Gary Neville has opened up on how he asked Manchester United to start playing This Is The One by The Stone Roses before home games.
Every Manchester United fan will have their different routines and traditions on matchday.
A football match may only be 90-or-so minutes, but the matchday experience has many factors – and that includes the pre-match music.
We are now used to hearing United coming out of the Old Trafford tunnel to the sound of ‘This Is The One’ by The Stone Roses, a song which has become synonymous with United over the years.
United previously came out to ‘Fanfare for Rocky’ from the Rocky film series and Gary Neville was the driving factor behind the change.
Gary Neville shares details on Manchester United using ‘This Is The One’
Neville has now spoken to BBC Sounds as he went through the ‘soundtrack to his life’.
Neville talked up the Bruce Springsteen classic ‘Dancing in the Dark’ before talking about ‘This Is The One’ by The Stone Roses.
An absolute Manchester anthem, This Is The One has been United’s walk-out song for as long as many fans can remember.
Neville has now admitted that he didn’t really like coming out to ‘Fanfare for Rocky’, believing that it just didn’t resonate with the United squad.
The now-pundit went to people higher up at the club to try and force a change, asking for ‘This Is The One’ to be played instead – and his request was granted.
That song is ‘very special’ to Neville as a result, noting that he still gets goosebumps listening to it as it reminds him of the anticipation before a United home game.
“This Is The One is special because just before I became captain of Manchester United, we were walking out at Old Trafford, when we were in the tunnel, to an old Rocky song… and I didn’t feel as though it sort of resonated with us. We were having quite a difficult time, we hadn’t won the league for a couple of years.”
“I went to the club and asked them if they could start playing This Is The One in the tunnel. That John Squire guitar is mesmerising, it sounds like no other guitar player that I’ve ever seen or heard, so when I think of that out-of-body experience every single week I had at Old Trafford in my last six or seven years and This Is The One comes on, you just feel goosebumps, that feeling of being in the tunnel.”
“You can’t really explain what it’s like being in the tunnel when there’s 75,000 people ready to roar when you come out. The anxiety, the excitement, a little bit of fear, the anticipation of what’s going to happen in this football match. This Is The One will always be special to me, it’s a great song and Manchester United still play it to this day in the tunnel before the team walk out, so yeah, that’s a very special song to me,” he added.
Are The Stone Roses Manchester United fans?
We know that former Oasis duo Liam and Noel Gallagher are Manchester City fans, but The Stone Roses are all about United.
Frontman Ian Brown is a huge United fan despite coming from a family dominated by City supporters.
Brown bucked the trend by becoming a United fan instead and indicated that bass played Mani and aforementioned guitarist Squire are both United fans.
Drummer Reni is a City supporter but The Stone Roses are largely seen as a ‘United band’ – especially with This Is The One’ still playing loud and proud at every home game.
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