Theme From Sparta F.C.

Lyrics

(1)

Come on I will show you how I will change
When you give me something to slaughter
Shepherd boy (Hey!)
Everybody sing (Hey!)
Better act quick (Hey!)

Be my toy
Come on have a bet
We live on blood
We are Sparta F.C.

[
Phonetic Transcription of vocal by Eleni]:

Ella Na Soo Thixo
Poso tha alaxo
Otan tha moo thosis
Kati na sfaxo
Ella valeh stihima
Yia na kerthiso
Afto then ineh pimma
Yia ta skoopithia.   (2)

I don't have a jack knife it went up the hill
I don't know if i'll get it back
But by hook or by crook I will (3)
Hey! Hey!

Be my toy
Come on have a bet
We live on blood
We are Sparta F.C.

Hey! Hey!

We have to pay for everything (Hey!)
But some things are for free (Hey!)
We live on blood (Hey!)
We are Sparta F.C. (Hey!)
English Chelsea fan this is your last game (Hey!)
We're not Galatasaray, we're Sparta F.C. (Hey!) (4)

[background vocal by Elena] 

And take your fleecy jumper you won't need it anymore (5)
It is in the car boot moving away
'Cause where you are going clothes won't help
Stay at home with TV set

Be my toy
Come on have a bet
We live on blood
We are Sparta F.C.

Cheap English man in the paper shop
You mug old women in your bobble hat  (6)
Better go spot a place to rest
No more ground boutique at match in Chelsea (7)
We are Sparta F.C.

Come on have a bet
We live on blood
We are Sparta F.C.

Hey! Hey!

Shepherd boy (Hey!)
Everybody sing (Hey!)
Better act quick (Hey!)
Be my toy (Hey!)
Come on have a bet (Hey!)
So I can win (Hey!)
This is not a poem (Hey!)
For the bin (Hey!)
I don't have a jack knife (Hey!)
It went up the hill (Hey!)
I don't know if I'll get it back (Hey!)
By hook or crook I will (Hey!)
English Chelsea fan (Hey!)
This is your last game (Hey!)
We're not Galatasary (Hey!)
We're Sparta F.C. (Hey!)

Sparta!

Notes


1. From Tim Cummings' interview with MES, Malmaison Hotel bar, Manchester, 14 May 2004 (from Dan):
 


TC: Can you remember how a song like Sparta come about? It’s a really great track.

MES: Everybody likes it, yeah. The group made this song that was sort of like Born to Be Wild, I thought, with a great feel to it. And Elena came up with some great words and I added some words I thought were like the Greek football fan’s attitude, you know. I do know quite a few Greek football fans, and their attitude to soccer is completely different to Britain. Sort of cobbled it all together, put a Greek motif on the guitar and that was it.

TC: The lyrics seem to be a springboard for whatever interpretation you want to put on it.

MES: Right. The thing is, their mental attitude is quite strange. It’s not about winning or anything. It’s just about being within the club. They find British fans very funny. They find them hilarious. You know, when they cry. You see it now, you know. They cry when they don’t win, and all that.

MES is brilliant on this one, sounding like a deranged and drunken foreigner with a less-then-perfect grasp of English (see note 3 below); while MES doesn't exactly put an accent on, he manages to hint at one, pulling up short, however, of turning the song into a novelty number. Like every other Fall anthem, it refuses to allow the listener to fully identify with the narrator, but in the case of this one it's easy to forget that while the compellingly energetic music is playing. 

The modern-day municipality of Sparta (or Sparti) occupies the site of the famed ancient Greek polis of that name. There are three football clubs in Laconia, the region that contains Sparta, but none of them are in Sparta. There is a Czech and a Norwegian football club with Sparta in the name, but, as MES indicates above that the song is about Greek football fans, clearly Sparta F.C. is fictional. 

Clay suggests a connection to Blue Oyster Cult, saying Sparta is "a riff, thematically, on their song 'Transmaniacon MC.' Apart from the titles being very similar, they're both fight songs for fictional violent gangs, and both allude to real-life stabbings at mass events (Altamont in the BOC song)." He points out a similarity in the riffs, and indeed Sparta could have been written off the BOC song, although neither is it clear that it was. I leave it to the reader to decide...

