One high-profile Dockers fan has combined his passion for the club with his musical talent to unite supporters ahead of Freo’s Retro round clash against the Crows at Optus Stadium tonight.
Perth-based music producer Phil Slabber, behind the moniker Crooked Colours, is set to unleash his “hype track” FREO DREAM to 60,000 fans at half time, and will also play a feature set pre-game.
Slabber released a soundbite of his unofficial anthem on social media over the weekend as a symbol of his passion, and to his surprise, the Dockers rushed to the comments within minutes asking if he’d play it in full at the club’s final home game of the regular season.
His “ode to the Freo faithful” quickly went viral, with players and the purple army also throwing their support behind it.
“It‘s pretty crazy, I definitely wasn’t expecting that kind of response,” Slabber told PerthNow.
Awaiting the release of his album Road Dirt Gold on August 21, and subsequent national tour this spring, Slabber said he had some time to kill and hoped to link up with his beloved club in some capacity.
“I kind of wanted to make something that was going to get people really geed up before heading to the match or before heading to the pub to watch the game. So anything that can raise the pulse a little bit,” he said.
Vocals on the tune are performed by Nigerian-born, WA-raised teen rapper Zafty.
With the club drawing on Wharfie Time’s x-factor game day spark when required, the producer hoped his track could deliver even a fraction of the energy.
For maximum impact, he released the full song and lyrics on Thursday to get fans on board.
Speaking to 92.9 Triple M on Thursday morning, star forward Patrick Voss said he was keen hear the crowd embrace the tune at half time.
“It’s a good song, I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
Slabber recently shared a photo on social media posing alongside Voss, though teased it was his teammate’s opinion towards whose opinion on the track held more weight.
“I’m a big Isaiah Dudley fan, so haven’t heard from him, but I hope he hears it and I hope he likes it,” Slabber admitted.
The touring musician began bleeding purple four or five years after his manager, “a diehard fan”, bought him a membership for his birthday to win him over.
With his enthusiasm undeniable, Slabber laughed off suggestions he was seeking to dethrone world-conquering Perth musician Kevin Parker of Tame Impala as the Dockers’ number one ticket holder.
“No, I don’t have any contact with him unfortunately,” he teased, admitting he was surprised there weren’t more musicians joining the bandwagon.
The musician did not discount dropping a follow-up track in the event the Dockers go deep into finals, and would relish hearing his music ring out across the MCG should the team arrive at the last Saturday in September.
But whatever the result, he’s looking forward to launching his six-stop national tour at Freo.Social on October 16 and giving it another spin.
“It’s good that we’re starting the tour off in Freo, especially after this. So I might have to try and work the song into my set somehow,” Slabber said.
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