It’s a reworking of a cult song from Carlisle United’s recent history – and if the lyrics turn out to be true, we’ll all be gan down Botch for a few peeves…
‘Carlisle’s Gannen Up’, a Blues-themed song in Carlisle lingo, has been raised from the archives and relaunched.
As well as giving some distinctive musical backing to United’s promotion push under Paul Simpson, it is also for a further good cause – Carlisle Foodbank.
The original song – with its distinctive chorus, ‘Gannen up, gannen up, Carlisle’s gannen up’ – was in circulation during the time of the Blues’ previous successes under Simpson in 2006, recorded by a band calling themselves ‘The Grun’.
The new - and distinctly more polished - version, 'Gannen Up Agen', has been released by a band called The Watterwucks and is doing the rounds on social media.
It features lines such as: ‘I’m gan down the grun to deeks the chores in blue / Fust to the Beehive ‘cos nee-one likes a queue…’
The track has already had more than a thousand views on YouTube, while it is also available on streaming platforms.
The band hopes it can add to the feel-good factor of the Blues’ season – whilst encouraging anyone who interacts with it to donate to Carlisle Foodbank, a cause backed by United and fan groups.
Watterwuks lead singer and guitarist, known as Johnno Cavaghan, explained how it all came about.
“The original version…well, my mate basically got drunk and recorded three or four really stupid tracks,” he said.
“They were meant to be mickey takes of The Streets and Arctic Monkeys. I listened back and thought, ‘The lyrics are just awful’.
“I thought we could at least make them rhyme and a bit more sense, and I would play guitar slightly better than on the original, which was deliberately a bit hamfisted, chords being bent out of tune.
“The original was on MySpace and you can’t find it any more, but a few people have talked about it over the years.
“My mate isn’t a musician – he did some of the vocals on the original and we cobbled together the bad lyrics. This time I did it on my own – but he came up with the name The Watterwucks, which is a stroke of genius.”
While the band name references the Waterworks End at Brunton Park, Johnno said the song lyrics, in Carlisle twang, intend to celebrate and reflect “a lot of down-to-earth, pub-going Carlisle supporters”.
He added: “There’s a feel-good factor around the club at the moment and hopefully it taps into that.
“Things are going well, Simmo’s been back a year now…it felt well timed.
“If it has a 0.0001 per cent contribution to people feeling positive going to the ground, which in turn contributes to the team doing well, then brilliant.
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“Hopefully it can also help raise money for a good cause too. If people like it, we encourage them to support the foodbank. If anything comes from it being downloaded on Spotify, Apple Music and the like, I’ll donate that as well.”
Johnno said he would love to hear the song played at Brunton Park – and, asked if it might ever be performed live, said: “If Carlisle got promoted, and there was some kind of celebration party, and the club wanted somebody to go and perform it, I would be open to it for the sheer crack.
“After all, The Watterwucks would like to rival Hardwicke Circus as Carlisle’s best band…”
The song can be watched HERE and the Justgiving page in support of Carlisle Foodbank - or, as the band put it, 'raising lewer for scran' - is HERE
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