The Fall recorded a few versions of this, starting with a Peel session and then putting it on the leaked-but-not-released Ur-text Country on the Click, but the Real New Fall L.P. rendition is the one they got perfect; MES manages to pour all his slurry decadence into an even more slurry and decadent character, and the band rises to the occasion by doing just enough and not trying to do too much. 

^

2. These transcribed lyrics come from the Lyrics Parade, which also helpfully includes a translation:

Come and I will show you
How I will change
When you give me
Something to slaughter
Come and have a bet
So I can win
This is not a poem
For the bin.

I can't vouch for the translation or even the transcription (if the same Greek speaker who translated it transcribed it, that would inspire confidence, but I have no idea if this is the case). The above lyrics all appear in English in the song, however, which bodes well for their veracity. 

^

3. The lyrics (which perhaps allude to Jack and Jill, as Graving points out in the notes) verge on rambling nonsense here; this could be an indication of the drunkenness and the less than perfect command of English of the narrator. Of course, MES has never shied away from rambling nonsense himself, but the nonsense here seems to belong to the character more so than the lyricist. His speech is mostly correct, if sometimes unconcerned with the definite article ("No more ground boutique at match in Chelsea"), but just skewed enough to give one a sense that English is not his native tongue, and his reasoning is filled with contradictions: along with "I don't know if I'll get it back/But by hook or crook I will," we hear "You have to pay for everything but some things are for free," and the hilariously garbled "Take your fleecy jumper, you won't need it anymore/It is in the car boot moving away/'Cause where you're going, clothes won't help/ Stay at home with TV set."

^

4. Galatasaray S.K. is a Turkish football club and would presumably be hated by the Greek hoodlum narrating the song. According to blazenstruik:

MES references Galatasaray, specifically, for a reason - going there in the 1990s was not a pleasant experience. I think this song was written shortly after a Leeds fan was stabbed to death before a match there. Manchester United had some interesting games against Galatasaray at the time too.

^

5. Mamnesiac points out a punning sheep/shepherd theme--by hook or (shepherd's) crook, something to slaughter (livestock), and "fleecy jumper," which could mean a fleece sweater but also could be taken to refer to a sheep. And, on the Peel session we get "I got golden locks/I gotta get cropped" which, admittedly with a little stretching, could perhaps be taken to allude to the golden fleece pursued by Jason and the Argonauts in a typically convoluted Greek myth. I am proposing this as a kind of echoing or subtle reinforcement of a hidden metaphorical theme; I'm not suggesting that the primary reference of these lines is to sheep.

But Matt Cox brings us back to earth with a more likely interpretation:

The line about not needing a fleecy jumper/clothes not helping may be a reference to football casual culture and the popularity of designer clothes amongst English football hooligans, i.e. what you're wearing will make no difference when up against the might of Sparta.

^

6. Paper shop=newsagent or newsstand. The bobble hat, a knit cap or tuque with a fuzzy ball on top, is a favored accessory with older English football fans, if Wikipedia is to be believed. 

^

7. Blazenstruik addresses the alleged foofiness of Chelsea:

Chelsea - this was the era when Ken Bates owned the club, and was making determined efforts to attract more upmarket, middle-class fans (thus "ground boutiques" and "where you are going clothes won't count"). Presumably this did not go down too well with MES, although ironically Bates as a character has much in common with MES.

^

Comments (66)

Graving
  • 1. Graving | 02/10/2013
re note 3.

It references Jack & Jill - an old English nursery rhyme
blazenstruik
  • 2. blazenstruik | 27/06/2014
MES references Galatasaray, specifically, for a reason - going there in the 1990s was not a pleasant experience. I think this song was written shortly after a Leeds fan was stabbed to death before a match there. Manchester United had some interesting games against Galatasaray at the time too - see http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2012/sep/19/forgotten-story-manchester-united-galatasaray
blazenstruik
  • 3. blazenstruik | 27/06/2014
Chelsea - this was the era when Ken Bates owned the club, and was making determined efforts to attract more upmarket, middle-class fans (thus "ground boutiques" and "where you are going clothes won't count"). Presumably this did not go down too well with MES, although ironically Bates as a character has much in common with MES.
Jamie
  • 4. Jamie | 12/01/2015
"Paper shop" is a name for a newsagent's - paper is short for newspaper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsagent%27s_shop#United_Kingdom
bzfgt
  • 5. bzfgt | 31/01/2015
Yeah, I guess I thought that was evident...sometimes I don't realize when something wants explaining.
dannyno
  • 6. dannyno | 06/02/2015
Galatasaray.

