Nigels away. All throughout the game we could see there ultra's but we couldn';t hear them. Completely drowned out by a wall of noise.
Monk's Chant
- Thread starter Axholme Lion
- Start date
When we played Liverpool at home in the Cup some friends of ours from Magull had their son living and working in Battersea. I heard from his Mum that they “kept us in for 50 mins post match and before that they made this strange noise during the game and it was very frightening”!
Do you know the origins of the Monks Chant and why so called mate?
There are several and differing opinions on when it was started but nothing definitive. It was definitely about in the early 80's as i can remember it. Another theory is that it was first heard in 1945 at Wembley when we played Chelsea in the football league war cup final south.
I presume it's called monks chant because it's of the same style- a long monophonic continuous drone.
Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 
70sCR
Well-known member
Would love it if it was the second theory. Guess we'll never know.
bodia
Active member
The first time I heard it would of been early 80's maybe late 70's even. Half way line, sparse crowd. Chants millwall millwall millwall, some bloke starts shouting it and his voice cracks and goes all high pitched during the miiiii bit. His mates all take the piss and start going miiiIIIIIIIIIiiiiii, then little pockets of people start joining in laughing till it all mixes into the Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii we all know and love. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Eamon Dunphys tackle
Well-known member
Do you know, that sounds familiar. You could be right.
BallBag
Member
I remember it going on for ages at Vicarage Road, was 1990 we had just come down from the 1st div. Malcolm Allen scored the winner I think
It was Jim White and this is the full article:
By Jim White
May 2004
Midway through the second half of the FA Cup final, about five minutes after a Millwall player had last touched the ball to be precise, a low groan began to emerge from the massed ranks in blue at one end of the stadium.
"Merrr," it went, as if a herd of unhappy cows had been led into the stands. You kept expecting a second syllable, presuming this must be a precursor to the full-on Millwall cry of "Merrr-warr". But it never arrived, no matter how long the noise went on. And it went on for ages. Manchester United even scored their third goal in the middle of it and were not able to disturb its monosyllabic momentum. This was the football chant reduced to its most basic, a primal scream of loyalty, a growl of determination that no matter what happened, nothing would stop the underdog having its day out. It was the most defiant noise that can ever have been heard at a Cup final. Just a shame the players in blue couldn't live up to it.
There was a sense of what it meant to the respective clubs to be there in Cardiff long before the kick-off. With an hour still to go, the Millwall end was already full of flag- waving, face-painted, fancy-dressed enthusiasm. At that time, the United sections, waiting to play host to regulars at the top table, were almost empty. From many a trip to Cardiff, for Community Shields and League Cup finals, the visitors from Manchester have grown blasé. They know there really wasn't much point turning up early. Particularly after rumours that the Football Association were going to match the entertainment at the Superbowl with a locally sourced tableau, featuring Charlotte Church having her top removed by one of the Manic Street Preachers, proved to be false.
Mind you, the punctual could witness some small children unfurling huge replica shirts out on the turf as each of the players was named in the respective team line-ups. A nice touch, even if the girl deputed to roll out Roy Keane's shirt seemed reluctant about tugging too hard, in case he remembered and took his revenge for the foul two years later.
Millwall had some shirt activity of their own. Henry Wise, last seen at a Cup final in 2001 going up the steps at Wembley to receive the trophy in dad's arms wearing Chelsea blue, decided - smartly as it transpired - to make his traditional appearance early this time. He led the Millwall team out, holding captain Matt Lawrence's hand, wearing full Millwall regalia. Alongside him walked Roy Keane. It was about as close as a Wise got to a Keane all afternoon.
The Millwall tactic was obvious from the kick-off. A full two minutes had elapsed before Robbie Ryan sent Cristiano Ronaldo flying, two and a half before David Livermore had deposited Ryan Giggs on his backside. But stifling the ambition out of United couldn't last.
After just three minutes Keane had dispossessed Wise so easily you assumed it must have been Henry out there, not Dennis. And when Paul Scholes hit a rasping shot towards Andy Marshall, it was like that much advertised special effects tidal wave in the new film The Day After Tomorrow: everyone knew it was coming, it was just a matter of time.
As Ronaldo went through his tricks (osteopaths are rubbing their hands at the thought of thousands attempting that one when where you wrap one leg behind the other before flighting a perfect cross), the Millwall fans gave up all hope of a shock. To anaesthetise the pain of being confronted by such a chasm in class, they began to reprise their repertoire of chants. There was a jaunty one about Wise breaking jaws (that will have gone down well at Leicester), there was that familiar one about how no one likes them, before they settled on the extended mooing.
They were still at it when Keane lifted the Cup, when Roy Carroll sprayed his team-mates with champagne, when Sir Alex Ferguson danced during the winners' lap of honour. How they managed to keep going during that was extraordinary; at the sight of Fergie apparently auditioning for the live action version of Thunderbirds, everyone else cracked up laughing.
"The Millwall fans were incredible," Ferguson said afterwards, a view shared by Keane, Wise and most in the stadium. Now for Europe. And one thing is for sure: over there, everyone will hear them coming
Lots of fans, naturally, think that their club and fan-base are special, but I do think that there is something indefinable about being a Wall fan and the atmosphere generated. It's obviously deep in the psyche of the dockers mentality - I think.
So equally impressive is this article from the TLR - The Lion Roars from 1966 and I love the last paragraph.
"Anyway I bought the unofficial fan mag TLR - The Lion Roars - as usual and wanted to share this extract from it which does a good job, in my opinion, of describing what it's like to be at Millwall. Here goes..........."I used to hope in the first half we'd go one down. Why? Because I knew what was to follow. Always in the second half. And always better when we were losing. There we were - maybe losing by the odd goal, maybe 0-0, maybe not playing well.
