What was before the Rockford Files?

[joeheadland]

Hello everyone,

I hope this okay to post here, please move/delete if you need to!

I’m part of a team at the University of Sheffield, led by Dr Chris
Stride. We've published a number of academic papers and magazine
articles relating to football history, on subjects such as statues and
replica shirts (see, for example sportingstatues.com, and

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17460263.2019.1578255

).

Our current project is investigating the music that football teams have
run or walked out of the tunnel to over the years.

We realise Tranmere have been running out to the Rockford Files, almost without fail, since around 1978. However, and this is a long shot, I wondered if any fans knew what music was used before?

I'm interested in the title of the song, the artist who recorded it, and for which seasons Tranmere ran out to this. Any help you can give us to
piece together the different songs that your club has run out to would be hugely appreciated.

If you have any personal anecdotes around the reasons for the songs
being used, or the changes between them, that would also be fantastic.

I should also add that we are not interested in goal music, or a song
that is played at the final whistle, but just the song that is on the
tannoy system as the players enter the field.

If you think someone else may be able to help, or you have any
questions, please let us know! We would be very happy to discuss the
project.

Cheers

Joe Headland

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Hi Joe
Thanks for your post. It’s been a bit quiet on this forum for a few days.
I’ve been a fan since 1958 but can’t remember what was played in the sixties and early seventies. Anchors Away rings a bell but I could be wrong. Have you contacted the club?
Good luck in your research.

 

[ONIGP]

Wow, I didn't realise that we'd had Rockford since 1978! I was thinking that it had become that engrained that I couldn't remember any predecessors … reality is my first matches were probably 1974 so no wonder I can't remember.

@bring back the cowshed! 62 years in bloody amazing, hats off to you Sir!

 

[Ian]

I thought all the OAPs on here would be able to answer this one

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Wow, I didn't realise that we'd had Rockford since 1978! I was thinking that it had become that engrained that I couldn't remember any predecessors … reality is my first matches were probably 1974 so no wonder I can't remember.

@bring back the cowshed! 62 years in bloody amazing, hats off to you Sir!

I am not sure it has been in use consistently since 1978.

I am pretty sure when I first started going (1983-84) there was no pre-match music as such, and I think it was Ritchie Tierney who introduced (or possibly reintroduced) The Rockford Files when the players ran out around 1985/6.

That probably muddies the waters even further.

 

[ONIGP]

I am not sure it has been in use consistently since 1978.

I am pretty sure when I first started going (1983-84) there was no pre-match music as such, and I think it was Ritchie Tierney who introduced (or possibly reintroduced) The Rockford Files when the players ran out around 1985/6.

That probably muddies the waters even further.

It does, RLC, but makes sense.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

@bring back the cowshed! 62 years in bloody amazing, hats off to you Sir!

Frightening isn't it? You'd think after all that time, I'd have found something better to do. If you want to know more about what it was like following Rovers in the late fifties, sixties and early seventies, I wrote three articles which appeared in this season's first three issues of GUAR.

While I'm on about it, the other member of the Tunbridge Wells branch of the SWA goes back even further. He LEFT Birkenhead even before I saw my first game. I now play golf with him (and he always beats me) .

 

[Alun]

My first post, been lurking in the background reading and enjoying the posts for a few years, before finally joining last year. I first started watching Tranmere, when my cousins took me when I was six years old in 1954, that was the start of a lifelong love affair, with my beloved Tranmere, I moved away from Birkenhead for work in the 70s, I have been wracking my brains out about Rovers signature tune before the Rockford Files and can not remember any, players, managers, even owners, but for the life of me cannot remember Rovers signature tune, RLC, you may be right, as if there was a tune in the 50s 60s or early 70s, I cannot remember one. Take cars and stay safe everyone.

 

[joeheadland]

Thank you for commenting and sharing your memories. It's much appreciated and is invaluable to the project. It's a tough question (and you have muddied the waters further!) but this is all helpful.

We're still on the lookout for songs, so if anyone remembers anymore, or can confirm other suggestions, drop us a line.

If you remember roughly what season even better!

Cheers,

Joe