Interesting article on the origins of “your never walk alone

Interesting article on the origins of “your never walk alone “

Here you can see The Shed in full song during the 2-1 victory a.e.t. (3-2) over Southampton on October 28th 1981 in the League Cup 2nd Round 2nd leg. Back in the 80's most teams' fans used to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone".

Chelsea fans were known for being in full voice back in the 20's and 30's. With their proximity to the King's Road and the West End Chelsea always attracted fans from the establishment, showbiz and the Music Halls. King George V used to don a cloth cap and stand on the West Bank to watch Chelsea. Many of the little ditties that were sung in London's West End would be brought back over Chelsea with new inventive words.

One particular little number found its way over the bridge in 1950 when the American stage musical Carousel was launched in the West End. It is, of course, "You'll Never Walk Alone". By their 1955 championship year the entire ground was often heard singing the "Walk On" chorus.

Many years later a singer from Liverpool called Gerry Marsden was in London for a gig and on 7th September 1963 he was invited along to the Chelsea vs Liverpool match at Stamford Bridge. Ian St John put Liverpool up on the 10th minute. Chelsea fans started to sing the "Walk on" chorus. Jimmy Mulholland equalised up on the 17th minute. Immediately the Chelsea fans were in full voice singing the full version of "You'll Never Walk Alone".

Chelsea turned in a poor performance and Roger Hunt scored for Liverpool with 20 to go. In the dying minutes Ian St John sealed a 3-1 victory for the visitors. Chelsea fans did not break tune, they just carried on telling the team they would never walk alone, that their fans would always be there for the team. The singing continued long after the final whistle. The team knew the fans were with them for life.

Gerry explains in his autobiography how moved he was by such support. He had seen Liverpool quite a a few times, but if they were losing some fans would lose heart and walk out towards the end of the game leaving the team to walk alone. He was amazed by the life in the fans he had seen at the Bridge and wanted to help the fans rally behind the same calling. He was in awe of the dedication of such support he had seen in London. Chelsea had just returned to the top flight at the first attempt, lifted by their fans turning up in unprecedented numbers for Division II games.

Gerry became inspired. He put the idea across to his manager and a few weeks later on the 10th October 1963 he released his own version of the song. He even added the chorus sung in the way it had been at Stamford Bridge. Up to that moment "You'll Never Walk Alone" had not been heard being sung by other teams' fans at matches. In those days every team had their own songs, songs only began to be spread around the country in earnest when Match of the Day started.

It is however known that a couple of singers from Manchester had been impressed at the travelling support singing it when Chelsea had their annual victory in 14th December 1957. Old Trafford was always a favourite hunting ground for a win for the London side. The significance of that match is it was the last match the Buzby Babes lost before some of them tragically died in the snow on the Munich runway. The two women were asked to sing at the memorial for the Busby Babes and chose "You'll Never Walk Alone", leading the chorus, after that Manchester United fans sang it occasionally.

During Liverpool's glory years in the 70's they were on TV a lot and with the connection to Marsden the history of the song is often attributed to the wrong team by modern day fans. But the song was still sung in the original way back in London as recently as the 1980s. As Gerry Marsden says in his book, he was proud to be associated with the establishment of the Liverpool version of the London football song.

After seeing 2,000 games in the 70s and 80s with "Walk On" being sung at most. I emigrated to Sweden in 1988 and have not seen a game in the UK since. Interestingly it is said Chelsea fans never or rarely sing it today, which is surprising seeing as they invented it.

I have also heard it said that most club's fans no longer sing it or wave their scarves in the manner established at Chelsea in the 50s. Why is this? Was it after the Nolan sisters sung it for the victims of the Bradford fire? Did the 1980s become the decade fans stopped singing the song?


Can anyone Shed (pun intended) any light on this?

i remember us singing it...