Picture the scene. It’s the Champions League semi-final at St James’ Park, and the stadium is packed to the rafters. The players are waiting in the tunnel. The atmosphere is electric. Black and white scarves wave all around the ground and a giant flag display billows across the Gallowgate end. The stage is set. We can all see it, we can all picture it. For the first time in a long time, such a scene doesn’t seem beyond the realms of possibility. It might actually happen. But when you envision this beautiful image, what do you hear? What music is playing as the players walk out into the incandescent arena? What is Newcastle United’s anthem?

The question of what music the Magpies should walk out to has long been a hot topic amongst fans, with no single song seeming to be able to stand the test of time. Blitzkrieg Bop, O Fortuna, Going Home (or Local Hero as it’s commonly known) different versions of The Blaydon Races, and more recently Hey Jude have all been given outings, but each of these has had its critics among the Geordie match-goers. The fact that there has been such regular rotation between what song is blared out as the players emerge suggests that none of those listed above quite, ahem, hit the right note.

It’s important to point out that the discussion here is about a club anthem, not a chant. As I see it, whereas a chant uses a pre-existing tune with the words changed to praise the ability of a certain player (‘Hey, Callum Wilson! Ooh – ah!’) or slag off an opponent (‘Sunderland’s a shithole, I want to go home’), an anthem is something entirely different. An anthem is a song for which the words don’t need to be changed. It usually has a simple tune and doesn’t necessarily refer to football, or sport at all. Nevertheless it has been adopted for one reason or another by a certain set of fans, and has become synonymous with that club. You hear it – and you immediately think of that team. The Blaydon Races is an anthem. Local Hero is an anthem. Both are decent songs and will always make the listener think of NUFC. However,as mentioned above, neither quite fits the bill when it comes to properly capturing what it means to follow this magnificent football club. Blaydon Races feels like more of a victory song, it doesn’t really send shivers up the spine or raise hairs on the back of the neck the way a good anthem should, and the obvious flaw with Local Hero is the lack of lyrics to sing along to. A crucial part of a club anthem is having the fans sing along, or better, sing unaccompanied.

Istanbul. Wednesday, 25th May, 2005, around 7.45pm local time. Liverpool FC are in a mess. On a’ far flung shore, with a depleted side, under a relatively new manager, they trail 3-0 in the Champions League final to European giants AC Milan. The game is as good as done, and it looks set to be one of the most chastening and humiliating nights in their history. However, from the gathered Scouse support, someone starts singing a very familiar tune, one bound up in the history of Liverpool, the lyrics to which are written on their shirts and on the gates to Anfield. It is their anthem, and the words and the message behind the song could not be clearer, and could not be more inspiring. Soon, thousands of Liverpool supporters are belting out that famous tune, and fans of the Reds will tell you that in that moment they instantly believed that they could get back into the game. Some even suggest that it was that same belief, spilling out onto the pitch and to the players, inspired through song, that was the main factor in their team going on to turn the game around, and delivering one of the most famous comebacks in European footballing history.

When you walk through a storm

Hold your head up high

And don’t be afraid of the dark.

You’ll Never Walk Alone is the epitome of a great footballing anthem. It ticks every box. It has a simple tune and can easily be sung by fans alone, unaccompanied. The lyrics are rapturous and inspiring. It has a hook – a line that everyone knows – and even if you’re unclear on the rest of the lyrics, you almost can’t help but sing along to the hook: ‘Walk on, walk on’‘ Perhaps most poignantly, the song has historical connections to Liverpool beyond football. Not only was it written by a Liverpudlian band, but it is also an anthem for the city itself, becoming a powerful and moving beacon of solidarity among those who continue to fight for justice for those lives tragically lost at the Hillsborough disaster.

