Ivor Wynne Stadium is proof that everything old is new again.
On Monday the old building will be serenaded with a song that pays tribute to it and what makes the team so important to the city of Hamilton.
‘Ticats Are Hummin’, written and recorded by Hamilton rock band The Arkells, will make its debut Monday on what will be the final Labour Day game at the stadium, which will be torn down after this season and replaced by a brand spanking new version in 2014.
The Arkells, whose name is derived from a street in Hamilton where some of the band members grew up, were contacted by the Ticats’ organization in the spring to see if it wanted to write a song about the team and its stadium. The lyrics are conceived by the things that are so unique about going to a Ticats game at Ivor Wynne, beginning with the site of signs indicating parking spaces available on nearby lawns for the princely sum of $10 and scalpers standing in full glory, knowing they won’t be bugged by the police if the tickets are legitimate.
"When we started thinking about the experience of going to a game at Ivor Wynne Stadium, there was a ton of material to take from," lead singer Max Kermin said. "It’s a really charming place located in East Hamilton in the middle of a neighborhood. We thought we had more than enough material to come up with lyrics. Musically we wanted to have a Rolling Stones kind of rock and roll song that would sound good at a football game.
"Living in Hamilton you really appreciate what a team like the Tiger-Cats mean to the city. It’s really the only game in town we can really truly call our own. Obviously the Hamilton Bulldogs (of the American Hockey League) are an important part of Hamilton sports, but the Tiger-Cats sit alone at the top. I think as a cultural institution it’s really important to the people of Hamilton."
The song will be played at the beginning and end of Tiger-Cats home games and each time the team scores a touchdown.
"We’re just so honoured that they wanted to showcase the song that way," Kermin said. "There’s a generation of sports complexes built in the last 15 years that are definitely really nice and the fan experience is pretty incredible, but with that said because there’s not those old stadiums anymore, you don’t get to experience the ones that have all those weird nooks and crannies. The architecture is much different. Ivor Wynne is an old-school stadium and it really feels like you’re in a time warp and I really like that. At Ivor Wynne Stadium you feel like you’re back in the 1970s."
The main chorus speaks to why the Cats and Ivor Wynne are so important to Hamilton.
"From the barber shop to the corner store, it’s like the whole city’s buzzing. I came last week and the week before, feels like the Ticats are hummin." But there is also a stanza that addresses Labour Day and why this game, played annually against the rival Toronto Argonauts, means more than any other home game on the calendar.
"I wanna be under the lights, swept away on summer nights, around here folks like to say, Christmas might as well come on Labour Day."
Kermin said the song is totally different from the Ticats Oskee Wee Wee cheer, which is something that is like the battle cry for Ticats’ supporters, led by team mascot Pigskin Pete.
"Oskee Wee Wee is awesome and we love it," Kermin said. "Any time you tell anyone you’re from Hamilton, they go ‘Oskee Wee Wee.’ We were just excited to add some music to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats history and the tradition. Oskee Wee Wee is probably the most identifiable chant in all big Canadian sports, but we figured the team could use a song to go with it.
"We weren’t interested in doing a dumb jingle or something that was not going to represent the band well. I think we wanted to write a smart rock and roll song like we always do, but for us we just wanted to write a song of the true experience of what it was like to go to a game at Ivor Wynne Stadium."
