ELGAR'S CHANT RESTORES THE ORGAN: SONGS FOR FOOTBALL

I am cribbing this "day event" from a book called "Day of the Match": A History of Football in 365 Days: Murray and Walker,  (pub) Boxtree. 2008. I'm not struggling completely for a subject today, but this event was so interesting, I'm going with it!

Edward Elgar, you all know who he is, don't you? Land of Hope and Glory??? On December 6th 1897, Elgar, who lived 40 miles away in Malvern, happened to be in Wolverhampton visiting a friend. 

The Rector of Wolverhampton's daughter was sent to meet the Elgars (husband and wife) at the local railway station. Elgar and Dora Penney became close friends and she made reference to this in her book on the composer (Memories of a Variation). She discovered from chatting to him that the last thing he wanted to do was talk about music, so they engaged each other in a conversation about football...why wouldn't you? Elgar wanted to know about the local football club "Wolves" and when she said that their house was a stone's throw from the ground, he was animated.

From then Elgar made frequent visits to the ground, Molineux, and he was often to be seen on his bicycle riding to the ground from Malvern, 40 miles away. He was eager to see his favourite player, the Wolves centre-half, Billy Malpass play. In February 1898, Dora sent him a newspaper cutting stating that "Malpass had banged the leather for goal". This "struck a chord" in Elgar's mind so he set the words to music, the piece apparently used in the composition "Caractacus", which despite probably being considered as the first of soccer chants, it never caught on! His interest in music and pupils whom he taught, resulted in a wife, Caroline Alice Roberts in 1889. 

In 1998, the Wolves' Club unveiled a statue to Elgar at their ground before a pre-season match against Barcelona, Simon Osbourne, and the "modern day Malpass", Steve Bull "banged the leather" in a 2-3 defeat. Wolves fielded Bull, Claridge and Muscat; Barca Cocu, Figo, Garcia, Josef Guardiola, Enrique.

A Wolverhampton "Choir" was conducted by "Wolfie" the club mascot to raise funds for the St Peter's Collegiate Church Organ, built in 1860.

NOW THIS LINK WILL TAKE YOU TO SOME OTHER FAMOUS FOOTBALL SONGS INCLUDING "HE'S FOOTBALL CRAZY" by Hall and MacGregor- a hit in 1959. and also  A PODCAST

https://www.footballandmusic.co.uk/the-oldest-football-song/   this will lead you onto the link below and a whole "stadium" of football songs!

https://www.footballandmusic.co.uk/category/podcast/