Atmosphere at 'old' Celtic Park

At least you have the memories mate which no-one can ever take from you. Imagine been the sort of empty shell of a Celtic supporter that can only look down on and sneer at "traditional" Celtic supporters and think how much poorer your life would have been.

Then again I suppose there is always the chance that in a couple of years these * will wise up and realise what they have stood by and watched disappear.

 

I only went to the old celtic park a few times. I remember moaning at my dad to take me into the jungle but he warned me that I wouldn't be able to see anything and I would be squashed. But I kept moaning so he took me and I couldn't see anything and I was squashed. Besides that I went maybe 3 or 4 times in all. My first season ticket year was Hampden when the new celtic park was being built.

As regards the new celtic park, I remember the atmosphere being very good until the end of the Strachan era. It was maybe because I was young and had no point of comparison but in my memories at least the atmosphere was always great at celtic park. I think it came from two things. Firstly, winning was a novelty and felt a lot more significant than now. And secondly, we had players that people were excited to see. Even at the time I think people felt that they were watching some special players and the idea of watching guys like Larsson, Lubo, Di Canio, Pierre, etc, at the best got people excited regardless of who we were playing.

 

the game in 79 against the huns has got to be my favourite game of all time
when we beat them 4-2 with the great johnny doyle being sent off alex mc donald was lying on the floor and johnny just walked over him like he wasnt there the place went mad at that stage it was 2-1 to them i would allways stand in the jungle but you couldnt get near it that day and my first glimpse of the game was when i pulled myself up on the floodlight between the jungle and celtic end only to see mcdonald score we managed to get a spot in the celtic end behind the goal in perfect line to see murdo macleod hit swerving shot into the top of the net * bedlam memory,s not great on this but i think there og gave us the lead there was so many twist and the fans unreal i think the official att was 67,000 it was all ticket but loads of my mates got in without
and the year after the 2-0 victory over real madrid was something else biggest crowd i can remember i think there was estimates of 80,000+ you could lift your feet of the ground and the crowd would keep you suspended
happy days indeed.
oh yes forgot songs well there was was a song about lord mountbatten that went down well, catchy little number im sure h67 would remember

 

I really wish that I had got to go to Scotland in the 90s to see the old stadium. Just the old facade I think looked cool as * and I wish that they had kept it. Sends goosebumps down skin just looking at photos. I wish I could have stood in jungle in those days.

My first trip to CP was in the noughties so I missed all of that. I wish there was more footage of the old stadium.

 

In terms of the atmosphere, the truth is it was much the same as it is now. Great against the huns and on European nights, pretty duff for most run of the mill matches. Maybe there was more singing coming from the Jungle back then, but some of it was very sectarian.

Some great memories though - stood right in the middle of the Jungle for that game against Sporting Lisbon, big Jacki against Partisan Belgrade, the Jungle being a scary swaying mass of bodies against Nottingham Forrest. But most of all, the intensity of the hun games. That place was incredible for those matches and I will remember my first at CP, a 3-3 classic, forever. Not just the excitement of the match but the noise, the massive crowd, the mayhem when we scored.

Like someone else said, I wanna be 20 again.

 

It was 1-0 to them when wee johnny got sent off mate, we actually went 2-1 up when George McCluskey scored, then Russel made it 2-2, after that the rest is history

 

Wasnt the atmosphere better in the jungle than it was in the seats though? For regular league games against Killie or St Johnstone or whoever?

 

I have always been curious: what kind of stuff used to be sung that isn't sung now? Something you don't often hear about.

 

Roamin in the Gloamin is one song that I know they sang a lot back then.

 

mainly IRA chants, when the opposition scored, banana's thrown at mark walters, that kinda of stuff

 

sorry about that your dead right

 

And today we have fans who get up in arms about me, a guy in a multi-racial marriage, because I listen to a band who may have a couple of racist fans.

Yet we have had fans who, in the stands in Celtic park, threw bananas at Walters, and made monkey gestures at players like El-Hajj Diouf.

Why don't you go and pick on the real racists guys? Ridiculous

 

el vaj duff is more pond life than monkey to be fair

 

Generally, yes. But it wasn`t always rocking like some people make out. For lesser games even the Jungle went quiet for long spells during the game.

 

I don't tink anyone is bothered by the music you listen to I think it is more the whole package.

For the record everytime you try to introduce the fact your wife isn't white just makes you sound like Ron Atkinson saying he signed black players for West Brom.

 

It was just more explicit back then. Soon there`ll be no protestants at all, we`re off to join the IRA, dirty orange *, to die an orange *. All that kind of stuff was chanted a lot. Ditties about Michael Fagen`s personal relationship with the queen went around for a while. I remember this one being a favourite on the bus I went on at the time -

(To the tune of The Sash)

No, no troops in Ireland
No lodges to sadden my eye
No kings and no queens
No Bobby McKeans
F*** the queen and the 12th of july

Probably get jailed for that now.

 

or

Wheres your bobby gone, wheres your bobby gone, left his engine on

 

I miss the na na na to the beatles hey jude chant that was class

 

I think everyone would love a rocking atmosphere 100% of the time but as some have said on here even the Jungle wasn't always brilliant, even Dortmund's yellow wall at the moment isn't perpetually fantastic. Galatasary's mental fans weren't making too much noise when Madrid were sticking 6 past them earlier this season.

There's good and bad from all eras but as we can't remember the actual feeling of pain our memories are always tinged with happiness and we think of "the good old days".

In a perfect world i'd take the cheap, collective family-feel, banter and sheer joy of the Jungle with the vastly improved safety of today's football and proper toilets with no dirty * * on you. But it's not a perfect world.

 

That's amazing