jukebox-durie

Everyone knows a Mike Post song. He started as a session musician in the early 60s playing on songs by Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. By the end of the decade he was in a band with Kenny Rogers and playing guitar for Sonny and Cher on their biggest hit ‘I Got You Babe’.

It wasn’t his session songs that made him famous though. After moving to television he  composed theme songs for the biggest shows of the 70s and 80s. He wrote themes for classics like Doogie Howser M.D., Hill Street Blues,  Law & Order, Magnum P.I., Quantum Leap, Remington Steele, The Rockford Files and The A-Team.


233px-Albion_Rovers_FC_logo.svgAlbion Rovers

Nickname: The Wee Rovers

Ground: Cliftonhill Stadium

Stadium Capacity: 1,238

Song: The A-Team theme song


Albion Rovers has adopted the A-Team’s theme song as an unofficial anthem.

In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.

Post has made it known several times that the theme is very close in rhythm to ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’ a song from the 1946 Walt Disney film Song of the South.

The 80s provide another interesting addition to Albion Rover’s history. In 1983, as part of the sponsorship agreement, the Wee Rovers agreed to change the appearance of its shirt to mimic the gold wrapper with red diagonal stripes of a Tunnocks Caramel Wafer. The link between Tunnock’s and Albion Rovers was inspired as one of Hannibal Smith’s cunning plans.

Tunnocks is a company that’s changed very little. It knows its strengths and it has stuck to them, selling wafers, teacakes and snowballs in the same way established by Thomas Tunnock over 100 years ago.  The company hasn’t changed the size or packaging one bit. Tunnocks is a company that believes in its product and actually heeds the common sense advice ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

Albion Rovers also believe in the principle that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, especially if fixing it might involve spending cash.

Albion has spent most of its existence, since it was formed in Coatbridge in 1892 from the merger of Albion FC and Rovers FC, in the bottom league of Scottish football. Coatbridge lies close to Glasgow and the pull of the Old Firm has always meant that the Wee Rovers has always struggled to build a support, and with few fans, and little cash, it’s finished bottom of the league more times than they care to remember.

Recent seasons have seen an improvement, winning promotion though a play-off in 2010-11, the first time Albion has left the bottom tier of Scottish football in 22 seasons. After managing to avoid relegation the following season, the first time they avoided going straight back down in almost 80 years, the club couldn’t deny football gravity in 2012-13 and was relegated.

Any excuse to play this:

Or how about this – the ukulele cover.

Follow Scottish Comedy FC on Twitter for more on Scottish football and beyond: @ScotComFC

Andy Todd
Celtic fan Andrew Todd is the co-author of ‘Jukebook Durie: the best & worst football songs’ – the first book to tell the stories behind the anthems for every team in the UK.

He’s a part-time comedian and in 2014, he supported Eddie Izzard in ‘Please Don’t Go’, Izzard’s show about Scottish independence and worked with BBC Radio Scotland as a weekly guest on Referendum Tonight.

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Jukebox Durie: Albion Rovers Survive As Soldiers Of Fortune

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