Two Leeds fans were stabbed to death by Galatasaray fans in April 2000 during the UEFA cup competition that year, which took place in Turkey. Galatasaray are based in Istanbul, which is also where the stabbings took place. Galatasaray is not really a place like Leeds is a place. Maybe at most it represents a district of Istanbul.

Anyway, the song is perhaps therefore a bit less topical than blazenstruik is suggesting. But it's a name that has a resonance, so maybe it was used because of that.
Rich
  • 7. Rich | 22/02/2016
I always thought it was "come on have a bit" as in "have a go if you think you're hard enough" which makes sense if you consider the next line, "we live on blood."
Antoine
  • 8. Antoine | 02/03/2016
The expression "by hook or by crook" is similarly presented in the TV show The Prisoner:

Number Six: Whose side are you on?
Number Two: That would be telling. We want information… information… information.
Number Six: You won't get it.
Number Two: By hook or by crook, we will.

Clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zalndXdxriI

He's referenced the program on a few occasions, including one of those early letters to Tony Friel typed on the back of a shipping form.

Additionally, other introductions to The Prisoner include the lines "The mountain will come to Mohammed," "Everest, I presume" and "I've never had a head for heights" - relating to "It went up the hill" perhaps?
bzfgt
  • 9. bzfgt | 19/03/2016
Right, is that a rare saying in England? It's so common here I wouldn't feel confident associating it with any particular source...
dannyno
  • 10. dannyno | 07/11/2016
"By hook or by crook".

It's not that rare a phrase, no, although given the context I think The Prisoner theory is not implausible. Antoine cites other lines which seem way less plausible to me.
Zack
  • 11. Zack | 22/01/2017
Re: different versions of "Sparta"-

1. Peel Session version
2. Country on the Click version - more electronic; swirly synths - also used in the official music video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ-lsCkvbOs).
3. UK album version - somewhat less electronic, with different lyrics chanted at the end.
4. US album/single version ("Theme from Sparta F.C. #2") - completely re-recorded; more rockin'.
5. Interim version ("Sparta FC No. 3") - a rough & tumble rehearsal or live recording.
dannyno
  • 12. dannyno | 14/04/2017
"take your fleecy jumper "

Part of me wants to see this as an allusion to the Golden Fleece in the Jason and the Argonauts myth.
bzfgt
  • 13. bzfgt (link) | 13/05/2017
Yeah, that may be so. Or the fleece that Gideon laid out for the Lord to prove his ID...
mamnesiac
  • 14. mamnesiac | 11/02/2018
" Shepherd boy" " by hook or by ( shepherd's) crook" "fleecy jumper" = a sheep.
bzfgt
  • 15. bzfgt (link) | 17/02/2018
Ah, great point, I hadn't made the sheep/fleece connection. Punning then.
bzfgt
  • 16. bzfgt (link) | 17/02/2018
If you take that as a punning through-line, that really tightens up the lyrics....remarkable.
Bert Hancock
  • 17. Bert Hancock | 26/10/2018
Has anyone tried to decipher the lyrics for Sparta 2XX? There's an extra chorus that Elena sings. I'd love to know what it says.
bzfgt
  • 18. bzfgt (link) | 15/11/2018
No but it needs to happen. I am not good at that, but I'd love it if someone who is did so.
Paul Go
  • 19. Paul Go | 29/11/2018
Like the notes here. It's a Chelsea fan, who chants he is Sparta FC, so I take Sparta FC to be more of a mythical club of warriors. I agree with the deliberately poor grasp of English, but with Chelsea and those very English sayings, it's about English football fans.
dannyno
  • 20. dannyno | 30/11/2018
Comment #19. Hold on, "It's a Chelsea fan, who chants he is Sparta FC" - is it? That's not how I hear it, surely it's the the Chelsea fan who is being addressed?
Paul Go
  • 21. Paul Go | 30/11/2018
It's the Chelsea fan's poem. Like when the police gather in front of the Milwall crowd 'we pay for your hats, we pay for your hats with our ### council tax', or anyone playing Man U "you're just a fat granny shagger...".

