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Football's first Chant Laureate
Jonny Hurst's winning chant is about his club's arch-rivals
A Birmingham City fan has become England's first Chant Laureate.
Jonny Hurst, from Wanstead, north London, will be paid £10,000-a-year to tour Premiership stadiums and compose chants for the 2004-5 football season.
Mr Hurst won the Barclaycard-run contest, which attracted about 1,500 entries, with a chant for his own club's arch-rivals, Aston Villa.
Poet Laureate Andrew Motion chaired the panel of judges that unanimously selected Mr Hurst, 37, for the job.
'Dream job'
Mr Motion told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "What we were looking for was wit, humour, energy, inventiveness, and the ability to be taken up by the people on the terraces.
"Jonny is absolutely wonderful at it. He stood out head and shoulders above the others."
What we felt we were tapping into was a huge reservoir of folk poetry
Andrew Motion, poet laureate and panel judge
Mr Hurst, a self-employed solicitor, will as Chant Laureate earn twice the amount paid to the Poet Laureate.
"It is just a dream job," he said. "It combines my love of music, sport and comedy. It's a dream package."
His winning chant, to the tune of Barry Manilow's Copacabana, was written about Aston Villa's Juan Pablo Angel.
Mr Hurst said he had written chants about every Premiership club and submitted the one he felt was the best.
He admitted that if he did not produce one as good for Birmingham City next season, "my days are numbered".
'Folk poetry'
Entries to the competition ranged from the poetic to the obscene and included 415 applications from Liverpool fans alone.
Manchester United supporters sent 122 and Arsenal fans 121.
"What we felt we were tapping into was a huge reservoir of folk poetry," Mr Motion said.
"Poetry belongs in the world and to hear it out there in the world is marvellous."
Mr Hurst's winning entry is:
His name is Angel,
And he's a show boy,
An Alice band keeps up his hair,
Juan Pablo from Col-om-bi-air
He came to Villa,
To be a winner,
He succeeded overnight,
Our very own Angel Delight
Just hear the Villa roar,
With each Juan Pablo score,
We've got him on a four-year deal,
But we still want more
At the Villa, at Aston Villa,
The greatest club west of Manila,
At the Villa, at Aston Vi-lla,
Football and passion
All ranges of fashion,
At the Villa, we have it all,
La-la, Aston Vil-la-la,
Aston Vil-la-la-la,
Vil-la-la-la
Jonny Hurst's winning chant is about his club's arch-rivals
A Birmingham City fan has become England's first Chant Laureate.
Jonny Hurst, from Wanstead, north London, will be paid £10,000-a-year to tour Premiership stadiums and compose chants for the 2004-5 football season.
Mr Hurst won the Barclaycard-run contest, which attracted about 1,500 entries, with a chant for his own club's arch-rivals, Aston Villa.
Poet Laureate Andrew Motion chaired the panel of judges that unanimously selected Mr Hurst, 37, for the job.
'Dream job'
Mr Motion told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "What we were looking for was wit, humour, energy, inventiveness, and the ability to be taken up by the people on the terraces.
"Jonny is absolutely wonderful at it. He stood out head and shoulders above the others."
What we felt we were tapping into was a huge reservoir of folk poetry
Andrew Motion, poet laureate and panel judge
Mr Hurst, a self-employed solicitor, will as Chant Laureate earn twice the amount paid to the Poet Laureate.
"It is just a dream job," he said. "It combines my love of music, sport and comedy. It's a dream package."
His winning chant, to the tune of Barry Manilow's Copacabana, was written about Aston Villa's Juan Pablo Angel.
Mr Hurst said he had written chants about every Premiership club and submitted the one he felt was the best.
He admitted that if he did not produce one as good for Birmingham City next season, "my days are numbered".
'Folk poetry'
Entries to the competition ranged from the poetic to the obscene and included 415 applications from Liverpool fans alone.
Manchester United supporters sent 122 and Arsenal fans 121.
"What we felt we were tapping into was a huge reservoir of folk poetry," Mr Motion said.
"Poetry belongs in the world and to hear it out there in the world is marvellous."
Mr Hurst's winning entry is:
His name is Angel,
And he's a show boy,
An Alice band keeps up his hair,
Juan Pablo from Col-om-bi-air
He came to Villa,
To be a winner,
He succeeded overnight,
Our very own Angel Delight
Just hear the Villa roar,
With each Juan Pablo score,
We've got him on a four-year deal,
But we still want more
At the Villa, at Aston Villa,
The greatest club west of Manila,
At the Villa, at Aston Vi-lla,
Football and passion
All ranges of fashion,
At the Villa, we have it all,
La-la, Aston Vil-la-la,
Aston Vil-la-la-la,
Vil-la-la-la
