Hooligans

Leith, Oliver

About the work

The title and idea doesn’t pass any judgment on hooliganism or paint football fans as hooligans, it’s just a nice title for a group chant which captures a brashness and unwavering joyful mania that I’ve always been fascinated by.

I went to a Millwall game a couple of years ago and was amazed at the force of sound, whole rows kicked the metal barriers in that simple rhythm – duh duh   duh duh duh…  There are great videos of vuvuzela rhythms slowly taking over a whole arena.  Even videos of crowds fighting with themselves and others are sort of addictive.  This year watching the national anthems on television, there was a strange synchronisation problem between camera, crowd and players which made it look like everyone was singing different things at the same time.  People chant altered songs.

It’s an experimental game really.  If it is done politely it will not be fun. OL