The members of the Sparta clan referring to themselves as 'we' 'my' 'I'... then MES addresses them as 'you' or 'your'. the last verse mixes the two for a final chant.
Paul Go
  • 22. Paul Go | 30/11/2018
There's few levels to it, displacement of the English working class being the meta subject.
Paul Go
  • 23. Paul Go | 30/11/2018
*There's a few
dannyno
  • 24. dannyno | 01/12/2018
Comment #21: but what makes you think it's the Chelsea fan's "poem"? I think it obviously isn't.
Paul Go
  • 25. Paul Go | 02/12/2018
I think I get where you're coming from. For me, If the first two lines and end verse are joint, I think it's cleaner as:

Mark:
English Chelsea fan this is your last game.
And take your fleecy ... TV set
Cheap English verse ... (to next) chelsea

The rest 'sparta'.
dannyno
  • 26. dannyno | 03/12/2018
But which bit is the Chelsea fan chanting? I'm not following your line of argument at all.
Paul Go
  • 27. Paul Go | 03/12/2018
He is Sparta, calling himself, and others like him, 'Sparta FC'. Mark calls him a Chelsea fan.
Matt Cox
  • 28. Matt Cox | 23/11/2019
The line about not needing a fleecy jumper/clothes not helping may be a reference to football casual culture and the popularity of designer clothes amongst English football hooligans, ie, what you're wearing will make no difference when up against the might of Sparta.
bzfgt
  • 29. bzfgt (link) | 27/11/2019
Wait, why is he telling himself "this is your last game"? I took that to be a taunt to the other side.
nutterwain
  • 30. nutterwain | 22/02/2020
Smith's mocking of cheap English man in the paper shop etc is simply terrific.
dannyno
  • 31. dannyno | 24/04/2020
From Tim Cummings' interview with MES, Malmaison Hotel bar, Manchester, 14 May 2004 (part of this is quoted in note 1, via the Reformation! site):


TC: Can you remember how a song like Sparta come about? It’s a really great track.

MES: Everybody likes it, yeah. The group made this song that was sort of like Born to Be Wild, I thought, with a great feel to it. And Elena came up with some great words and I added some words I thought were like the Greek football fan’s attitude, you know. I do know quite a few Greek football fans, and their attitude to soccer is completely different to Britain. Sort of cobbled it all together, put a Greek motif on the guitar and that was it.

TC: The lyrics seem to be a springboard form whatever interpretation you want to put on it.

MES: Right. The thing is, their mental attitude is quite strange. It’s not about winning or anything. It’s just about being within the club. They find British fans very funny. They find them hilarious. You know, when they cry. You see it now, you know. They cry when they don’t win, and all that.


[Archive]
bzfgt
  • 32. bzfgt (link) | 02/05/2020
Whose typo is "form"?
bzfgt
  • 33. bzfgt (link) | 02/05/2020
Doesn't matter, I feel justified getting rid of it even if it's in the original
dannyno
  • 34. dannyno | 02/05/2020
On Cummings' website (https://timcumming.wordpress.com/category/mark-e-smith/), he has the typo "form".
Clay
  • 35. Clay | 22/05/2020
I'm surprised nobody else has put two and two together here before now, but I was just listening to Blue Oyster Cult tonight, and this song is clearly a riff, thematically, on their song "Transmaniacon MC". Apart from the titles being very similar, they're both fight songs for fictional violent gangs, and both allude to real-life stabbings at mass events (Altamont in the BOC song). Here are the lyrics to the BOC song, in case anyone wants to dig deeper into the similarities:

With Satan's hog no pig at all
And the weather's getting dry
We'll head south from Altamont
In a cold-blood traveled trance
So clear the road, my bully boys
And let some thunder pass
We're pain, we're steel, a plot of knives
We're Transmaniacon MC
Behind the pantry, behind the tree
The ghouls adopt that child
Whose name resound forever
Whose name resounds in terror
And I'm no fool to call that hog
'Cause man, I remember
Those who did resign their souls
To Transmaniacon MC
And surely we did offer up
Behind that stage at dawn
Beers and barracuda, reds and monocaine, yeah
Pure nectar of antipathy
Behind that stage at dawn
To those who would resign their souls
To Transmaniacon MC
Cry the cable, cry the word
Unknown terror's here
And won't you try this tasty snack
Behind the scene or but the back
Which was the stage at Altamont
My humble boys of listless power
We're pain, we're steel, a plot of knives
We're Transmaniacon...
Look, all right! You can feel it!
Clay
  • 36. Clay | 22/05/2020
Ok, just had a listen to the Fall song again, and it's not just the themes that are similar; the main riffs for each song are too.
dannyno
  • 37. dannyno | 23/05/2020
Comment #35:


... "Transmaniacon MC". Apart from the titles being very similar ...


