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Wales vs England 1999


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Monday, August 18, 2008

Monday Madness - Kiwi butchers the Aussie anthem

Thomas Stowers. Anyone remember that name? I didn't think so, and despite admittedly knowing nothing about the guy, I'm willing to bet that this performance of his at a 2001 Bledisloe Cup match didn't do his career any favours.

Australia won the match against New Zealand 23-15 at Carisbrook, despite Stowers stuttering through the anthem and basically making a mockery of the honour and opportunity handed to him.

With the Tri Nations in full swing in 2008 and a possible decider between the two sides on the cards, we thought this would provide a bit of a chuckle. His 'performance' is so bad that it's laughable, and I bet quite annoying if you're an Australian.

So while on the subject, why do the anthem singers at the beginning of a match always look so out of place, looking like they've been chosen by having their names pulled from a hat?

This past weekend we watched as the South African Bala Brothers performed a really good rendition of God Defend New Zealand, including the Maori version, but then we saw three Afrikaans guys singing the South African anthem.

Where is the logic. Why not just have one group or individual sing both? If you're good enough to sing another countries anthem, surely you're good enough to sing your own? It may just be a pet hate of mine, but I find it's often a shambles before kickoff.

Katherine Jenkins on the other hand, is a great example of Wales getting it right. She's pleasing on the eye, and certainly knows how to sing, unlike a certain Mr Stowers, who's minute of shame has been dug up again for all to see.


Time: 01:08


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31 Comments:

  • did he just forget the lyrics? bit of a tool.

    looking forward to the rest of the tri nations rugbydump

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 12:01 am  

  • Why do they have to choose a singer for the anthem? That's a lot better when the entire crowd is singing it with the music only ......

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 12:16 am  

  • bahaha...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 12:17 am  

  • i dont get it.....can some one fill me in on the details? wheres the madness? was the singer simple or something?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 12:18 am  

  • Hahaha

    What the hell was he at!?!?

    "I'll just sing the chorus, maybe they won't notice" lol

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 12:26 am  

  • He's got a very nice voice. What they probably didn't do is have him PRACTICE! Trying to sing a song in a stadium like that with thousands singing along and your own voice reverberating back at you through the amplification can be incredibly disorienting. Cut the kid a little slack.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 12:47 am  

  • Katherine Jenkins is a babe and I would plough her mercilessly. But hearing her sing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau in the stadium annoys me tremendously. There is nothing greater than hearing the whole Millenium Stadium belting out GWLAD GWLAD PLEEIIIIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD! on a match day. She is unnecessary and furthers my belief that no singers are necessary to lead the crowd into singing their anthem. It hugely detracts from the atmosphere.

    By Blogger .......Luke, at August 19, 2008 1:37 am  

  • The poor guy obviously forgot the words and decided to just stay out of it before things got worse ... although he did make an effort to recover the situation I think he was best leaving it to the crowd who were doing a pretty decent job considering that most of the Aussies I know don't know the lyrics either.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 4:57 am  

  • "considering that most of the Aussies I know don't know the lyrics either."

    shame 4them =)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 6:07 am  

  • http://postarchives.entensity.net/030507/brains.jpg

    I really like the way it says "Brains" all over her breasts :P

    And she's blonde...:P

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 6:46 am  

  • I think the mic just messed up because you heard the feedback when he cut out but then it comes back on when they must of fixed it. I'm glad it was the Aussie Anthem anyway and not mine.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 7:55 am  

  • Poor guy, he looked shattered. But was nice to watch the camera pan across some of the old wallabies. Ah the good old days when Australia was the bench-mark not the wannabes.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 8:57 am  

  • why do people keeping posting anonymously?

    here's the first anonymous comment---"i dont get it.....can some one fill me in on the details? wheres the madness? was the singer simple or something?"

    what? is that how you sing your anthem? the first few lines and the last lines?

    LOL...but if he did sing the whole thing they must have cut the mic coz he was butchering it.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 9:27 am  

  • i love the bit where he goes

    'help me sing'
    instead of
    'let us sing'

    twas irnoically true

    as an aussie i found that hilarious, only becuase we still won :D

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 10:50 am  

  • quite a mess there! i plead for singing without professionals! the crowd will manage

    By Blogger sebastian, at August 19, 2008 11:56 am  

  • He looks constipated when reading his lyrics. What a rendition.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 12:10 pm  

  • I tend to agree with some who say it's better when the crowd sings alone. I can't think off hand where or when it was, but somewhere in the last year there was a match where it was like that, and it was really effective. What's the point in having some singer belting it out, when the players are normally out of time with him/her, as are the crowd.

    The anthems should be about the crowd and players, not some singer who needs a bit of fame IMO.

    Katherine Jenkins works nicely though too haha

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 12:58 pm  

  • "The anthems should be about the crowd and players, not some singer who needs a bit of fame IMO."

    couldnt agree more!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 3:14 pm  

  • Ouch, I’d rather watch an omnibus of Songs of Praise than have to hear that spanner again!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 6:37 pm  

  • I agree with JBMass, in fact I'd go further and say "why do we need a band to play the tune?"

    Everyone in the stadium knows the tune and the band never seems to understand that when tens of thousands of people try to sing in unison, there's no point in playing the anthem at the tempo the composer may well have wanted it to be played; massive crowds sing slower than well drilled musicians play a tune... it's not rocket science; get rid of these singers and get rid of the brass band; let the crowd make their own music.

    By Blogger Disco, at August 19, 2008 7:13 pm  

  • I had to stop it five seconds in and look away..

    in terms of painful to watch, it was somewhere between:

    the Chris Czekaj leg break
    and
    any Ali Williams Haka

    By Blogger Cheyanquí, at August 19, 2008 7:19 pm  

  • Agree with Luke,

    as much as I would love to give Katherine Jenkins a good rucking, I would much prefer just let the crowd get on with it!
    She should still be around for the game but without a microphone!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 9:59 pm  

  • Katherine Jenkins into google search 'safe search off' :P....

    no luck :(

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 19, 2008 10:08 pm  

  • i dont know this guy but lets be honest he has a very nice voice it just seems that he doesnt know the lyrics at all

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 20, 2008 5:45 pm  

  • I say get rid of the bloody anthems altogether. If you've ever been to an Ireland match in Croke Park and had to wait in the cold and rain for them to get through not one but two Irish anthems (surely unnecessary?) plus the visiting team's anthem, you'll know what I mean. Of course this is not helped by the pointless rigmarole of having the president come down to the pitch to meet the players, then make her way all the way back up into the stand to take her seat. The players are standing there like spare pricks for a good twenty minutes sometimes! Sorta defeats the purpose of a warm up doesn't it? Can't wait till we play the All Blacks there this Autumn...then we'll have to sit through the haka too...fantastic.

    By Blogger Unknown, at August 22, 2008 11:40 am  

  • I would very much like to take Ms Jenkins behind the furnace...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 23, 2008 11:04 am  

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXygVDbTzGM

    This is how you do an anthem: no singer, no band, just the whole stadium singing along. It's far more impressive.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 23, 2008 1:16 pm  

  • the guy was part of some lame ass group who released a couple of singles in 2002. they sucked ass and haven't released anything since. one of the songs was called do you wanna come ride i think.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 24, 2008 1:58 am  

  • what a loony bin

    By Blogger sandwich 24, at August 25, 2008 5:53 pm  

  • After seeing the stoned man butchering the south african anthem in france i would love to see this video again! could you upload it somwehre again please?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 28, 2009 2:50 pm  

  • It's back up now :)

    By Blogger GMC, at June 09, 2010 5:36 pm  

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