Greasy Chip Butty Song...

[Dave]

Where did it all start? Is there one person? What match? Was it at a match? In a pub maybe? Someone out there knows....

I have been lucky enough to work with a friend who through lockdown has been researching this for Radio Sheffield. On the 31st August the programme will come out on the wireless. Lots of extensive research has gone in and im looking forward to listening to the finished piece.

Before it airs in a couple of weeks, does anyone think they know or have heard any stories?

UTB

 

[Harry's Game]

Rotherham claim they had a version of it at around the same time we started singing it. About 86/87 is the first time I remember hearing us sing it.

 

[stringjunior]

I first heard it at {insert away game}. I don't recall. But it was the mid to late 80's.

Not very helpful, I know....

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

I thought some american fella came to see a soccer game in York Shire, heard the amazing song , copied the tune and changed the words and recorded it for a record.

 

[raul]

Wetwang blade

Think you have the inside story on this?

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Where did it all start?

Nobody knows.

Is there one person?

Nobody knows.

What match?

Nobody knows.

Was it at a match

Nobody knows.

In a pub maybe?

Nobody knows.

Someone out there knows...

Nope.

 

[knowsnowt]

Maybe search for a million post thread.. Its up to you.

 

[cal the blade]

Chant creators / starters like to remain anonymous

 

[PaulHalfway]

It was also suggested many years ago that Boston United had a version back in the day

 

[Cerberus Blade]

It was also suggested many years ago that Boston United had a version back in the day

Burton Albion too I think?

 

[Cerberus Blade]

Where did it all start? Is there one person? What match? Was it at a match? In a pub maybe? Someone out there knows....

I have been lucky enough to work with a friend who through lockdown has been researching this for Radio Sheffield. On the 31st August the programme will come out on the wireless. Lots of extensive research has gone in and im looking forward to listening to the finished piece.

Before it airs in a couple of weeks, does anyone think they know or have heard any stories?

UTB

No one really knows. These things are like divine conceptions. What we do know is that, for some fans, making up a new chant or song is a lifetime ambition and they are desperate to do it. What they don't realise is, everyone forgets it was them that did it. So it becomes somewhat futile.

 

[bartman]

I first heard it at Man City away. Lost 2 -0 at Maine Toad. Mid eighties I reckon. The away fans were on the corner of the Kippax in those days

 

[mattbianco1]

I first heard it at home in 1992. But that was my first game so not helpful

 

[Track22]

Parkgate blades

 

[TomHeffernan]

The original lyrics were:

maggotts (yeah I know it’s not now)
Like a night out on West Street

both were sung for a season or so before it changed to Magnet and Sheffield.

always preferred the original lyrics mesen.

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Had this thread before , first game I remember it being sang was away at Oldham , it was the 2nd away game of season in 84/85 season & stood on their side terrace as away turnstiles had been closed .
Was sung by about 50 Blades in front of us from Everest at Handsworth

 

[Rodley]

Written allegedly by Rotherham Blades.

The enigmatic “missing line” was finally plucked from the air by one of the aforementioned RBs as he walked his dog along a local canal and saw a mysterious old fisherman sat fishing for carp one balmy Sunday morning. A car horn startled the old timer and he knocked his bait tray into the murky waters. Seeing the distressing scene unfolding, our erstwhile Red & White hero, approached the fisherman...

“You alright pal?”
“I would be better if I had a gallon of maggots” replied the fisherman, with his head in has hands.
“Magnet? Bit early for a beer pal” said t’owd Blade.
“I said Maggots lad, MAGGOTS”

A transcript of the conversation can be found in Sheffield Central Library apparently

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

Written allegedly by Rotherham Blades.

The enigmatic “missing line” was finally plucked from the air by one of the aforementioned RBs as he walked his dog along a local canal and saw a mysterious old fisherman sat fishing for carp one balmy Sunday morning. A car horn startled the old timer and he knocked his bait tray into the murky waters. Seeing the distressing scene unfolding, our erstwhile Red & White hero, approached the fisherman...

“You alright pal?”
“I would be better if I had a gallon of maggots” replied the fisherman, with his head in has hands.
“Magnet? Bit early for a beer pal” said t’owd Blade.
“I said Maggots lad, MAGGOTS”

A transcript of the conversation can be found in Sheffield Central Library apparently

A potted history of Sheffield peculiarities in one song.

Gallon of Maggots - Sheffield being the angling capital of the UK, Bait not clickbait
Good pinch of snuff - made by Wilsons in Sharrow Mills, Snuff Mill Lane, Sharrow.

Genius!

 

[Rodley]

A potted history of Sheffield peculiarities in one song.

Gallon of Maggots - Sheffield being the angling capital of the UK, Bait not clickbait
Good pinch of snuff - made by Wilsons in Sharrow Mills, Snuff Mill Lane, Sharrow.

