Liverpool fans have started a new chant for their Dutch centre-back Virgil Van Dijk, to the song Dirty Old town made famous by the Pogues. Dirty Old Town is also the main theme song played at Salford City when the players walk out onto the pitch for their home games at the Peninsula Stadium.
A tweet showing the chant went viral last week, with nearly four thousand likes and over a thousand retweets. It is a massive part of Salford City FC, with lyrics of the song displayed on the walls in the corridors.
One of Liverpool’s great musicians is playing in France tonight.
(Paul McCartney is meant to be on somewhere in Paris as well) pic.twitter.com/USJTflBabO
— Daniel Nicolson (@danielnicolson) November 28, 2018
One Salford City supporter expressed his doubt over whether Liverpool fans knew the context of the song, “It’s funny because I bet they don’t realise where it comes from, it shows their ignorance”.
Hilarious dirty old town is about Salford and these lot love it ?
— Greg (@gregfletcher4) December 3, 2018
To add to that, the song is sung to the tune of ‘Dirty Old Town’ which is about Salford? special bunch
— Conor Skillen (@conorskillen) December 3, 2018
The song was originally written about Salford, by the songwriter Ewan MacColl, who was born and brought up in the area. With references to the Gasworks and the old canal, the song was initially made for a scene in the 1949 play Landscape with Chimneys, set in a Northern industrial town.
As the Gasworks became famous by MacColl’s lyrics, members of the community gathered to see the unveiling of a mural that has be been displayed outside the Salford Gasworks. The structure will be taken down and the site will then be free for beneficial use to the community as it is no longer needed according to the National Grid.
The song means so much to Salford, that in June locals came together to sing ‘Dirty Old Town’ as part of a musical protest, in an effort to get the National Grid to re-think knocking them down.
WATCH MORE:
Recent Comments