The titles aren't really very similar, though, are they?

Granted they are both about fighting.

I'm not hearing much by way of musical similarity either, although that's not something I'm good at. I guess I can hear that they both have a descending kind of riff going on in parts?
bzfgt
  • 38. bzfgt (link) | 14/06/2020
I think the riff is pretty similar in a way...if the lyrics were just a smidge more similar, or the music was, I'd be more sure about it, but it's definitely suggestive
dannyno
  • 39. dannyno | 21/06/2020
Ben Pritchard on Twitter, 11 April 2019:

https://twitter.com/Benpritchard6/status/1116343603088035840


I had about ten seconds to come up with that riff at the beginning of Sparta. I literally had Mark standing over me shouting‘I need something Greek come on get on with it’ he was good like that!
DieselEngine
  • 40. DieselEngine | 20/09/2020
I always took the line about the shepherd boy, be my toy, a reference to the ancient Sparta rite of passage called the krypteia.
For a boy to become a man. he had to kill as many state-owned slaves, undetected and return home.
Mark Jamieson
  • 41. Mark Jamieson | 02/10/2020
Be my toy - surely a reference to TRex's 20th Century Boy?
"Well, it's plain to see you were meant for me
I'm your boy, your 20th century toy."

A lesser connection in the same song, Marc Bolan also has a sheep thing going on!
"I move like a cat, charge like a ram."
Mark Jamieson
  • 42. Mark Jamieson | 03/10/2020
Pop music is littered with chants but there is something of the Glitter Band about Sparta fc - check out the taut, compressed "hey!" in 'I didn't know I loved you ('til I saw you rock'n'roll)':
https://youtu.be/fXEZOggTXT0
Mark E Smith made no bones in his appreciation of their musical sensibility and it's surely within the realms of possibility that he proffered a tape to the group, saying that's the sound we're going for.
I like this version too for it's transition from glam to garage:
https://youtu.be/ZjaCyxnhLp8
Kiespijn
  • 43. Kiespijn | 03/10/2020
As for the riff - Ben Pritchard took a lot of flak for his Fall sound, but I don't think Tim Presley or Pete Greenway ever nailed the theme from Sparta FC quite the same way. Whether they wanted their own take on the riff, or some other reason I've no idea, but it's something that's often puzzled me.
bzfgt
  • 44. bzfgt (link) | 09/01/2021
41: Sure he could have had that in mind, consciously or not, but it seems a little too generic to be a positive ID

42: also plausible, he has praised them, I think he said they were his first concert, if I remember right? and partly inspired the two-drummer trip?

43: Pritchard had his own thing, and played some powerful guitar in the Fall; I think people are just put off by his being a Tom Petty fan...
dannyno
  • 45. dannyno | 21/05/2021
In the limited edition book The Future's Here to Stay by Graham Duff (2021), Duff quotes Eleni:

It's just so catchy and we loved football. Mark also had a fascination with Ragazzi as he called them: the Italian hooligans, those kind of hard hooligans. We read the football magazine When Saturday Comes, and they had also brought out a book about Ragazzi. Mark put in the Greek fan idea of what you might call Greek supremacy. In a way Mark identified as more Greek than me! But it was also an anti-Chelsea song.


(p.99)
dannyno
  • 46. dannyno | 21/05/2021
In the limited edition book The Future's Here to Stay by Graham Duff (2021), Duff quotes Eleni:

"I wrote the lyrics in Greek," says Poulou. "And in Greek they are rhyming, but we sang them in English. Mark would add things like 'fleecy jumper'. That is definitely Mark."