This feeling of solidarity through song is where the best anthems come into their own. It is a showing of strength from a mass group of people, and You’ll Never Walk Alone epitomises that so well that other teams including Celtic and Borussia Dortmund have also adopted it. Newcastle United cannot replicate what Liverpool have with that particular song, but that’s not to say that we can’t still find a way of expressing solidarity with each other, with the the team, and with the city, by finding something that encapsulates who we are and what supporting Newcastle means. Something more poetic, invigorating and poignant than ‘Na na na na na na Geordies‘. Besides, Man City already use that same dry Beatles tune, singing ‘City’ instead of ‘Geordies’, as do Brentford and Millwall, and none of these are clubs that I’d really like to have any association with whatsoever.

Another example of a fantastic football anthem is Sunshine on Leith, sung by the fans of Hibernians. One of the most spine-tingling football videos you’ll ever see is the Hibs fans joining in with a rendition of the Proclaimers’ ballad after winning the Scottish Cup in 2016. This again is a song with a simple tune, with a direct association to the region, and with a fantastic hook leading into a chorus that everyone knows:

While I’m worth my room on this earth, I will be with you.

While the chief puts sunshine on Leith,

I’ll thank him for his work and your birth and my birth.

The words speak for themselves, and the sounds of tens of thousands of Edinburghers belting them out together can’t help but get the heart racing. This is what football is all about, one of the reasons it’s more important than ever in the modern day. How often do people have an excuse to get together in such numbers and sing about pride in each other and their city?

It’s important to note that the songs do not have to date back 50 years to be effective; Sunshine On Leith was only released in 1989 and taken on by Hibs fans some time after that. Even more recently, on the continent, Ajax have adopted Bob Marley’s 3 Little Birds as an anthem. It’s played before every game and although it may seem an unusual choice, with no obvious direct connection between the song, the artist, the club and the city, it has become so synonymous that Ajax have this season released a special edition Bob Marley 3 Little Birds kit.

It’s important, too, to note that a club anthem does not have to be a ‘good’ song. Another of the UK’s most famous football anthems is West Ham’s I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles – a quite ridiculous nursery rhyme of a song, the adoption of which only seems more bizarre when you discover that it’s association with the Hammers stems from a player almost a century ago who was nicknamed ‘Bubbles’. Nevertheless, head to YouTube and watch the video of it being sung as the final whistle goes at the last ever game at the old Boleyn Ground, a 3-2 victory over Man Utd. The same crucial ingredients are there; a simple tune, words that everyone knows, and a hook in the chorus where the tannoy music cuts out, and everyone in the stadium belts out:

Fortunes always hiding

I’ve looked everywhere

It’s a shockingly bad song, but it works. You can feel the passion of the Hammers supporters as they say farewell to their home, and since then, whenever and wherever it is had been sung, it seems to be an attempt by the same fans to invoke the memory of that classic old fashioned stadium. Other anthems likewise seem to mark specific memorable moments in a team’s history. Liverpool’s march to their recent Champions League glory was soundtracked by their fans’ renditions of Allez Allez Allez – an anthem stolen from Napoli, whose Italian lyrics to the same tune are far more stirring and emotional than the Scousers’. Both Bournemouth and Wolves sang versions of The Beach Boys’ Sloop John B to mark their rise through the divisions. ‘Nuno had a dream to build a football team’, while ‘Eddie had a dream on minus 17′, and it’s a surprise that the Gallowgate hasn’t already found a way of adapting and adopting this tune to fit our own current rebirth under Howe.

Scotland’s recent upturn in form (and return to an actual international finals tournament) has been accompanied, bizarrely, by the 1977 disco classic Yes Sir, I Can Boogie – which completely breaks the mould for an appropriate anthem but still works so well. Similarly randomly, Newcastle’s 1999 FA cup run was unofficially soundtracked by the New Radicals You Get What You Give, which was at the time a regular fixture on BBC Radio Newcastle, and could be heard elsewhere on a daily basis across the length and breadth of the city. Perhaps the reason You Get What You Give never became a permanent fixture at St James’ Park was the lack of sing-along-ability, or maybe it’s just because the way in which that cup run ended is best forgotten.

