Staggies' Swedish anthem set for home airing
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A ROUSING new Staggies anthem is due to be heard at the first home game of the season tomorrow (Saturday) - after being penned hundreds of miles away in Sweden.
But the composer is a completely home-grown product, 38-year-old exiled Black Isler Neil Grant.
The long-distance Ross County fan, who is a singer/songwriter now based in Sweden, decided to write an anthem for the club some time ago, having long harboured the ambition.
After several months of hard work in Neil’s studio at his home in Gothenburg the track - Ross County Song 2015 - is now complete.
It was released on August 1 on Tweezer Records and is also available on ITunes and Spotify.
Neil revealed to the North Star: "I’ve just heard some great news. Apparently the club love the tune and will be playing it at some point during the opening home match of the season against Hamilton Accies. I’m delighted!
"Of course, local group Torridon have already recorded an official club anthem, but my track is intended to add to the club’s repertoire rather than to replace any existing work."
Neil has also received a personal blessing from Torridon’s lead singer, Kenny Smith, who contacted him on Facebook to say he thought the track was "brilliant".
Neil travelled to Gothenburg four-and-a-half years ago for a long weekend but felt so at home in Sweden that he kept going back.
It was after meeting his girlfriend in Gothenburg that he decided to move there permanently. He is now an adopted Swede and speaks the language fluently.
Neil tries to fly over to the Highlands for a couple of County games each season, and to see his folks Ian and Norma Grant who live in Culbokie.
He said the recording process had been challenging and fun.
"I’ve always fancied the challenge of writing a song for a football team I support," explained Neil.
"The lyrics were tinkered with meticulously before I was finally satisfied with it. I wanted to encompass everything the club had achieved: its history, its passion, its humour. I even did my own multi-tracked sheep noises after the second chorus!
"Musically, I wanted it to be an uptempo, positive foot-tapping affair with a clear nod to the Highlands’ musical influences.
"I layed-down drums, bagpipes, guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals between April and June.
"The hardest part was probably doing the crowd-chants, as it required me multi-tracking myself about 30 times, trying to sound like a different person each time in order to achieve a realistic effect. My Swedish neighbours probably expected some men in white coats to arrive for me when I was recording it!"
Listen to the track online at: https://m.soundcloud.com/neil_grant/ross-county-song-2015-by-neil-grant.
