Never walk alone

Back on 3 February I had bookmarked a copy of a song which stirred my memory: Gerry & the Pacemakers, You’ll never walk alone. I keep singing it, which annoyed me – if I like a song I will sing it occasionally, not every day like this one. So I decided to look into the history of it.

The song was written for the Rodgers & Hammerstein* musical Carousel. It was written in 1945 and became an instant hit. Classic FM said it was “because the song’s message of triumph in times of adversity spoke to the wartime crowds of April 1945 – less than a month before the end of World War Two.”  It was made into an American film in 1956. I had spent many years with the Hamilton Operatic Society in New Zealand - which used to be called Drury Lane Theatre - and I seemed to remember seeing some old pictures of this show, Carousel, but couldn’t find anything on their website. A Google search took me to another Hamilton operatic group, called the Hamilton Operatic Dramatic Club which is based in the city of Hamilton in UK! It’s been around since 1903. They did Carousel in 1971.

Pacemakers sung You’ll never walk alone in their 1963 album How do you like it? and it was nominated for the Best British Song in the NMA Awards. It was shortly made into an anthem for the Liverpool FC. It has stuck to Liverpool FC since then and even the words were made of metal above the gates of the Liverpool stadium.

Many other football teams took on this song, including teams in Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Japan, Spain and Indonesia, and ice skating teams including Germany and Croatia.

In 1985, during a league match between Bradford City and Lincoln City, a fire in the Bradford City Valley Parade old stadium killed 56 people and injured 265. You’ll never walk alone became the memorial song for them, and led the city to demolish and rebuild the stadium.

You’ll never walk alone was sung by a cathedral choir after the disaster in Hillsborough in 1989. Liverpool FC was to play a semi-final against Nottingham Forest in the Sheffield stadium. There were areas only for Liverpool fans and, with many not yet in before the game started, the police opened the exit gates to let more in, which caused a stampede. 96 people were killed in a shocking crush, and police reports blamed the crowd. Wikipedia has a long report on this and many references, and it took 25 years, April 2016, for any justice to be finalised.

France Musique said this song was a hymn – it was not. It was a musical song which can be sung by any person who identifies it their own way. It does not mention “god”, it is not meant for “christians” – it is not religious. If you are Hindi or Buddhist or agnostic or atheist or the Green Fairy Follower then it is intended for you.

I am atheist. It is for me.

*Rodgers was atheist – he said so in his interviews. Hammerstein didn’t have any religious faith but thought he had faith “in mankind” and “something more powerful than mankind”. That was what he called religion, but he was not following any particular religion.