(p.100)
Enno de Witt
  • 47. Enno de Witt | 20/07/2021
Founded in Rotterdam in 1888, Sparta is the oldest Dutch football club playing in our equivalent of the Premier League. Across the country, there is a slew of amateur clubs called Sparta, with their founding year or location added to their name.
Thop
  • 48. Thop | 15/03/2022
There’s a great fan-made video of Theme from Sparta on YouTube uploaded by RyanHealy100.
It contains footage from the Jan Svankmajer short from 1988, called ‘Virile Games’, in which in acted footage an armchair football fan sets himself up in his studio flat cluttered with football mugs and posters, for watching a football match of his team. When the game starts, clay-mation is mixed in to convey the on-pitch action, which consists of a series of footballers meeting their on-pitch grizzly animated deaths.
The fan video itself is a really good pairing with the music, and Svankmajer’s original is great, and something one could well imagine MES being a fan of as it is. But added to this, any shots that linger on the armchair fan’s mugs and beer glasses reveal him to be a follower of a team with ‘Sparta’ in the name, with the star badge apparently the same as was found on official Fall merchandise saying ‘Sparta F.C.’…
Here’s a still from it showing such a cup:
Virile Games
Thop
  • 49. Thop | 15/03/2022
Forgive me if this is bringing up something mentioned long ago, but I include it because I didn’t see it referred to, and seems like it could be at least a reference point for the team of the title, and the football violence of the song.
dannyno
  • 50. dannyno | 28/03/2022
Never been mentioned before.

What merchandise do you mean?
dannyno
  • 51. dannyno | 28/03/2022
At the Carling Academy, 26 September 2004, MES introduced this song with "This is the theme to a film that hasn't been made yet."

Dan
dannyno
  • 52. dannyno | 28/03/2022
The Svankmajer film-quoting fan video was noted in Fall News, 25 Feb 2005:
http://thefall.org/news/05feb25old.html

So within a year or two of the song first appearing on record.
Thop
  • 53. Thop | 07/04/2022
Thanks for your messages about this, Dannyno.
About the merchandise - unfortunately I never bought one, but I think there were t-shirts (possibly available through Action records) featuring the Sparta badge from the Svankmajer film. Following a fruitless web search I have only my memory to go by. I think they were light grey or white with a large badge of ‘F.C. Sparta’ in the middle. Will have another look for evidence that these existed…
Thop
  • 54. Thop | 07/04/2022
I think it is the 70s logo of Czechoslovakian team Sparta Praha
https://d1yjjnpx0p53s8.cloudfront.net/styles/logo-original-577x577/s3/0024/1865/brand.gif?itok=ebSWsaRT
Thop
  • 55. Thop | 07/04/2022
Memory is of course limited. They would have looked something like this, but they weren’t this..
https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1mVInSpXXXXcSXXXXq6xXFXXXi/Round-Neck-Best-Selling-Male-Natural-Cotton-Shirt-Sparta-Prague-Soccerite-T-shirt.jpg_640x640.jpg
dannyno
  • 56. dannyno | 08/04/2022
Doesn't ring any bells.

Action did do this (found on the FOF):

Image

Note this from the Guardian, 2013:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/feb/09/mo-farah-bradley-wiggins-chelsea


CHELSEA POP CROSSOVER …
As the Blues face Sparta Prague in the Europa League (Thursday, ESPN, 6pm). A potentially tough gig, with the Czech side unbeaten in their past five Europa home games but also immortalised by the mighty Fall's Theme From Sparta FC, in which Mark E Smith growls: "We live on blood/ We are Sparta FC/ English Chelsea fan this is your last game/ We're not Galatasaray, we're Sparta FC". The song topped John Peel's Festive 50 in 2004 and has been used, unsurprisingly in instrumental form, as the theme for the BBC's Final Score. Of course, given Smith's eclectic lyrics, it could be about Sparta Rotterdam, Luton's Brache Sparta or even the Spartans. Either way, Chelsea cop it: "Cheap English man in the paper shop/ You mug old women in your bobble hat/ Better go spot a place to rest/ No more ground boutique at match in Chelsea/ We are Sparta FC."
dannyno
  • 57. dannyno | 08/04/2022
Doesn't ring any bells.

