Greasy Chip Butty Song...

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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.

Stones was a very nice consistent pint but you couldn't beat a pint of Tetley's ! Whitbread was utterly shit !
 
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
I certainly did not hear it that day.

I may have done if I hadn't been on Kaz's coach which was turned around by the coppers in the Boundary Park car park 5 minutes before kick off.
 
So according to the book 28 Apr 84 and users on here a couple who remember the following season which makes the timeline consistent.
Magnet used to be sold at The Mason's Arms at Crookes I'd have been in there early '83 and tried a pint, I'd have probably made more of an effort to like it had I heard the GCB so a good chance it wasn't around then. First pint when down like a bundle of sticks scraping the inside of my then tender throat, makes me want to try again now just to see if I can handle it with more fortitude.
 
The song is loosely based on the life of Johnny Chipbuttyseed, who traveled the barren wastes of early England setting up chip shops for the settlers who had grown weary from nowt but kebabs. His long sojourn came to an end when he tired of those shitty blue plastic forks you get and spent his last few years dining with fine Sheffield steel.
 
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.
It really wouldn't surprise me if that lot tried to take the credit for it. If they're not nicking flags, drums or trumpets, flares, chants etc off us, they're pinching off other teams.
If those twats showed the same talent for football as they do for plagarism, they'd be Champions League winners.
 
Max Restaino sings a good version , But played more than once could get into your head , like Wannabee/Birdy song etc . You can get a download free , but it`s not fair to put a link in , Google is sometimes your friend .
 
I certainly did not hear it that day.

I may have done if I hadn't been on Kaz's coach which was turned around by the coppers in the Boundary Park car park 5 minutes before kick off.

Been on a few Kaz tours myself over the years PB , I ended up over there in mini bus should have been 2 coaches from outside Sheaf Valley but only one turned up .
There was a load of Blades drinking in Oldham outside boozer & coppers decided they close the bar which caused something to kick off out of nothing & after that the Gtr. Manchester plod were on one , closed away turnstiles early so there was loads of Blades in their end on both side terraces either side of the ground . Drew 2-2 think we had someone sent off un’all.. good memorable away trip from back in the day 👍⚔️
 
I heard TKT on pigs thread will claim it was originally a pig song which we then borrowed
 
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
That was the first game I'd heard GCB sang at. I remember coming away from the game after and all my mate's and me where "what's that song all about?" . And as i recall it was always maggots to start with!

I can't recall it being sung 2 weeks earlier in the opener at Wolves, nor in the promotion season, the season before. And I'd been to nearly all games in 1984. That's not to say it hadn't been sung in that period or even earlier.
 
It's Magnet, it's always been fuckin Magnet

Magnet01.jpg
 

In my experience it was originally magnet and I heard people sing maggots later. Whatever came first, magnet fits better - the first line being about the wonders of ingesting alcohol and tobacco products available in Sheffield. It also probably describes the habits of our fan base better - not that I have run a poll, but I for one have never been fishing, and wouldn't associate it with our club or the match day experience. The Sportsman in it's day used to be a John Smiths pub - it certainly sold John Smith's Bitter. No idea if it sold Magnet Ale!

1597308076652.png

Then again 'Magnet' could be a generic term to describe all their beers, as they made Magnet Bitter, Magnet Pale Ale and Magnet Old Ale,as well as John Smith's Bitter and now Extra Smooth - both adorned with the traditional magnet logo.

1597308613614.png
 
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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


And that old fisherman children, was georgebernardshaw
 
I recall hearing it on the John St terrace in the very early 80's and there were also t-shirts for sale with the words printed (and pictures) on them around then ....

UTB & FTP
 
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?

Proves my point really. If everybody was singing Magnet by the late 80s and the sang started in, what, 1984, the change happened during the mid 80s.
I am proud to say I have never, ever, sung Magnet!

I hate the stuff - I'd rather have a gallon of maggots!

At least I could flog 'em to an angler mate of mine ;)
 
I refuse to believe that it was ever maggots.

It makes no sense.

Course it does.

Snuff because we make it in Sheffield.

Maggots because Sheffield is a hotbed of angling and anglers used old Imperial measurements when buying them for bait.

Usually a quart at a time but its' not unfeasible that they wouldn't buy a gallon of them - cheaper per maggot no doubt, especially as you're just chucking them on the water ;)
 
Course it does.

Snuff because we make it in Sheffield.

Maggots because Sheffield is a hotbed of angling and anglers used old Imperial measurements when buying them for bait.

Usually a quart at a time but its' not unfeasible that they wouldn't buy a gallon of them - cheaper per maggot no doubt, especially as you're just chucking them on the water ;)

The song paints the picture of a night out in Sheffield and things that you put in your body, i.e. 'filling up your senses'. Snuff, ale and chip butties.

Why would a random line be inserted about fish bait?

Maggots is just a mishearing of Magnet because most people don't have a clue what Magnet is.
 
The song paints the picture of a night out in Sheffield and things that you put in your body, i.e. 'filling up your senses'. Snuff, ale and chip butties.

Why would a random line be inserted about fish bait?

Maggots is just a mishearing of Magnet.

Well you wouldn't write a random line about fish bait would you?

For the reasons I pointed out, the song is a potted history of some things that resonated with Sheffielders at the time.

Loads of blokes in Sheffield used to go fishing so maybe the original author of our version was one who loved angling.

Whilst one reason it changed to Magnet could be because it was misheard by many, I an assure you I well remember it being Maggots originally.
 
That was the first game I'd heard GCB sang at. I remember coming away from the game after and all my mate's and me where "what's that song all about?" . And as i recall it was always maggots to start with!

I can't recall it being sung 2 weeks earlier in the opener at Wolves, nor in the promotion season, the season before. And I'd been to nearly all games in 1984. That's not to say it hadn't been sung in that period or even earlier.

"Tell that to the young people of today and they'll never believe you" ©Monty Python

;)

 

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