous finished song. The singing was great, the crowd effects were perfectly placed, and finally Steve Bloomer's Watchin' was ready for its first official playing as the clubs new anthem. Further media coverage came via another Radio Derby appearance on Christmas Eve and also an article in the local newspaper, The Derby Evening Telegraph.

A near capacity crowd greeted the home team as they walked out onto the field on Boxing Day 1997 to play Newcastle United. They were also greeted by the thundering noise of "Steve Bloomer's Watchin'" blasting out over the loud-speaker system. From then until the end of the season, the song was played before the home games and also at full time, unless Derby lose. In the years since its first pre-game playing, the song has grown in popularity among the Derby fans. It is still played at home games and can now be often heard being sung at away games by the fans themselves. The pre-home game sounds would not be the same without the rousing, hand clapping renditon of the song just before kick-off.

This year, 2007, "Steve Bloomer's Watchin'" will celebrate its 10th anniversary as the club's official song, and long may it continue to do so. Perhaps, more importantly, the song helped bring Steve Bloomer back into the consciousness of modern Derby fans. The player was a genius on the field with unparrelled scoring achievements, for both Derby and England (28 goals in 23 games). He was the game's first true superstar and, rightly, there will be a bronze statue of him placed outside the Pride Park Stadium where all future generations of Derby fans will be able to look and see one of the greatest players ever to grace a football pitch. The future statue is, in the main part, thanks to the efforts of Ian Hayes of the Ramstrust organization [3] and the efforts of many fund raisers connected with the Steve Bloomer Project.

Many people were involved in the making of this song over a fourteen month period and I take this chance to thank all of them for helping a dream come true for two Derby fans.

[edit] The Lyrics

Verse One

Our history's full of legends,
And football played on high,
Raich Carter, Peter Doherty,
You should have seen 'em fly.
Now we all love football,
But will we lift the crown,
The noise goes up, the Rams come out,
Onto the hallowed ground.

Home Chorus

Steve Bloomer's Watchin',
Helping the fight,
Guiding our heroes,
In the black and the white.
All teams who come here,
There's nowhere to hide,
Everyone is frightened,
Of that Derby pride.

Verse Two

The Rams just play football,
That make our hearts so proud,
McFarland and Hector,
Were names to thrill the crowd.
And if you love of hate us,
Just wait until we score,
The ball goes in, the stands light up,
And how the mighty roar.

Home Chorus repeated twice.

Away Chorus

The Rams are a coming,
We're out there to win,
Playing like fury,
They won't let 'em in.
Home sides be wary,
Of our heart and our soul,
We're searching for glory,
And victory is our goal.

Home chorus repeated to finale.