His dad sang him You’ll Never Walk Alone as a lullaby. Every single night.
OUR THINKING / OPINION
Harry Davies’s dad sang him You’ll Never Walk Alone as a lullaby. Every single night. Instead of anything else.
Harry is 21. He’s about to graduate in mechanical engineering. He’s a musician. And he found his dad’s Istanbul 2005 tracksuit top in a wardrobe one day and quietly claimed it. He wasn’t even there in 2005 – he was one year old. But he wears it now to every big game.
In episode ten of Football for Breakfast, Jim Johnson sits down with the youngest guest the show has had so far to talk about inheriting football, inheriting music and what it means to be young and obsessed with both in a city that gave the world The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers and a song that started as a chart hit before kick off and somehow became Anfield’s emotional centre of gravity.
Bath City and belonging
They talk about Bath City, the grassroots club Harry adopted at university – terraces, a beer in hand, watching with mates who could not care less about Liverpool and probably love it more for that reason. They talk about going to see the Oasis reunion twice this summer and what it felt like to be shaking with excitement for a band he was only four or five when they first split.
Is youth culture over?
The conversation turns properly interesting in the second half. Can social media ever again produce the kind of unifying cultural moment that gave the world Britpop, Merseybeat or punk? Harry, true to character, says he has to believe it can. He’s an optimist. He thinks somewhere out there is the next Liam Gallagher, even if nobody’s found them yet.
The object on the table
His dad’s Istanbul 2005 tracksuit top. Inherited, not bought. He’s worn it to the 4-3 win over Spurs when Jota scored in the 96th minute. He thinks he might have worn it for a defeat or two as well, but he’s not owning up to that.
Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Football for Breakfast is presented by OSS Security. New episode every Tuesday morning.
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NOT TACTICS. NOT TRANSFERS. THE FEELING OF FOOTBALL.
