The Few - Billy Bragg

At night the Baby Brotherhood and the Inter City Crew
Fill their pockets up with calling cards
And paint their faces red white and blue
Then they go out seeking different coloured faces
And anyone else that they can scare
And they salute the foes their fathers fought
By raising their right hands in the air
Oh look how my country's patriots are hunting down below

What do they know of England who only England know

From the stands of the Empire Stadium
Come the heralds of the New Dark Age
With the simplicities of bigotry
And to whom all the world's a stage
These little John Bullshits know that the press
Will glorify their feats
So that the general public fear them
And the authorities say give 'em all seats
And the wasted seed of the bulldog breed
Is shouting "Here we go..."

What do they know of England who only england know

Our neighbours shake their heads
And take their valuables inside
While my countrymen piss in their fountains
To express our national pride
And to prove to the world that England
Is just as rotten as she looks
They repeat the lies that caught their eyes
At school in history books
But the wars they think they're fighting
Were all over long ago

What do they know of England who only England know

And the society that spawned them
Just cries out "Who's to blame?"
And then wraps itself in the Union Jack
And just carries on the same
Oh look out, my country's patriots are hunting down below

What do they know of England who only England know



That song was released in 1991. The situation with hooilganism was far, far worse in the 70s and 80s than it is now. In fact, it was probably one of the things which led to corporate intervention, as the all-seater stadiums which commanded higher ticket prices were suddenly attractive to the corporate big-hitters. When I first came to England a dad could still afford to take his kids down the footy on a Saturday - it coast about £8 for an adult to get in, and it was all about the cameraderie on the terraces - I used to love going down the Villa on a Saturday and standing in the Holt End. But when the seated stadiums came in, suddenly the demographic changed because working class people couldn't easily afford to go every week; do you remember the Fast Show sketch with the middle class footie fan, getting out his hamper and champers?

With the advent of Sky, football became much more about sitting in your living room or in the local pub and watching the match. I thought this was really sad - in America, when I was growing up, my family were passionate football fans - but we hardly ever went to a live game. There's much more of a culture of watching on TV. I loved it that English football was about the live experience - so much more thrilling...and of course, there's the singing! But I think that's changed substantially now.

But from what all of my footie-fan friends have told me about the situation in the 70s and 80s, with the "crews" and the racist violence and the skinheads, you simply can't compare the general pissed-up unruliness you get now with the very real atmosphere of violence there was then.