Then it would start. This low rumble at the IIderton Road end that travelled like ever increasing rolling thunder, gaining volume through the North Terrace, and reaching a tumultuous crescendo as it arrived on the Cold Blow. It made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as it enveloped us all - an unholy racket that turned opposing players legs to jelly and inspired Millwall players to efforts of Herculean intensity. That was the Millwall Roar!"
That home run record was suddenly in jeopardy (Carlisle had scored 15 minutes from time and against the run of play) and how the crowd responded. Will I ever hear anything like it again or has the passing of time (since 1966) turned up the volume? I swear I've heard nothing like it before or since. A Millwall corner was accompanied by such a fearsome din from the Cold Blow around me that I couldn't tell you what sort of noise the rest of the crowd was making, because I couldn't hear. It was screeching madness, utterly mental, and the Carlisle defence must have thought all the banshees from hell were behind their goal. Millwall mounted attack after attack - frenzied – kami kazi - Charge of the Light Brigade, call it what you will. All the time urged on by a crazy awesome noise in the caldron like atmosphere that was the Den on that day. Then Len Julians' equaliser! All I can tell you is that he scored. The rest of the time I was up in the Cold Blow end roof with thousands of others. Then Len Julians' winning header! It was mad, totally crazy, every man for himself - a celebration to remember for the rest of your life when the bit of terrace you stood on as the goal went in wasn't the same part you ended up on.
Trust me, it was the Millwall crowd that won that game. My mate's sister lived in IIderton Road and she swore blind that every time Millwall scored the ornaments on her mantelpiece would rattle. I should have asked her if any fell off and broke on Saturday 26th December 1966."
wallsince70
Well-known member
Remember the game very well although extremely pi$$ed that day . Started off at Forest Hill in that massive spoons with a dearly departed pal called Mick who used to come up from Guildford and travelled all over the world with the national team and his pal called Cyril who was a bricklayer and a long time pal of mine too . Great footage where I managed to pick out my also departed nephew briefly . Unbelievable noise that seemed to go on forever , the day culminated with a rather stupid act by myself resulting in a bit of a toe to toe with several Palace bods . Couldn’t have picked better foes , I’ve had harder whacks off my Two year old nephew .
Now closed mate. It's a big old building and used to be a cinema.
E1 Wall
Well-known member
BrilliantLots of fans, naturally, think that their club and fan-base are special, but I do think that there is something indefinable about being a Wall fan and the atmosphere generated. It's obviously deep in the psyche of the dockers mentality - I think.
So equally impressive is this article from the TLR - The Lion Roars from 1966 and I love the last paragraph.
"Anyway I bought the unofficial fan mag TLR - The Lion Roars - as usual and wanted to share this extract from it which does a good job, in my opinion, of describing what it's like to be at Millwall. Here goes..........."I used to hope in the first half we'd go one down. Why? Because I knew what was to follow. Always in the second half. And always better when we were losing. There we were - maybe losing by the odd goal, maybe 0-0, maybe not playing well.
Then it would start. This low rumble at the IIderton Road end that travelled like ever increasing rolling thunder, gaining volume through the North Terrace, and reaching a tumultuous crescendo as it arrived on the Cold Blow. It made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as it enveloped us all - an unholy racket that turned opposing players legs to jelly and inspired Millwall players to efforts of Herculean intensity. That was the Millwall Roar!"
That home run record was suddenly in jeopardy (Carlisle had scored 15 minutes from time and against the run of play) and how the crowd responded. Will I ever hear anything like it again or has the passing of time (since 1966) turned up the volume? I swear I've heard nothing like it before or since. A Millwall corner was accompanied by such a fearsome din from the Cold Blow around me that I couldn't tell you what sort of noise the rest of the crowd was making, because I couldn't hear. It was screeching madness, utterly mental, and the Carlisle defence must have thought all the banshees from hell were behind their goal. Millwall mounted attack after attack - frenzied – kami kazi - Charge of the Light Brigade, call it what you will. All the time urged on by a crazy awesome noise in the caldron like atmosphere that was the Den on that day. Then Len Julians' equaliser! All I can tell you is that he scored. The rest of the time I was up in the Cold Blow end roof with thousands of others. Then Len Julians' winning header! It was mad, totally crazy, every man for himself - a celebration to remember for the rest of your life when the bit of terrace you stood on as the goal went in wasn't the same part you ended up on.
Trust me, it was the Millwall crowd that won that game. My mate's sister lived in IIderton Road and she swore blind that every time Millwall scored the ornaments on her mantelpiece would rattle. I should have asked her if any fell off and broke on Saturday 26th December 1966."
wallsince70
Well-known member
Thank you mate , drove past there last week and wondered if it was still open . Always thought it was some sort of ballroom before now . Remember we were upstairs in some sort of gallery that went the whole way round the place and looking down at a cavernous ground floor that was heaving with masses of Wall , f@@k me that’s got to be 16 or 17 years ago now .
partisan_lion
Well-known member
A mental chant and love it.So unique it must bemuse and frighten oppo supporters in equal measure.
Like a primeval rumble that starts low and slow in the bowels of the Earth and builds and builds gaining momentum before it sounds like some past cataclysmic event about to destroy the the world...Love it and should be used more instead of NOLU although NOLU is like a pause button before the Monks chant starts up again.
Like a primeval rumble that starts low and slow in the bowels of the Earth and builds and builds gaining momentum before it sounds like some past cataclysmic event about to destroy the the world...Love it and should be used more instead of NOLU although NOLU is like a pause button before the Monks chant starts up again.