Social groups at school were pretty defined. Not quite like the “jocks” and “geeks” of American high schools, but more like the tracksuit tribe for the school astro and the artistic wallflowers on the outside. Despite my love in equal measures for both football and music, rarely did I mix the two, given the above circumstances.
Then again, maybe I should have moved to Newcastle, where my Geordie editor Tom Taylor seemed to balance the two perfectly, under the watchful eye of his city’s icons Sam Fender and Mark Knopfler.
There is a deeply soulful essence to both music and football, something that the working-class communities of our country have treasured and embraced. On the terraces, harmonies that would have been ridiculed in the classroom are cherished in the blissful hope that the local lad wearing the number nine shirt will bury one in the top corner and transport you away from the woes of everyday life.
Take my own dad, for example. A man of very limited music taste, but instantly made teary by the opening chord of The Dave Clark Five’s ‘Glad All Over’ for its ability to transport him back to Crystal Palace playing days, hearing a chorus of south Londoners singing that very song. Somehow, these two warring industries can combine to make sense of one another, becoming a gateway to euphoria.
I can’t say I know what it’s like to be from Newcastle. Nor can I say I know what it’s truly like to be a Geordie, standing on the terraces of St James’ Park when they’re 2-1 up. But the sound of Mark Knopfler’s ‘Local Hero’ makes me feel like I have a brief idea. Watching the black and white shirts of Newcastle United walk onto the pitch to Knopfler’s song seems to embody the city’s community, brimming with a modest sense of optimism that rises through the cracks of industry.
A large part of that may be because of the song’s creation, written as a theme for a movie with the same title. A movie that explores the conflict between local communities and global capitalism, shining a light on the heart within everyday communities. Something Knopfler would have deeply understood, come the task of writing the film’s soundtrack, and so it becomes unsurprising when he looks back on the track and guitar solo in particular with fondness.
“There’s something about Going Home, from Local Hero that seems to work,” he told Spanish newspaper El Pais. “It’s a cheap guitar, it sounds very direct, I did everything wrong, but I think they’re perfect notes.”
Given Knopfler has written more than one iconic solo during his career, he further explained why Local Hero in particular, touched on something different: “I think it turned out well because I didn’t take it to the extreme of getting into trouble. I just said what I had to say. I didn’t go too far. I tried to portray the place, the people, the rocks, and the water. For me, it was a portrait of a place, an idea, a local hero.”
