[Archived] Rovers Home Support

[Plastic Head]

Quick question:

When was the last time there were home fans singing/chanting before the teams came out at Ewood?

I think this question maybe answer other ones as to why attendances are falling.

[Claytons Left Boot]

When was the last time there were home fans singing/chanting before the teams came out at Ewood?

Five thousand plus Arsenal fans tried to get a chant going a few minutes prior to kick off and I couldn't hear a thing because of that ***ing tannoy system. It's incessant drivel at 25 million decibels. What on earth makes the powers that be think most of us want to listen to that sort of stuff? It's X-Factor at a football ground. Music for the (mainly) dumbed down masses.

The 18m x 18m flag should create a bit of interest. A good idea in my opinion, which leads me on to Tifo, a largely unknown phenomenon in this country, but popular on the continent. In can be anything from flags, streamers, flares, colour, mosaic type cards etc shown by a supporters group usually prior to kick off. Particularly in Derbies opposing sets of fans try to out do each other. Makes pre match entertaining although it won't do for everyone.

In the Oslo Derby between Lyn and Valerenga there is some great Tifo. Banners everywhere and mosaics of the club crests and team colours. Valerenga haven't beaten Lyn since 1981 which has created the legend of the Derby Ghost which swoops down each game and saves Lyn from defeat - it works! Lyn usually have a large banner with the ghost on and I think that for the recent game the Valerenga fans had an equally large banner showing the ghost being exorcized over Valerenga church - it didn't work!

Just adds a bit of pre match atmosphere and certainly beats sitting in silence next to someone you don't know and having to put up with the tannoy. Interestingly, at the game I've just mentioned, both sets of supporters started the first 15 minutes of the match in total silence as a protest (linked to Eurostand 2008) to the Norwegian authorities who are stepping up their campaign to get everyone sat down during games.

Anyway, that's pre match. Now on to the exciting stuff on the pitch...............

[ABBEY]

you old fart

[ultrablue]

Shocking comments on this thread! "i'll start singing when we're winning", "I turn up and 'take' it" - absolute joke! What on earth is a football fan? What defines you as a supporter of Blackburn?? I can't believe it! You may as well be reviewing a restaurant!

Rovers have spent next to nothing on the team over a period of 5 years. That, when it comes down to the facts, is a problem not of our own making. The money is simply not there. So, when 4 games into a new season, we get thrashed by a club like Arsenal, you throw a paddy and sulk in your overpriced plastic seat.

There is very little we can do about results on the pitch, especially seeing as the investment in other clubs is only going to further marginalize a club like Rovers. But the atmosphere is only going to be stagnant as long as such expectations are put on this over achieving club.

So what will it take to get the atmosphere going at Rovers? (Good atmosphere first, then attendance will follow it) First, which HOME ground has the best fans / atmosphere in the premiership? Newcastle? All they do is get big numbers (not really possible for us), who turn up in the team colours (perfectly possible for us). How about Liverpool? Well they have one great, stirring song and they have massive flags and scarves. We could easily do this!! What would it take for us as fans to gain the mantle of the best, most fun, most intimidating home atmosphere? There is a huge niche here for us to fill. Not for the club to fill, but us, the fans.

As far as I can see a group of about 20 fans to start who meet up, plan a bit of choreography in the stand. Hand out bog rolls, cards held up to make a picture or message or a bag of ticker-tape. Get behind the shirt - not necessarily the players on the pitch, but the club, the identity of being a Rovers fan.

As my name suggests, i believe we need a decent core of Rovers fans to put on a show of support, concentrated in one area of the stadium. Singing / bouncing/ swaying.

We all know club led initiatives to generate atmosphere often miss the point and are rarely successful. This kind of thing needs to come from those in the stands. But organisation by fans in the stand is vital, chants will still be started "organically" but whether the team is doing well or not. This is the point.

BUT

None of this is new. It's being going on in every other league in the world for years now. If it was going to happen, it would have happened years ago. Fact is the modern Englsih football fan is a coward. He is embarrased, he is mediocre, he is a sulky miserable bloke, sick of paying money to feel awkward as he sits there with 18000 other people, staring forlorn at a neon scoreboard, whilst 3000 at the opposite end of the ground have the time of their lives. English football is getting further and further away from entertainment for the majority and us mugs just sit there and "take it" as someone said earlier, not wanting to defend our corner, to do what we can. How very English of us!

That's what it means to be a Rovers fan is it? To roll over and take it, then blame it on a bunch of players who clearly don't have as much skill as the opposition. Blame our sulking and awkwardness on everyone else, until finally we stop paying to watch Rovers and start putting our money into a bigger TV so we can watch more footy on satellite, lamenting the fact our team is no longer there. This is the sad, sad picture this thread has painted so far!

