"It will give the supporters something to identify with" - The story of the Shaymen of Halifax song

In this special feature for the Halifax Courier, club historian Johnny Meynell tells the story of that song.

For those of a certain generation, it’s a song which conjures up memories of white kits, flared trousers, and a sparsely attended Shay with a pitch surrounded by a speedway track.

But it’s one that evidently has stood the test of time, currently getting a new lease of life as Chris Millington’s men take to the field at The Shay.

With the melody played out by accordion, the song informs that ‘we’re the best team in Yorkshire without any doubt, and all over England you’ll soon hear us shout’, and then leads us nicely into the chorus, one which gets everybody going.

But those of you belting out the song ‘Shaymen of Halifax’ from the South Stand may have little idea of the song’s history; who sung it and what, if anything, did it commemorate?

Football songs have been around almost as long as the game itself.

Where Halifax Town was concerned, it was in October 1923 that Fred Hutchings performed ‘Hurrah! Hurroo! Hurray!’, a song penned by Tom and Ella Newsome, at the Great Halifax Town Night at the Palace and Hippodrome, telling the tale of Billy Bray, who took his uncle to a match at The Shay.

Years later, in February 1971, former player Cedric Thomas penned ‘The Shaymen’ for his group the Talismen.

By then, football records were becoming more popular, with England’s 1970 World Cup Squad actually hitting number one in the pop charts with ‘Back Home’. Arsenal’s 1971 double-winning side peaked at sixteen with ‘Good Ole Arsenal’, a song penned, incidentally, by the late manager, TV presenter and football impresario Jimmy Hill, and Chelsea’s ‘Blue Is The Colour’, recorded originally by the team upon reaching the 1972 League Cup Final, hit number five and is still played at Stamford Bridge today.

As Scotland headed for the World Cup Finals in Argentina in 1978, Andy Cameron was mockingly championing their cause, singing ‘we’re representing Britain and we’ve got to do or die, for England cannae do it coz they didnae qualify’, then belted out the mantra, ‘We’re on the march with Ally’s Army’, a nod to the much-maligned Scotland boss Ally MacLeod, who returned home in some disgrace as his Scotland team failed abysmally, despite Archie Gemmill scoring a beautifully crafted individual goal when Holland were beaten in their last group game.

Closer to home that summer, Halifax Town were gearing up for the new season, having splashed out a record £25,00 on a ball-playing wizard Kevin Johnson and player-manager Jimmy Lawson ditching the traditional blue and white kit and introducing an all-white number, with the Halifax Courier labelling it ‘a touch of the Real Madrids’.

The club was quite close-knit back then – ‘homely’ was a term used by more than one referee following their visits to The Shay, in contrast to the passionate hotspots of Old Trafford and Anfield.

The club even had its own shop, the Promotions Office based at 11 Horton Street (the building is still there), where commercial manager Tony Thwaites worked tirelessly, introducing that 1978-79 season the Shaymaker Lottery which would serve to act as something of a lifeline by bringing in a ready stream of income when the campaign was brought to a standstill over Christmas and the New Year because of heavy snow.

Tony Thwaites was full of ideas and it was in August 1978 that he hit upon the idea of recording a song, and with contacts in many places, got in touch with Glasgow-born clubland singer Tommy Degnan, then residing in Lincolnshire.

Together, the pair headed for a recording studio in Grimsby, and with Degnan clutching his trademark accordion, he recorded two numbers, the famous ‘Shaymen of Halifax’ and a somewhat bouncier ‘The Shaymen Song’, which would become the single’s B-side.

There was no marked occasion for which the record was produced, it was all for a bit of fun, to give something the Shay fans could sing along to, and as Thwaites said: “It’s an easy tune to pick up and sing. It will give the supporters something to identify with,” before adding that he was sure the record would be flying out of the shop.

In the matchday programme for the first home game of the season, a first round, second leg League Cup tie with Walsall, pre-orders were advised ‘if you want to be sure of your copy’, though one thousand were pressed, almost as many as the average attendance back then.

Upon its release on the Humber Records label in October ‘78, copies were dispatched to pubs and clubs in and around Halifax for their jukeboxes, and Scene and Heard, a record shop situated in George Street, where it retailed at 75p.

Tommy Degnan visited Halifax and made appearances at several clubs, notably the Friendly WMC, Burnley Road, promoting his song on the evening of the Halifax Concert Secretaries Federation Auditions!

Degnan’s song gave references to locally manufactured Quality Street (Mackintosh’s) and the Halifax Building Society, back then the biggest in the world.

And there was also a nod to the 1959 movie ‘Room at The Top’ which was filmed in and around the town.

Thus the song was played over the tannoy system at the Shay on matchdays, with the Skircoat lads, dressed in flared denims, snorkel parkas and scarves wrapped around wrists, belting it out whenever they felt the team needed a lift.

Which back then, was pretty frequent.

There’s a degree of irony, for whilst the lyrics suggested ‘We’re gonna slay ‘em’, days after the record hit the shops, Town crashed 3-0 at home to Port Vale and slumped to the bottom of the Fourth Division, where they would stay until the last week of the season.

Despite Tony Thwaites giving updates as to how ‘Shaymen of Halifax’/‘The Shaymen Song’ was faring and indicating the single was selling well, there were still plenty of copies available to buy years later.

Today, however, a vinyl copy may be considered something of a collector’s item, but in the digital age, downloads and Youtube footage ensure the song is readily available on all manner of devices.

Tommy Degnan, whose stepson Allan Baker served on the Halifax Town Supporters Trust board, was welcomed back to The Shay by the club in January 2009.

He was then wheelchair-bound, but enjoyed the Shaymen of Halifax dispatching Garforth Town 5-1.

Sadly, he died three years later aged 88 but the refrains of his self-penned ditty remain a lasting legacy and today’s youngsters are picking up the tune for themselves, one which was evidently a popular choice when supporters were asked which song they’d like to hear as the players take to the field.