Reader's Corner: Where's our Wagon gone?!
19/02/2025 07:00
"I don't know about you, but I'm really missing hearing 'Paint Your Wagon'/'We're On Our Way' at the end of a home win" says RR reader Steven Cook. Should the club bring it back?! Fancy writing? RokerReport@Yahoo.co.uk - send us an email!
I don't know about you, but I'm really missing hearing 'Paint Your Wagon' / 'We're On Our Way' at the end of a home win.
The Song synonymous with a Sunderland win at the SOL before a finishing chorus of Wise Men Say has for some reason been replaced by a few bars of Tom Hark by The Piranhas – arguably the most generic, overplayed song at sports stadia all over the country from dozens of football grounds, to rugby, to T20 cricket. And where I sit nobody claps and sings along to that at full time like they used to with the Wagon!
Don't get me wrong, the Piranhas tune, and the 50p flute lyrics that go with it of course has a place in the matchday repertoire, but for me it shouldn't be our match-winning song and take the place of the one we've heard since the early days in our Wearmouth home.
It was born during two brilliant nights at Bury and Barnsley back in April 1999 where the side that Peter Reid built that steamrollered its way to promotion, and then the title, were serenaded by a new song from the travelling masses, deliriously happy to see their team on their way back to the Premier League. For supporters of my generation, it was the first time that we had genuine hope that a Sunderland team could compete again at the top level. And we did – briefly!
The song became a permanent fixture at the Stadium of Light after a home win, and apart from when it was discarded by Donald and Methven during the dark days of their tenure (and Methven would have binned Prokofiev as well as Ready to Go if he could have!) it has always been the cue to start the home win celebrations – until recently.
As well as the memories of those halcyon days under Reidy and some wonderful wins at home in the years since, and because it's also a really uplifting promotion anthem, I take pride in the fact that we're the only club playing that song in our stadium. While many others now are going with the Status Quo, literally, or lazily churning out 'Freed from Desire' or as I say overplaying The Piranhas, we had a song that was unique to us, created by us and I think, special to us.
I for one would love to hear it back in its rightful place – hopefully at the culmination of several more home wins between now and the end of the season that might well mean we're on our way back to the Premier via the top 2. Or failing that – it would be epic to belt our song out at Wembley again just like three years ago if the playoffs is to be our destiny one more time.
I'd love to hope that enough of us feel the same way to get the song restored to where it belongs, with at the same time the club making its way back to where it belongs too.