I go to watch football regularly here in Korea. The game is always terrible, but I pay my money because its fun! So little in England is fun nowadays- everything seems to be geared to make you sensible and submissive as you are increasingly ripped off. Football is going the same way. FACT. No wonder fans are sick of being made to feel like strangers in their own ground. But dont blame the club when you do not fulfill what separates you as a fan from some bloke who turns up to watch Fabregas, Gerrard or Ronaldo as part of his tourist schedule. We are all fans- its us that need to improve our own situation.

It's not the club that has driven you to this point, it's the fact that you're a miserable get! Tuck your bottom lip in, grow a pair, support your team, and heaven forbid have fun at a game

[ABBEY]

Cmon i will move my little lad up a bit and on saturday and you can show us how do to it ! seeing as we dont !!!!!

ooops just seen your location,you will have to shout loud then wont you.I wouldnt dream of going on a broncos boeard and slating the people who go.

[gumboots]

It looked to me that the Marseilles fans where in fine voice and the atmosphere looked great....can't imagine that at the rovers except when bumley come to town....

Marseille may be different but most grounds are quiet outside the designated singing area. I've seen it myself plenty of times and French visitors confirm it. They save up to come to england to watch matches because the atmosphere, according to them, is better here.

[Claytons Left Boot]

........ Tuck your bottom lip in, grow a pair, .......

Tits?.....Balls? What would you suggest?

[Claytons Left Boot]

you old fart

Hehe, a fart yes but less of the old!

I love loud music, in fact the louder the better but not before a football match. And that at Ewood can't be classed as music.

[ultrablue]

Cmon i will move my little lad up a bit and on saturday and you can show us how do to it ! seeing as we dont !!!!!

ooops just seen your location,you will have to shout loud then wont you.I wouldnt dream of going on a broncos boeard and slating the people who go.

Don't get defensive - Always the problem, you tell it how you see it, suggest something to improve things and its taken personally. Everyone in the ground would benefit from a fan group and choreography. Of course you can support the team in your own way. I don't expect people to shove their kids in with a group of 20 rowdy lads. But a decent visual and vocal display of support would make a trip to Rovers so much more enjoyable and memorable. And it has to come from the supporters not the club.

[ABBEY]

wasnt being defensive,i sit in the "rowdiest " part of the ground with him as it is.I was merly offering you a seat so you can show us how its done because after 38 years of singing and getting behind the team its obvious that you can do better .Choerography ( i cant even spell it)...what do you suggest we all wear lyrcar and pink tutus and sing a set song at a set time?

[Jonnolad]

Five thousand plus Arsenal fans tried to get a chant going a few minutes prior to kick off and I couldn't hear a thing because of that ***ing tannoy system. It's incessant drivel at 25 million decibels. What on earth makes the powers that be think most of us want to listen to that sort of stuff? It's X-Factor at a football ground. Music for the (mainly) dumbed down masses.

I can't for the life of me understand it either. A chant actually started before kick off last Sat but was quickly killed due to the stupid music.

[ABBEY]

never mind the tannoy whose that really whiney voiced woman at half time ???? BRING BACK BEAMO

[Hughesy]

I hate that new song that they play at the beginning which repeats over and over... I was late on saturday and was only just getting into the ground as the teams were coming out, and all I could hear was that bloody awful song. Bring back proper music like the final countdown, none of this head banging rubbish!

See that Derby have refused QPR tickets after they put them up by £10 on the prices already agreed - credit to Derby for sticking by their fans.

I think we should try FREE for kids, and also we should reduce beer prices to lowed than the pubs.

[waggy]

rovers should send a free ticket to a 1/3rd off the season ticket holders for every game.every one knows somebody who would love to go,but can't due to money lets fill the ground,even better let season ticket holders in to the everton game for nought,as there will be more everton fans than rovers overwise

[ABBEY]

I CANT GO GRRR to everton game..bloody nights ah well radio lancs and txts for me

[CAPT KAYOS]

See that Derby have refused QPR tickets after they put them up by £10 on the prices already agreed - credit to Derby for sticking by their fans.

Look at the prices they where anyway!!

[LDRover]

Growing up watching rovers was great on the terraces because of the wit in the songs. Always remember at Huddersfield 'who sings in the cowshed? Nobody, nobody' or 'There's only one Jimmy Saville' when a white haired physio came on against Swindon. (There's many more I'm sure others can remember)

Anyway, my point is that the fans of those days for one reason or another either don't go to games anymore or are too non plussed to start these type of songs. When was the last time anyone sang 'you are my sunshine' or 'We are the Rovers / we are the champions'? It was infectious. These days it's all gerrintoem and Rocky rocky rocky, can't get an atmosphere going on that. At least when Wimberly was getting grief it was entertaining.