Action did do this (found on the FOF):

Image

Note this from the Guardian, 2013:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/feb/09/mo-farah-bradley-wiggins-chelsea


CHELSEA POP CROSSOVER …
As the Blues face Sparta Prague in the Europa League (Thursday, ESPN, 6pm). A potentially tough gig, with the Czech side unbeaten in their past five Europa home games but also immortalised by the mighty Fall's Theme From Sparta FC, in which Mark E Smith growls: "We live on blood/ We are Sparta FC/ English Chelsea fan this is your last game/ We're not Galatasaray, we're Sparta FC". The song topped John Peel's Festive 50 in 2004 and has been used, unsurprisingly in instrumental form, as the theme for the BBC's Final Score. Of course, given Smith's eclectic lyrics, it could be about Sparta Rotterdam, Luton's Brache Sparta or even the Spartans. Either way, Chelsea cop it: "Cheap English man in the paper shop/ You mug old women in your bobble hat/ Better go spot a place to rest/ No more ground boutique at match in Chelsea/ We are Sparta FC."
dannyno
  • 58. dannyno | 08/04/2022
Doesn't ring any bells.

Action did do this (found on the FOF):

Image

Note this from the Guardian, 2013:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/feb/09/mo-farah-bradley-wiggins-chelsea


CHELSEA POP CROSSOVER …
As the Blues face Sparta Prague in the Europa League (Thursday, ESPN, 6pm). A potentially tough gig, with the Czech side unbeaten in their past five Europa home games but also immortalised by the mighty Fall's Theme From Sparta FC, in which Mark E Smith growls: "We live on blood/ We are Sparta FC/ English Chelsea fan this is your last game/ We're not Galatasaray, we're Sparta FC". The song topped John Peel's Festive 50 in 2004 and has been used, unsurprisingly in instrumental form, as the theme for the BBC's Final Score. Of course, given Smith's eclectic lyrics, it could be about Sparta Rotterdam, Luton's Brache Sparta or even the Spartans. Either way, Chelsea cop it: "Cheap English man in the paper shop/ You mug old women in your bobble hat/ Better go spot a place to rest/ No more ground boutique at match in Chelsea/ We are Sparta FC."
dannyno
  • 59. dannyno | 08/04/2022
Oops, that went a bit wrong.
dannyno
  • 60. dannyno | 08/04/2022
Anyway, it seems to me that since the lyric is basically telling us that Sparta FC are Greek, a Czech team are a red herring. Which doesn't mean MES might not have pressed the name into incongruous service, but probably does mean we shouldn't take real world analogues too literally.
Stephen O'Connor
  • 61. Stephen O'Connor | 27/02/2023
The well-known phrase 'by hook or by crook' is said to have originated from Oliver Cromwell's vow to take Waterford by Hook (on the Wexford side of Waterford Estuary) or by the village of Crooke, on the Waterford side (in south-east Ireland ).
Mark Oliver
  • 62. Mark Oliver | 05/09/2023
I have a vague memory, of seeing a photo of a European football banner, prior to this song, with wording similar to the 'threat' part of it- 'We live on blood/ this is your last day' etc....at this distance in time, I'm not certain, and there's the possibility that it's a false memory brought on by the song, but I do think I did- anyone else remember it?
dannyno
  • 63. dannyno | 06/09/2023
Stephen O'Connor, comment #61. That story of the phrase's origins is highly suspect since the events described (1649/50) post-date the first appearance of the phrase in print with the correct meaning (1583).

See: https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/by-hook-or-by-crook.html
dannyno
  • 64. dannyno | 26/01/2024
From the booklet with the 2024 Cherry Red box set of The Real New Fall LP, formerly 'Country on the Click':

Grant 'Showbiz' Cunliffe: Theme From Sparta F.C. - I'm a Chelsea fan...
dannyno
  • 65. dannyno | 26/01/2024
From the booklet with the 2024 Cherry Red box set of The Real New Fall LP, formerly 'Country on the Click':

Eleni Poulou: My lyrics were a bit harsh. We'd gone to Greece and Mark really loved Greece, maybe more than me, and he was a Greek football fan. I wrote a lyric to reflect their behaviour, but its all also a bit surrealistic. It's a bit like a myth, about going to another world. It's about human behaviour - it doesn't necessarily have to be football. It's really nice to write in Greek, it's a really beautiful language.
dannyno
  • 66. dannyno | 26/01/2024
From the booklet with the 2024 Cherry Red box set of The Real New Fall LP, formerly 'Country on the Click':

Ben Pritchard: I was stood in the desk room at the studio and Mark says, I want something Greek. He did not give you any time to work it out, that riff at the start was the first thing I played.

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