West Ham United – Blowing Bubbles

West Ham’s association with the song ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ dates back close to a century. It was adopted by the club shortly after it was published, having been debuted in the 1918 Broadway musical ‘The Passing Show’.

The waltz, the music for which was written by John Kellette and the lyrics attributed to Jaan Kenbrovin, a collective pseudonym for James Kendis, James Brockman and Nat Vincent, became a major hit in the 1920s and was performed by all the major singers and bands of the era.

As such, it made its way into British music halls in the early 20s, including those in London.

It was several years later that West Ham took a hold of the song and made it their own, albeit by a circuitous route involving Billy J. Murray, a player for the local Park School who was nicknamed ‘Bubbles’. He had taken the name due to his resemblance to a figure in Millais’ painting ‘Bubbles’, which was being used in a soap advert at the time, and headmaster Cornelius Beal would take it upon himself to break into the song ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ when the team excelled.

The headmaster was a close friend of West Ham manager Charlie Paynter and knew several of the West Ham players through schoolboy football. Simply by the coincidence of this relationship, fans took it upon themselves to begin singing ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’, and the song has stuck.