What do Everton, Watford and Workington have in common? It’s a link that goes back to the 1960s.
In fact a man who served as manager of both Reds and Watford was directly responsible for the link between those two clubs. While it was pure geography that pushed Everton into the equation.
Football fans of a certain vintage will have already worked out that the manager was Ken Furphy and the link between the three clubs was a musical one.
All three ran out, and still do, to the strains of the theme tune Z Cars, a ground-breaking police series which first aired on January 2, 1962, and went on to provide 801 weekly episodes before it ended in 1978.
Over the years clubs have flirted with We are the Champions and Simply the Best to the current trend for Sweet Caroline but for consistent longevity you can’t beat Z Cars.
When Reds first joined the Football League in 1951, Dearham Band used to perform on a regular pre-match basis and the team ran out to the strains of D’ye Ken John Peel – politically incorrect, of course, in this day and age.
The history of the Z Cars theme has been researched by the Everton historian Rob Sawyer for the ToffeeWeb, an independent website for supporters.
As far as Workington were concerned it was introduced at Borough Park by then manager Ken Furphy, in conjunction with the club’s commercial manager the wonderfully named Norman Conquest.
Both progressive in their marketing philosophy it caught on at Borough Park and when he moved to Watford, Furphy took the idea with him.
Z-Cars was a ground-breaking series, set in the fictional Merseyside overspill town of Newtown – loosely based on Kirkby. It followed the crimefighting exploits of the Lancashire Constabulary police squads, using cars with the (fictional) call signs Z-Victor 1 and Z-Victor 2 (the inspiration for the series’ title.
An initial five-season run was followed by a revival from 1966 through to 1978 but unfortunately many of those 801 episodes have been lost.
Writing on ToffeeWeb, Sawyer says: “The track has been recorded by numerous artists (sometimes rerecorded by the same artist) – but the matchday staple is that performed by Johnny Keating and his Orchestra (also referred to as the Z-Men).
“Keating has become synonymous with the tune – to the extent that some may believe, wrongly, that he wrote it. The story of the song is far more convoluted.”
Sawyer says that the origins of the tune are a traditional maritime folk song called Johnny Todd which was often sung by Liverpool children in the playground or street as an accompaniment to ball-bouncing or skipping games.
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“It had been recorded by several folk musicians in the 1950’s and early 1960’s (and was subsequently committed to vinyl by Bob Dylan). The shanty came to the mind of Fritz Spiegl, a Merseyside-based musician, conductor and arranger, when he was approached in 1961 by the BBC for a theme tune appropriate for a forthcoming Merseyside-based police TV drama.
“Fritz is sometimes erroneously credited as the composer of the Theme from Z-Cars. However, an eagle-eyed owner of a copy of the record will spot that a certain Bridget Fry is given the songwriting credit.
“Bridget, a freelance musical arranger and multi-instrumentalist (harpsichord being her specialism) was, in fact, Fritz’s first wife – she retained her maiden name for professional purposes.
“Now in her 90’s and living in south Liverpool, Bridget recalls how the programme’s theme tune came to fruition: ‘It was only an eight-bar thing, but it needed to be a bit longer; so, I added a link that made it go round and round. I put in about half of it, really.’
“‘The producer of the programme saw that the chamber music quartet, which my husband and I run, was giving a concert in Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall. He popped in, heard the theme, liked it and booked it.’
“It was written to be played by four flutes, two drums, two horns, a double bass and a harmonium.
“Maybe encouraged by the excellent viewing figures for the show, other musicians and producers were quick to see the hit-potential of the theme tune. This led to a flurry of singles being released in early spring. Norrie Paramor, who had worked with the likes of Cliff Richard and the Shadows, put out an orchestral version on Columbia Records.
“A star of the show, James Ellis (in the role of Bert Lynch, lent his vocal talents to a rendition of Johnny Todd on a 45 issued by Philips:
“However, most successful was the rendition released on Piccadilly by Johnny Keating and his Orchestra.
“Keating was, at this juncture, a well-established artist who been staff arranger for the Ted Heath Band. He had also dabbled in the world of popular music by doing backing arrangements for Adam Faith and Helen Shapiro. With the Keating version riding high in the charts in April 1962, and the programme’s links to Merseyside, it is little wonder that it was given a spin on the turntable at Goodison Park.
“There is no definitive evidence of when it was first given an Everton airing, but Billy Smith’s transcription of old newspaper report for his Blue Correspondent website confirms that it had become a pre-match favourite from early in the beginning of the championship-winning 1962/63 season.”
That was also the season that Furphy took the Workington job and it wasn’t long before the Reds were running out to Z Cars. They clinched promotion the following 63/64 season and soon Furphy was on his way to Watford – along with the Z Cars theme.