Having said all that we're pretty good when our backs are against the wall - I'll refer back to the QPR game just before Kidd got sacked. We were 2-0 down and there was an air of resignation that we were sh1te and we knew it. Then followed one of the most emotional renditions of 'Forever and ever, we'll follow our team' and I swear all the Blackburn End joined in. A mate of mine (a city fan) had come along for the ride and even he said it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

We may not be at the 'QPR' stage yet but the same emotion as showed then wouldn't go amiss. We can but hope.

[ABBEY]

At least when Wimberly was getting grief it was entertaining.

He's a toothless brainless b@@@@@@@ and his name is wimberly

hahahaha...he was a character !!!

someone told me he a plastic manc these days.

[ultrablue]

wasnt being defensive,i sit in the "rowdiest " part of the ground with him as it is.I was merly offering you a seat so you can show us how its done because after 38 years of singing and getting behind the team its obvious that you can do better .Choerography ( i cant even spell it)...what do you suggest we all wear lyrcar and pink tutus and sing a set song at a set time?

I'd gladly come sit with you! Not that I can do better, as you put it, but sitting vocal fans together is vital for a good atmosphere. Seating is mostly likely here to stay, so how do you get a concentration of support in one area without organisation?

And by choreography I mean flags, balloons, ticker tape. Right now there are those who bring one toilet roll and lob it, just because its fun. But they can just as easily not bring one. Now if a group brought along 20 of them to be thrown together, it's memorable, it looks good and generates atmosphere.

Why is the Kop still famous? We've all seen it on European nights- its impressive. Why can't the BBE have that? I reckon its because too many people just show up and wait to be entertained by the team. I really don't think thats how it works.

[ABBEY]

sorry im not taking the pish but lobbing bog rolls ..how 70's.

[ultrablue]

And all you hear is how good atmospheres at football grounds used to be- time to stop being "cool"?

[Ozz]

Growing up watching rovers was great on the terraces because of the wit in the songs. Always remember at Huddersfield 'who sings in the cowshed? Nobody, nobody' or 'There's only one Jimmy Saville' when a white haired physio came on against Swindon. (There's many more I'm sure others can remember)

Anyway, my point is that the fans of those days for one reason or another either don't go to games anymore or are too non plussed to start these type of songs. When was the last time anyone sang 'you are my sunshine' or 'We are the Rovers / we are the champions'? It was infectious. These days it's all gerrintoem and Rocky rocky rocky, can't get an atmosphere going on that. At least when Wimberly was getting grief it was entertaining.

Most of the people who remember singing this and others now no longer come on Ewood, and even if they did there would not be enough of them /us to fill half he BBE lower.

Having said all that we're pretty good when our backs are against the wall - I'll refer back to the QPR game just before Kidd got sacked. We were 2-0 down and there was an air of resignation that we were sh1te and we knew it. Then followed one of the most emotional renditions of 'Forever and ever, we'll follow our team' and I swear all the Blackburn End joined in. A mate of mine (a city fan) had come along for the ride and even he said it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

We may not be at the 'QPR' stage yet but the same emotion as showed then wouldn't go amiss. We can but hope.

Rovers fans really need something to wind us up, we are always at our best when we feel hard done too, mostly being ref bias etc. I can't remember who it was or the match, but a visiting manager has spoken about the crowd at Ewood in a particular match winning decisons for the team, after an early bad penalty decision or wrong sending off, and the home crowd just roared at every challenge and decison, this within the last couple of seasons. Could have been Moyes I think.

We just love being hard done too and having something to moan about.

[67splitscreen]

I'd gladly come sit with you! Not that I can do better, as you put it, but sitting vocal fans together is vital for a good atmosphere. Seating is mostly likely here to stay, so how do you get a concentration of support in one area without organisation?

And by choreography I mean flags, balloons, ticker tape. Right now there are those who bring one toilet roll and lob it, just because its fun. But they can just as easily not bring one. Now if a group brought along 20 of them to be thrown together, it's memorable, it looks good and generates atmosphere.

Why is the Kop still famous? We've all seen it on European nights- its impressive. Why can't the BBE have that? I reckon its because too many people just show up and wait to be entertained by the team. I really don't think thats how it works.

20 less to support the team, ejected, pronto by the stewards no doubt.

[ultrablue]

That's one big problem, you're right...

[ABBEY]

ultra,not having a go .Are you ex pat or a south korean?

how many times have you been to rovers?