Question: What does Liverpool FC, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Rogers and Hammerstien and a Selkirk man
Graham Bateman from Selkirk, was reading his Sunday Post a few weeks ago when he came across an interesting article on our Queries page. A reader had asked us about the history of the song 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. The original version from 1945 featured in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and film 'Carousel'. But after Merseyside band Gerry and the Pacemakers topped the pop charts with it in 1963 the song was adopted by Liverpool FC fans as a favourite on the terraces. Seeing this mentioned in the Post reminded Graham that his cousin, Stewart Bateman, was the DJ at Anfield in the 1960's. Stewart met his future wife Hilda Riley, who was from Liverpool, when he was in the army during World War 2. She worked in the club's boardroom while her father Herbert was head groundsman at the stadium. After the couple married, Stewart, a motor mechanic by trade, moved to Liverpool where he got a job at a garage. But he'd go along to Anfield for every home game to be with Hilda, whose job included making tea for manager Bill Shankly and his pals. Stewart was also a keen music fan so when a vacancy arose for a DJ to spin discs before matches and at half time to keep the fans entertained, he was delighted to take on the role. Each week he'd be given enough money to buy the latest singles. On one of his jaunts to the record shop he discovered the new version of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' recorded by Gerry and the Pacemakers. When the next match day arrived Stewart placed the record on the turntable, and couldn't believe the reaction. The tune went down a bomb, with the Liverpool fans singing and swaying in the stands. The record was a number one hit across the UK too, topping the charts for four weeks in November 1963. But such was the Anfield crowd's reaction to the tune that Stewart was asked to keep playing it long afterwards. It quickly became the team's now familiar anthem and the song's title was also adopted as the club's motto. Stewart continued spinning discs at Anfield until he and Hilda retired to North Wales in 1968. He remained a fan of the club until he died in 1997, and when Hilda passed away shortly afterwards both their ashes were scattered together on the Anfield pitch. Yet despite his high profile DJ-ing role Stewart never boasted about how he was the man who introduced the famous song to Liverpool FC. But even now, when Graham and his wife Nancy hear it being belted out on the famous Kop terraces, they think fondly of Stewart and that first spin of the disc that was to become a Liverpool legend.
Footnote
Graham Bateman was a Life-member of Selkirk FC and died less than a year after this article was published by the Sunday Post. Having played football for Selkirk in his younger days, Graham took an active interest in all the town's sporting organisations, regularly reporting on football, rugby, golf and cricket matches for the local and national press. In 1980 he wrote the official history of Selkirk Football Club as part of the Yarrow Park outfit's centenary celebrations, a document which still forms the primary source of historical information relating to the first century of the club’s existence.