“Some Dreams Never, Ever Leave You”: Stevie Palmer on football, family and the memories behind ‘Here We Go’

Few songwriters capture Scottish life with the warmth, humour and emotional honesty of Stevie Palmer. With ‘Here We Go’, he turns his attention to a subject that has accompanied him since childhood: football. The song arrives carrying decades of memories from watching Scotland at the World Cup to following Hibernian through heartbreak and triumph, from afternoons spent with his father to matchdays shared with his own children.

We spoke to Stevie about the stories behind the song, the football memories that have stayed with him, and the enduring belief that keeps Scottish fans coming back, year after year.

Stevie, hey — lovely to do this. “Here We Go” starts with you as a boy, going to Easter Road and Hampden Park with your dad. What’s the first memory that comes back to you when you think about those trips — the noise, the walk to the ground, something he said? 

Watching Scotland’s 1977, 2-1 win over England at Wembley on a portable black and white TV, plugged into the our family car’s batterie, as we took in a hang gliding event somewhere in the hills of the Scottish Borders.  No kidding, this is exactly how that particular day went, hang gliders overhead and crossbars crumbling at Webley Stadium under the weight of jubilant Scottish.  Life’s a funny thing!

Hibs v Rangers in the 1979 Scottish Cup Final with my dad and my home-made flag concocted from  an old Subbuteo pitch and a wooden stick.  We lost that particular battle 3-2 after extra time in the second replay, which I listened to on the radio while playing Subbuteo and kicking/flicking every ball along with my heroes in green and white.  It would be another thirty seven years before we finally lifted that trophy.

You grew up watching Scotland head to the 1978 World Cup, with Archie Gemmill’s goal against the Netherlands as the moment everyone remembers. What did that goal feel like to you as a kid — and has it changed at all in your memory over the years, the way these things sometimes do? 

Watching this momentous match against the Netherlands on TV with my family in the small West Lothian village of Uphall Station where we lived before moving to Auld Reekie, there was a daunting awareness that we had to win by three goals to progress beyond the group stage that year in Argentina.  Mr Gemmill’s piece of footballing genius put us 3-1 up and within a William Wallace Whisker of getting the job done.  Alas, it was not to be.  The goal itself, like the finest of single malts, only improves with the passing of the years, perhaps never to be surpassed, in many a Scotsman’s/Scotswomen’s mind at least.

You’ve said you dreamed of wearing the Scotland shirt and scoring the winning goal in a final. Most of us have a dream like that from childhood — one that never came true but never quite leaves either. Where does that dream live for you now, all these years later? 

Some dreams never, ever leave you.  They remain part of your soul and return every now and again in the wee small hours when your sound asleep,  in between nightmares of being chased down Sauchiehall Street by the entire the 1966 England World Cup squad singing ‘Footballs coming home’! 

You’ve now shared football with your own sons, the way your dad once shared it with you. Is it the same feeling watching the game with them as it was watching it with your father — or does it feel different sitting on the other side of that memory? 

The memories are countless, some wonderful and life affirming, others devastating but none the less character building.  I’m so grateful to have shared all these moments with my two boys, Joe and Lewis and my wife Wendy.  The grandest of all would undoubtably have to be Hibernian’s 2016 Scottish Cup triumph against Rangers, after a 114-year wait!  This was as close to an out of body experience as I have had to date, which could only have been made better if my dad had been there.  

Football songs can go one of two ways — pure celebration, or something more bittersweet, since Scotland’s relationship with the World Cup has had a lot of heartbreak in it too. Where does “Here We Go” sit for you on that spectrum? 

When writing ‘Here We Go’ I wanted very much to encapsulate the immensely strong emotions that this amazing game makes manifest in the hearts and minds of true fans everywhere but especially in our own magnificent wee nation of five million people and five billion dreams.  The hope, the despair, the ability to not take ourselves too seriously, while remaining absolutely serious about the task at hand.  This was the beautiful spirit I wanted to bring to life in song. 

You’ve spent your career writing the kind of songs that BBC Radio Scotland and Greentrax have backed for years — thoughtful, rooted, personal. Then you write a football anthem. Did it feel like a natural step for you, or a different muscle entirely? 

Songs about a national obsession that deeply affects the lives of a very large percentage of the  population belong, in my opinion, firmly within the wider, modern day folk tradition.  This brings with it a responsibility to try and add to that cannon a worthwhile effort that contributes to the great richness of the genre.  Whether this is achieved or not is ultimately decided upon by the folk who listen.

Scotland’s relationship with football is famous for being passionate but realistic — fans who believe and brace themselves at the same time. How did you try to capture that particular mix of hope and self-aware humour in the song? 

‘We’re maybe no’ Brazil but I’ll still believe we can fly, ‘till the day I die’!

You’ve been called one of Scotland’s finest songwriters by people who know the tradition inside out. When you sat down to write something as public and communal as a football anthem, did that feel different from writing your usual songs — like you were writing for a room full of people instead of just one listener? 

Every time I sit down to write a song, I have exactly the same goal.  That is, to try and move myself emotionally,  even to the point of tears whenever possible!  On the rare occasions that this is achieved, you know that you’re onto something.

If your dad could hear “Here We Go” today, what do you think he’d say about it? 

‘Well done son, you’ve written a good one there’.  

My dad was an Englishman who spent all of his adult life in Scotland, actually voting SNP in the later stages.  He was also a universal humanitarian with a soul as deep as the North Sea and someone who understood a thing or two about matters of the heart.  He would see the song in that context, a ‘matter of the heart’.

The song is called “Here We Go” — which always sounds like the start of something, not the end. When you imagine someone hearing this song in a pub or a stadium before a Scotland match, what do you hope they feel in that exact moment? 

Scotland’s deep and enduring relationship with football transcends cultural barriers, generational differences and at times, scientific logic!  When people listen to ‘Here We Go’ I would love for them to feel a coming together with everyone else that shares their hopes and dreams, no matter who they are.  I would love for them to believe, beyond all logic and reason that one day, some day, we just might …….!!