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We are not we're not really here
We are not we're not really here
Just like the fan of the Invisible man we're not really here

In need of some mythbusting from the old heads on here. Where did this chant come from? Why did it start?

I've heard so many differing myths attached to this, can someone clear up the true story behind this?

I am not old but as far as I know it came to be when we were down in 2nd division. I've always interpreted it as meaning "we are really a premiership team, so we are not really here in the 2nd div.".

That however is just conjecture.

I first heard it at Bury away in the season before the relegation season to Division Three. So it does not come from being in the third division.

is it not to do with playing Millwall and apparently our fans were banned from the den, but all started singing that when we scored

The 1st time I heard it was when Maine Rd was so packed that people were stood/sat in the aisles. The Swales version of the attendance came up, something like 26,593 & the crowd started singing 'were not really here'. That was years & years & years before the 3rd division. I believe it had been around for a while then though, just not so loudly.

Fesan wrote:I am not old but as far as I know it came to be when we were down in 2nd division. I've always interpreted it as meaning "we are really a premiership team, so we are not really here in the 2nd div.".

That however is just conjecture.

That's the way i've always understood it

Beeks wrote:

Fesan wrote:I am not old but as far as I know it came to be when we were down in 2nd division. I've always interpreted it as meaning "we are really a premiership team, so we are not really here in the 2nd div.".

That however is just conjecture.

That's the way i've always understood it

Nah that was just a circumstance into which it fit nicely & was used, like my attendance one. People were already singing it well before then, at least in the days of Rosler, Beagrie & Co but I don't know how it actually started. I've heard stories of people laying claim to it but I'm not sure about the validity of them.

Edit: I remember Frank Sidebottom singing it on TV around the time of Niall Quinn's Disco Pants.

Ted Hughes wrote:

Beeks wrote:

Fesan wrote:I am not old but as far as I know it came to be when we were down in 2nd division. I've always interpreted it as meaning "we are really a premiership team, so we are not really here in the 2nd div.".

That however is just conjecture.

That's the way i've always understood it

Nah that was just a circumstance into which it fit nicely & was used, like my attendance one. People were already singing it well before then, at least in the days of Rosler, Beagrie & Co but I don't know how it actually started. I've heard stories of people laying claim to it but I'm not sure about the validity of them.

Edit: I remember Frank Sidebottom singing it on TV around the time of Niall Quinn's Disco Pants.

It's all very confusing..

All these reasons as to when and why it started all make sense.

Someone surely knows without a doubt the origins of this famous chant. Enigma.

I also thought it was from milwall away

Can I just reiterate, that if it was from Millwall away, then both myself, Frank Sidebottom, & thousands of other City fans were either in a psychic trance, or time travellers as we were singing it years earlier.

great chant, as is the Niall Quinns Disco Pants.

Looking it up ont google, the favourite seems to be round about Peter Reid or Brian Horton era although some claim it goes back to Luton in '86. Prestwich blues were singing it in about '93 when one of them died & are claiming to have started it as a non City song which then caught on during a City tour of Ireland.

I must be fucking losing it Ruxpin as I genuinely can't remember it being sung that far back and I was a season ticket holder at Maine Rd for years!?!

Saying that I can't remember what I had for tea last night..

Beeks wrote:I must be fucking losing it Ruxpin as I genuinely can't remember it being sung that far back and I was a season ticket holder at Maine Rd for years!?!

Saying that I can't remember what I had for tea last night..

I must have sung it loads of times but can only remember for sure I was singing it when Swales was around & his ridiculous attendance fiddle came up. I recon the Kippax was probably still standing at the time.

Am i the only person who hates this song?

I can't be doing with it!!!

I only remember this song in the latter part of the division 2 season.

I was only a teen then so clearly didn't know enough at that point, but still, it was noticeable that its airing only grew in stature as that season went on.

Ted Hughes wrote: Prestwich blues were singing it in about '93 when one of them died & are claiming to have started it as a non City song which then caught on during a City tour of Ireland.

That's the only one I've heard of as being claimed as definitely true, all others are a bit like this thread, what people have been told and accepted. Someone posted it somewhere on t'internet, saying he was there and a mate of whoever died.

I've always thought it was from one of our many relegations, but because someone (probably rags) were peeved that we had such a good support when we were so shite, and about to get relegated. So they were saying (or singing or printed in something), you'll have no support in whatever version of the 2nd division we were going down to.

Again that's just the version I've been told and accepted at the time.

glossopblue wrote:Am i the only person who hates this song?

I can't be doing with it!!!

It's shite, but it's our shite.

Blue Blood wrote:

We are not we're not really here
We are not we're not really here
Just like the fan of the Invisible man we're not really here

In need of some mythbusting from the old heads on here. Where did this chant come from? Why did it start?

I've heard so many differing myths attached to this, can someone clear up the true story behind this?

I can guarantee the correct answer is Luton away when everyone was banned cos of Millwall trashing the place. I was there and a few guys started singing it, we thought it was hilarious as we were told before travelling down we would be chucked out of the ground if city fans were spotted and the next thing sections were singing more and more and Invisible man was sung at every away match as a joke but only really hit the home matches months later and not that popular until recent years. Good times wish i was there again!

I'm sorry Mr S Billions, but i go with Ted and the Prestwich Supporters Club Branch. A lot of City fans have expounded where they think it originated but the guy who ran the branch was quite adament that his group had started it. It was not started as a City song but, as Ted said, about a particular fan who wasn't at a particular game (Dead???). It maty well have been at the Luton game but I go with Ted on this.