ABSTRACT
Sounds have long been a cherished feature in the collective memory of the English Cup Final: the cheering of the crowd, the stirring music of military bands before the kick-off and at half-time, and the singing, both of the spectators and, in more recent years, of celebrated singers brought in to perform well-known songs as a climax to the pre-match entertainments. Thus it was that in 2007, at the first Cup Final to be played in the ‘new’ Wembley,1 the divas Sarah Brightman and Lesley Garrett gave, with the benefit of microphones, a powerful rendition of the old Victorian hymn ‘Abide With Me’.2 As the television cameras panned the faces of massed spectators, however, the music might have seemed to be evoking a less-than-cherished response. Some people, to be sure, were seen to be singing along. But many were not. They possibly felt (as had the organisers of a supporters’ lobby the previous year) that songs, if they were to be sung at all, should be performed by the assembled crowds themselves, and not by professional musical stars.3 Most, however, looked simply bemused by the whole ceremony; perhaps they were questioning what this song, with its strange words, had to do with a football match.4 Some spectators would no doubt have been aware that ‘Abide With Me’ was part of a Wembley tradition that was being carried forward from the old stadium to the new one. But how many would have known that the song’s inclusion in the programme had originally been because of its popularity as a funeral hymn? Had they know this, its presence in 2007 would no doubt have seemed even stranger.5