Genius!

All we can do is speak the truth BOSS!

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

All we can do is speak the truth BOSS!

As an exile, I love the song.

I wonder what a Leeds equivalent would have been?

Hmmmmmm - got me thinking ......

The first reference would be

You fill up my senses
Like a kilo of horsemeat

My first bus trip into Leeds (X32 I think it was) in 1969 for an interview at College, brought us in via the Dark Arches. I was staggered to see a shack on the side of the road with meat on display.

The sign said "Horsemeat. 2/6p a pound. (12.5 p in new money)

 

[Hodgesleftpeg]

Now that Sheffield is the beer capital of the Uk and there are many breweries around here I think it makes sense for Magnet to be dropped and replaced with a local craft ale.

like a gallon of. ......vote and insert favourite local ale for start of next season.

I’ll vote for ‘A gallon of Sean Beans Bastard’

can somebody make a brew and name it this before the start of the season... it’s my game and I want to win

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

Where did it all start? Is there one person? What match? Was it at a match? In a pub maybe? Someone out there knows....

I have been lucky enough to work with a friend who through lockdown has been researching this for Radio Sheffield. On the 31st August the programme will come out on the wireless. Lots of extensive research has gone in and im looking forward to listening to the finished piece.

Before it airs in a couple of weeks, does anyone think they know or have heard any stories?

UTB

It was penned many moons ago,by a group of Wendy fans,they tried to get the Wendy fans in the stadium to sing it,but as fans they all had trouble putting two words together so it was ditched in favour of a song they nicked off Wolverhampton called Hi Ho.

 

[FTPE]

We've discussed it on here before.

I seem to remember one of the better answers being that a group of Rotherham Blades (not Rotherham fans) started it, im sure the guy mentioned the exact game as well, but again its all folklore now.

 

[ZoneManWilf]

We were singing it in at least 1985/86, as I remember the first few times I got took on the kop and trying to work out what the words were.

Grimsby sing/sang it too. Source: a codhead I know.
"like a night out in nunsthorpe"

I think St Helens rugby league also have a version.

 

[Shirty Blade]

I recall in the mid to late 1980's the song becoming popular. Originally everyone sang Magnet with a brief flirtation with Maggots. Strange as John Smiths (horrible beer!) wasn't that common in Sheffield at the time. It was all Stones, Wards, Tetleys and Whitbread, although the pub at the bottom of Denby Street did serve John Smiths.

 

[Sheffsteel]

I went to loads of games in the early and mid 80’s.
Used to stand on the John Street terrace near St Johns ambulance corner.....never heard it sang on there in the early 80’s.
I suppose it might have been sung earlier by a small group on the Kop but I was too far away to hear it.

I clearly remember the 1st time I heard it sang en masse.
First game of the season away at Stoke...think it was the 84-85 season..think we won 3-1.

I even remember my thoughts at the time...thinking it was good but the verse was too long with too many words....didn’t think it would catch on.

 

[Dave]

Some really interesting comments here into the origins of it. Some are what i have heard of, others are new to me. The only written reference I have is from a book called Blades Tales. Not sure whether anyone has read it but see the pictures for the info.

UTB

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

I recall in the mid to late 1980's the song becoming popular. Originally everyone sang Magnet with a brief flirtation with Maggots. Strange as John Smiths (horrible beer!) wasn't that common in Sheffield at the time. It was all Stones, Wards, Tetleys and Whitbread, although the pub at the bottom of Denby Street did serve John Smiths.

So the original word was Magnet and a few people flirted with Maggots.

That's not very likely is it? Why you sing Magnet and then start trying out Maggots?

If Maggots was the word used first, which it was as far as I'm concerned, it's more likely that people, either not understanding why Maggots was used, or mis-hearing it as Magnet, would use Magnet isn't it?

If Magnet was first to be used, there would be no earthly reason to flirt with Maggots.

Tell you one thing, I bet no other football song has had so many posts, arguments, threads, opinions etc dedicated to it as ours has.

Long may it stay that way

Anyway, my Greasy Chip Butty ringtone is sounding ......

 

[Shirty Blade]

So the original word was Magnet and a few people flirted with Maggots.

That's not very likely is it? Why you sing Magnet and then start trying out Maggots?

Its actually more than likely as its what happened in my living experience. When I went to games in the late 1980s everyone sang Magnet. Over the next few years I heard a few people sing a variation with Maggots (maybe they were into fishing), but this verson never had universal acceptance by our away support then and I never heard this sung by the Kop. It may well have started off as Maggots, who knows? I find it odd that we sing about a fairly dreadful beer that wasn't all that popular in Sheffield in the 1980s so perhaps it was?

 

[bypassblade]

I can remember maggots being used in the song but it sort of morphed into Magnet it sounded and tasted better, as for it's origin it's the age old "chicken and egg" story.