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Hillsborough

Peter Branson

Sunday, March 2nd, 2014

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 It’s Saturday, so what’s the rush,
And why that soppy grin?
I’m on my way to Hillsborough,
The FA Cup to win.
Though road works cause a bottleneck,
We’re here for three o’clock.
There’s crushing on the terraces;
Two pens are overstocked.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Chorus:
You’ll never walk alone my friends,
You’ll never walk alone.
St James Park to White Hart Lane,
You’ll never walk alone.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 I ask where all the bobbies are,
Why safety doors are locked.
Some folk round here are dying,
Yet still the match kicks off.
We can’t believe what’s happening,
Shocked people stand and stare:
The pitch is like a battlefield
with bodies everywhere.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Chorus

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 It’s funeral after funeral,
Seems far too much to bear;
Whole city is united
as anger trumps despair.
Police evidence gets doctored,
It’s always been the same;
The great and good colluding,
To their eternal shame.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 Chorus

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 The Sun crawls out one morning
The wrong side of the bed:
Swears fans were drunk and violent
And looted their own dead.
The inquest rules by three-fifteen
All ninety-four had died.
We now know there were forty-one
Who might have been revived.

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 Chorus

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 The final toll is ninety-six,
The youngest aged just ten;
One man’s four years on life support
But never speaks again.
In twenty-twelve we’re told the truth,
What football’s always known.
St James’ Park to White Hart Lane,
You’ll never walk alone.

10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 Chorus

Notes

At the F A Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest
on 15th April 1989, overcrowding resulted in the deaths of 96 people
with 766 others injured. All were supporters of Liverpool F. C.

(Main melody: ‘The Sharpsville Massacre’, by Ewan McColl. Chorus: ‘The Rising of the Moon’, J C Carey, arr. Luke Kelly)

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/hillsborough-7/