The discussion surrounding match day music and club anthems does seem to be one that everyone has an opinion on. Many will say that we should stick with what we’ve got, not to change the old classics, and to be fair there is a part of me that will always want to hear Local Hero on a match day. However it’s impossible to ignore the fact that a new chapter in the long rambling story of Newcastle United has now begun, and one way or another the club is about to embark on a memorable journey. Surely there could be no better time to adopt a new song, to mark this moment in history. Something that will always remind us of this period, when we not only were we finally released from 14 years of life under Mike Ashley’s thumb, but also when possibility, hope and belief became a part of being a Newcastle fan once again. A song which in equal measure reminds us what we’ve been through, excites us at what’s to come, and also sends a message to the players, home and away, waiting to walk out onto the pitch at St James’ Park.

A song that can be sung at bars around town, and at the back of coaches on long away days. Hummed absent-mindedly by folk as they amble home past the stadium on a week night with no-one else around, or while they make their dinner of an evening and dream of 3pm on Saturday. A song played by buskers standing in the rain under Grey’s monument, and on the car stereos of cabbies ferrying drinkers home from a night on the tiles. A song that one day, the fans might possibly even serenade to an open top-bus heading down the Barrack Road’

There is a rich history of music and musicians from across the north-east, and songs dating back decades have been written remindingus, and the world beyond, of the solid foundations upon which the city was built. Old coal mining folk songs speak about the pride and history of Newcastle, and if I ever controlled the iPod at St James’ Park there’s be no shortage of Bob Fox, Alex Glasgow and the like (so you can all thank your lucky stars that I’ll never have that job).

Looking at a more modern and mainstream possibility, Sam Fender’s appearance at the takeover celebrations, and subsequent unforgettable ‘morning after’ outing on the BBC Breakfast sofa have made him an immediate legend of the city. A number of his songs very nearly fit the bill, and could potentially be slightly adapted to work as Newcastle United anthems. Or perhaps Sam could be persuaded to write an entirely new song to mark this monumental moment. He may well already be cooking something up, if he has managed to recover from his hangover.

Whether or not we do need a new anthem, and what that song should be, is up for debate. Personally, I think the time is ripe, and if the right song comes along it could be absolutely magical. For the time being however, the club should pick a song for the players to run out to and stick with it. Ideally I’d like that to be Local Hero, but to be honest anything other than Hey Jude would make me happy. Everyone in the world already knows that Geordies are the the most loyal, most passionate and loudest fans around, so imagine how it would sound if we were all singing from the same hymn sheet. As anyone from Bamburgh to Barnard Castle will tell you, what is a club in any case?

It’s the noise.

Ed Cole -‘@edsamuelcole

Potential NUFC Anthems;

Big River – Jimmy Nail

• Already a bit of a takeover anthem thanks to the Wor Flags display in the game v Spurs, but too long, wordy and slow to really catch on.

Waters of Tyne – Sting

• A beautiful ballad but lacks the ability to inspire or excite. Nice one over the tannoy as fans fill the stadium but can’t imagine it being sung by thousands.

Fare Thee Well Northumberland – Mark Knopfler

• More rumbling and momentous than passionate and hopeful, it’s a blues song so the tune is relatively simple. The hook ‘Roll on Geordie Boy Roll’ could be fantastic with 50,000 voices.

Geordie in Wonderland – The Wildhearts

• The final line of the chorus would be a great hook (‘ah lads I can’t understand I’m a Geordie in Wonderland’) but the rest of the lyrics are a bit ill-fitting. Words could easily be adapted though.

This Will Be Our Year – The Zombies

• Not a Geordie song or anything to do with the region, but would work well as a football anthem for a club starved of success for a very long time.

Hypersonic Missiles – Sam Fender

• Probably the local lad’s most famous single, the drums and guitar build a fantastic momentum that could be beautiful pre-match, but it’s nigh on impossible to sing along to en masse, and the lyrics are very ill-fitting.

Saturday – Sam Fender

• The closest thing I’ve found to an ideal Newcastle United anthem, ready for the terraces. The lyrics work, it’s a decent song, and the tune is simple. Apart from a frustrating high note in the chorus, which basically rule it out as a possibility. We were so close, Sam.

‘Something else?

• Myself and everyone at True Faith would love to hear your suggestions for a new club anthem, please stick them in the comments below. Cheers.