Can YOU sing Sussex by the Sea properly?

[Gilliver's Travels]

Our club song is fantastic. Everyone loves it. But it's the only song we ALWAYS get wrong. Why? Let's get it right for tomorrow night - and crucially for the Millennium Stadium. How to sing it properly? Three changes needed:-

1 You've got to START LOWER DOWN - otherwise you get those TWO terrible missed notes and key changes. TWO cockups in one song - and our song at that?

2 It really, really isn't "Oh we're going up TO win the cup? That doesn't scan and worse, doesn't make any sense. It dates from 1983, when we were already in the top division and had a chance to win the FA Cup. Of course, as it turned out, we were actually going down anyway..

It's "Oh we're going up AND WE'LL win the Cup". Proper words. Okay??

3 SLOW DOWN! Anyone hear those West Ham fans last night? "Bubbles" from 30k fans was genuinely moving, sung in absolute unison and slowly, as if they were savouring every last, sentimental drop.

SBTS gets gabbled as if we're all embarrassed by it, or running for a bloody train. So... S L O W.... D O W N!!

It's not as if you're being asked to sing "Glad All Over" in Croydon High Street ffs!


Look, I'm sorry to rant, but this is actually important. The Albion will get massive coverage if all goes well. Our song is emblematic, sentimental and just plain wonderful. So.. please, please try singing it... well.. how can I put this without upsetting anybody... er, properly?

 

[Lady Bracknell]

Very good points. Especially about starting in a LOWER key. The very excellence of the tune and words tends to mislead people into thinking it's an easy song to sing. There are occasional attempts to sing the full, "traditional" version and they always come to grief on the third line:

Now is the time for marching, now let your hearts be gay
Hark to the merry bugle sounding along our way
So let your voices ring my boys, and take your time from me,
As we sing you a song as we march along
Of Sussex by the Sea

which suddenly goes way up the scale. Meaning you must always start off in a much lower key that you think. The same trap awaits the unwary on the shorter, "Albion" version.

 

[Gwylan]

There are occasional attempts to sing the full, "traditional" version and they always come to grief on the third line:

Now is the time for marching, now let your hearts be gay
...

Never mind the 3rd line, that 1st one is going to get Swindon going.

 

[Yorkie]

Never mind the 3rd line, that 1st one is going to get Swindon going.

Complete with hand signals. Limp wrists ready?

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

There are occasional attempts to sing the full, "traditional" version and they always come to grief on the third line:

Now is the time for marching, now let your hearts be gay
Hark to the merry bugle sounding along our way
So let your voices ring my boys, and take your time from me,
As we sing you a song as we march along
Of Sussex by the Sea

You'd think they'd come to grief by the end of the first line!

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

Anyway, it's "Now is the time for mincing", not marching in tomorrow's special Let's Frighten Swindon version...

 

[Bald Gull]

I've been singing GOSBTS all week with slightly different words. Not saying they're great but would be awesome to have a special Sussex By The Sea full song to sing...

We're the boys from Brighton, Sussex by the Sea
We play at Fortress Withdean, other teams' enemy
When Coppell left us for Reading, we brought in Mark Mcghee
Oh we're going up and we'll win the cup for Sussex by the Sea

Good old Sussex by the sea.............

We now play at the Withdean, but as all of you must know
It's Falmer we want, it's Falmer we need - it's Falmer we must go
So join with me and sing with me, let's sing to Jonny P
That it's Falmer we want and it's Falmer we need at Sussex by the Sea


Good old Sussex by the sea......

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

Nice idea, BG - and yes, Bwian, this IS a campaign to reclaim our beloved club song.

It's fantastic that so many people - of all ages - love to sing it. It's unique, so let's all try and get it right.

The best example to bear in mind is West Ham's Bubbles - always sung slowly, in perfect unison, with a welling, hair-prickling sentimentailty. Perfectly sung by 30,000 after they won through to Cardiff on Tuesday. Marvellous sounds.



START LOW... SING S L O W...

 

[Gary Nelson]

I wish more poeple would sing the verse and then the chorus.

 

[Dave the OAP]

As someone who has sung the song in public a few times, it really pisses me off when Krispies starts singing the second verse to the tune of the first verse.

I agree with slowing it down but it is not a dirge. It was written as a marching tune, theer fore when you sing it, imagine you are marching along at 3/4 pace.

boom ta boom ta boom ta boom ta

If you are embarrased by singing the word gay, then remember the boys from the Sussex Regiment going off to die whist singing this song. It puts it into perspective.

