AN OLDHAM musician’s band has released a new single ahead of Oldham Athletic’s day of destiny at Wembley.
The Boundary Parkas hope the track, featuring the club’s CEO and owner, can help spur the Latics on as they look to regain their Football League status this weekend.
The song ‘Life a Blue’ was released on Friday, May 23 – three days after Micky Mellon’s side beat York City 3-0 to reach the National League promotion final.
Over 20,000 Latics fans are expected to make the trip to the capital on Sunday, June 1, for the club’s first match at the national stadium in 35 years, when victory over Southend United would see Oldham promoted back to League Two after a three-year exile.
This is the first time a song has been written about Athletic, its history and future by a group of local lads who are lifelong fans of the club.
As the Boundary Parkas sing in the new track ‘times been tough, we’re stronger now’, there is a feeling of positivity and hopefulness among the Latics faithful.
Kieran McMahon from Springhead, along with Harry Lavin, Luke O’Reilly and Charlie Whittaker, formed in January 2024 in The Joe Royle Stand for Oldham Rugby League FC.
They went on to record and release a club song for Oldham Roughyeds with comedy legend Tommy Cannon. The post-summer track coincided with the Roughyeds winning promotion to the Championship.
Now, ‘Life a Blue’ kicks off with the story of a lad and his dad getting up early on a Saturday morning to ‘meet up with the matchday crowd’ – synonymous with ‘My Old Man’s a Dustman’ by Lonnie Donnegan, a classic often heard at Oldham games.
The story stemmed from real life as Kieran and Harry reminisce: “Our dads used to take us to Boundary Park as kids and that experience always stays with you – the club is at the heart of the town”.
Oldham Athletic owner Frank Rothwell, who lives in Greenfield, provides comical guest vocals on the song, which also features the club’s CEO Darren Royle.
The folk style intro introduces an iconic penny whistle part from the group’s newest member Andy Mack. Borrowed from his childhood friend Dan Kearns, son of legendary Oldham musician Larry Kearns, a whistle melody produced by Andy on Larry’s instrument opens the track.
The second part of the verse mentions ‘built on Millstone, Lee’s stout’ – which continues with local history and traditional accolades. Millstone Brewery makes Three Shires Bitter – which is well known in the region along with brewery J.W. Lees.
Local musician Jake Fletcher, who performs in Paul Weller’s touring band, was the sound and mixing engineer for the song. Jake’s dad Craig helped re-record comedy duo Cannon and Ball’s ‘Boys in Blue’ from the hit film for Oldham’s road to Wembley in 1990 – where Nottingham Forest beat the Latics 1-0 in the League Cup final.
Professional band musicians James Atkins and Adam Stretton add the ‘warmth’ of the Pennine hills into the piece with a brass ensemble.
The break in the song, where the brass takes to the stage, is married with genuine crowd noise from Ryan Green’s The OA95 Athletico’s in the Jimmy Frizzle Stand, a.k.a Rochdale Road End – the fans have a reputation for huge singalongs and pitchside displays.
The Boundary Parkas will be performing the new song on Saturday, May 31, at 6.30pm at The Fox and Pine pub in Oldham.
Should the Latics be triumphant at Wembley, Kieran from the band will also be performing an ‘Oldham Classics’ party set at Liquid and Envy nightclub at around midnight, where the festivities could well continue into the early hours of Monday morning.
Physical CDs will be available to buy for £5 at both aforementioned live performances, to give fans a chance to take home a piece of history. The song will also be available to stream on services such as YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music.