THE HAPPY HIGHLANDER’S RECORDS Episode 6 - Scottish cup final Football special
- thehappyhighlander
- May 1
- 4 min read
You can watch the video episode here
(full of bonus images and slides with information in text form):
Or you can listen to the Audio Podcast here:
THE HAPPY HIGHLANDER’S RECORDS
Episode 6
Scottish Cup Final Football Special
Fit like a’body. I hope you are all hale and hearty and most importantly, happy.
So hello and welcome, friends, to The Happy Highlander’s Records Today’s programme is a special celebration inspired by one of Scotland’s greatest sporting occasions — the Scottish Cup Final.
Football in Scotland has never just been about the ninety minutes on the pitch. It’s about the songs, the stories, the laughter, and the characters who followed the game with passion and good humour. Long before television highlights or radio phone-ins, fans carried their football memories home in music halls, comedy sketches, and — wonderfully — on gramophone records.
Today we’ll travel back through time using six sides from three historic 78rpm shellac discs. Each record captures football as it was enjoyed in its own era: lively, humorous, and full of personality.
These records are over eighty — and in one case more than a hundred — years old. They’ve survived changing technologies, changing fashions, and countless cup finals, yet they still spin with the same spirit of joy they had when first played on wind-up gramophones.
So wherever you’re listening from, settle in, imagine the needle lowering onto shellac, and let’s celebrate Scottish football history together — one record side at a time.
Our first recording takes us right back to the early years of the twentieth century — around 1905 — with ‘Aberdeen v Queen’s Park,’ performed by Harry Gordon and Jack Holden on the Beltona label.
At this time, football was rapidly becoming Scotland’s national pastime. Crowds were growing larger, rivalries stronger, and entertainers quickly realised that football stories made perfect comedy material.
Harry Gordon was one of Scotland’s best-known music-hall performers, famous for capturing everyday Scottish life with warmth and humour. Rather than giving us a serious match report, this recording turns a football fixture into a lively comic narrative — almost like sitting beside two supporters reliving the match in a bustling pub afterward.
Beltona records themselves were pioneers of Scottish recordings, proudly producing performances that reflected Scottish voices and humour at a time when most recordings were dominated by London productions.
As you listen, imagine Edwardian supporters in flat caps, the roar of a packed ground, and the excitement of football still finding its modern identity.
We’ll hear both sides of this record played together, just as audiences might have enjoyed it over a century ago.
Well, even after all these years, the humour still feels wonderfully alive. And now we move forward a couple of decades — into the lively football culture of the interwar years.” Our next record comes from around 1930 and is titled ‘The Bluebell Chasers FC Annual Meeting,’ performed by William McCulloch and released on the Columbia label.
If the first record captured match-day excitement, this one captures what happened afterward — the club gathering, the speeches, the songs, and perhaps a few exaggerated stories about glorious victories and unfortunate refereeing decisions!
Annual meetings were important social occasions for football clubs. They weren’t merely administrative affairs; they were celebrations of community. Players, supporters, and committee members all came together, sharing music, humour, and camaraderie. William McCulloch brings these characters vividly to life, portraying the familiar personalities found in almost every football club — the proud chairman, the optimistic supporter, and the storyteller whose memory of the match grows better every year. A fun detail: recordings like this were often bought by supporters as souvenirs, allowing them to relive club life at home around the gramophone.
We’ll now hear both sides played continuously, so you can enjoy the full meeting as originally intended.
That certainly sounds like a football gathering many of us would recognise — proof that some traditions never change!
Now we arrive in the late 1930s, when football humour met one of Britain’s favourite pastimes — the football pools.
“Our final record today is ‘Sandy Wins the Football Pool,’ recorded in 1937 by comedian Sandy Powell and company on the Rex label.
During the 1930s, the football pools captured the imagination of supporters across Britain. For a small weekly stake, anyone could dream of sudden riches — and many conversations on Monday mornings began with ‘If only I’d picked that result!’
Sandy Powell was one of the era’s most popular entertainers, known for his cheerful delivery and catchphrase humour. In this recording, he tells the story of an ordinary football fan whose luck suddenly changes — a tale filled with optimism, comedy, and just a touch of wishful thinking.
What makes recordings like this special is how they reflect everyday hopes and joys. Football wasn’t only about trophies; it was about dreams shared by supporters everywhere.
We’ll now hear both sides together, completing our journey through football entertainment on shellac.
And so we come to the end of this Scottish Cup Final special here on The Happy Highlander’s Records.
Across these six sides of shellac, we’ve travelled from Edwardian music halls to the lively clubrooms of the 1930s and into the hopeful laughter of football pools and comic storytelling. Different decades, different performers — yet all united by the same spirit that fills stadiums today: community, humour, and the simple happiness of football.
These old records remind us that while players and stadiums may change, the joy of the game remains timeless. Fans then, just like now, gathered to laugh, to sing, and to share moments that lifted everyday life.
As Charlie Chaplin once said, ‘A day without laughter is a day wasted.’ And perhaps football — and music — give us both laughter and happiness in equal measure.
This edition was recorded on an island off the West coast of Scotland where my collection of some 160,000 old shellac records is lovingly kept – to preserve, record and share these sounds from the past at 78rpm. You can listen to more episodes via my website TheHappyHighlandersRecords.com and you can also listen to recordings of each individual record via my YouTube Channel Scottish Island Records.
Thank you for joining me on this journey through sound and sporting history. Until next time, keep your records spinning, keep your spirits high, and remember — happiness, like football, is always better when shared. Goodbye for now from The Happy Highlander’s Records.
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