People these days are too quick to suggest if you are patriotic, you are a racist. I am a Yorkshireman, but Sussex is my home and when I have sung Sussex By The Sea, I have sung with as much passion as I can muster.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

I have an old porgramme that was my Dad's and there is an inlay with extra lyrics for Sussex by the Sea written by Norman Wisdom.

 

[Rusthall Seagull]

I am born and bred in Tunbridge Wells but a life long Albion supporter.....am I allowed to sing too?

 

[oldham gull]

Oldham gull will be standing and singing in his best striped shirt. Joining you all with pride from the Royal Hotel Oldham tonight (probably to the bemusement of the locals!)

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

Good on yer, Oldham! Boddies all round!

And maybe Dave the Gaffer should be invited to lead the Withdean crowd in singing GOSBTS properly, in his finest Yorkshire accent!!

 

[Dave the OAP]

nay lad..tha knows that's t'krispies job

 

[Simster]

I am born and bred in Tunbridge Wells but a life long Albion supporter.....am I allowed to sing too?

Yes, Tunbridge Wells is a Sussex annex anyway. Hence the hospital name including Sussex in the title.

 

[Braders]

for pratice sake

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sussexby.htm

 

[Marc]

all well and good telling NSC peeps not to sing it too fast and get it correct, but we only make up 2% of all BHA fans so how will the rest know?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

As someone who has sung the song in public a few times, it really pisses me off when Krispies starts singing the second verse to the tune of the first verse.

I agree with slowing it down but it is not a dirge. It was written as a marching tune, theer fore when you sing it, imagine you are marching along at 3/4 pace.

boom ta boom ta boom ta boom ta

If you are embarrased by singing the word gay, then remember the boys from the Sussex Regiment going off to die whist singing this song. It puts it into perspective.

People these days are too quick to suggest if you are patriotic, you are a racist. I am a Yorkshireman, but Sussex is my home and when I have sung Sussex By The Sea, I have sung with as much passion as I can muster.

Dead right, Dave.

And the words are much better than the anthem of our own native county, n'est-ce pas?

 

[Dave the OAP]

oui.

Where hast tha been since I saw thee, I saw thee?
On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
Where hast tha been since I saw thee, I saw thee?
[Higher]Where hast tha been since I saw thee, [optional](without thy trousers on)?
[Staccato]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Higher]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Frenzied]On I-i-i-ilkley Moor baht'a-a-a-t.(Where the ducks play football)

Then thee shall catch thy death of cold, death of cold.
On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
Then thee shall catch thy death of cold, death of cold.
Then thee shall catch thy death of cold, (without thy trousers on).
[Staccato]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Higher]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Frenzied]On I-i-i-ilkley Moor baht'a-a-a-t.(Where the ducks play football)


Then we shall have to bury thee, bury thee.
On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
Then we shall have to bury thee, bury thee.
Then we shall have to bury thee, (without thy trousers on).
[Staccato]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Higher]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Frenzied]On I-i-i-ilkley Moor baht'a-a-a-t.(Where the ducks play football)


Then worms 'l come and eat thee up, eat thee up.
On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
Then worms 'l come and eat thee up, eat thee up.
Then worms 'l come and eat thee up, (without thy trousers on).
[Staccato]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Higher]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Frenzied]On I-i-i-ilkley Moor baht'a-a-a-t.(Where the ducks play football)


Then ducks 'l come and eat up worms, eat up worms
On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
Then ducks 'l come and eat up worms, eat up worms
Then ducks 'l come and eat up worms, (without thy trousers on)
[Staccato]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Higher]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Frenzied]On I-i-i-ilkley Moor baht'a-a-a-t.(Where the ducks play football)


Then we shall come and eat up ducks, eat up ducks.
On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
Then we shall come and eat up ducks, eat up ducks
Then we shall come and eat up ducks, (without thy trousers on)
[Staccato]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Higher]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Frenzied]On I-i-i-ilkley Moor baht'a-a-a-t.(Where the ducks play football)


Then we shall all have eaten thee, eaten thee.
On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
Then we shall all have eaten thee, eaten thee.
Then we shall all have eaten thee, (without thy trousers on).
[Staccato]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Higher]On Ilkley Moor baht'at.
[Frenzied]On I-i-i-ilkley Moor baht'a-a-a-t.(Where the ducks play football)