One of the world’s most famous football teams has been ordered to pay millions for stealing an iconic Australian AFL anthem – but the song’s creator has revealed he could have demanded more.
Mike Brady is an Australian institution at AFL grand finals, singing his classic tune Up There Cazaly to get the crowd going.
But EFL Championship club Derby County – one of the founding teams of English football – also found the anthem catchy, and adopted it as their exit song.
Up There Cazaly was created by Brady in 1979 as a rousing Aussie Rules anthem that is synonymous with the sport. and became the best-selling Australian single of its time.
Its title is a reference to South Melbourne and St Kilda star Roy Cazaly, a legendary footballer known for his high-flying trademarks, who inspired the phrase “Up there, Cazaly!”.
Today, the tune remains a beloved part of AFL lore, played at Grand Finals and evoking nostalgia and pride among Australian rules football fans.
Derby County Football Club, founded in 1884, is one of the original members of the English Football League.
Known as The Rams, the team reached its peak in the 1970s, winning the First Division title and competing in Europe’s major competitions.
Despite financial problems and relegation, Derby County have a passionate fan base and a long-standing rivalry with Nottingham Forest. They currently play in the EFL Championship and are aiming to return to the top flight of English football.
Mike Brady singing his iconic hit Up There Cazaly at the 2023 AFL Grand Final. The tune has become a tradition at the biggest game of the year.
Brady discovered that his song had been “borrowed,” changing the lyrics and rechristening it Steve Bloomer’s Watching for use at home games.
He wrote to the club to express his concerns, before lawyers intervened to ensure Brady received royalties for its use.
“I’m not a bad lawyer these days and I protect the rights to my songs because that’s all I have to live on,” he said. Channel Seven.
‘So I went after them with a lawyer, the publisher paid for it and they came to an amicable settlement.
“It wasn’t a huge amount, it was something symbolic, but they pay a little to play in the stadium every time.”
EFL Championship side Derby County (star Jerry Yates pictured celebrating a goal this year) used Brady’s song with his own lyrics without permission, resulting in legal action.
Brady is the first to admit that his accidental punch is “a bit weird,” but he felt the English version was a poor representation of his work.
“I just thought it sounded really normal, it sounded really amateurish,” he said.
-But that’s probably what they want.
‘They probably wanted something from the village and maybe Up There Cazaly isn’t very polished either, but it’s polished.’
Brady has revealed that he received a seven-figure settlement for the use of his song, but the original figure proposed by lawyers was much higher.
“They used to say ‘unknown original composer’ and my publishers weren’t too happy about that, as you can imagine,” he said.
‘So they went after them and paid.
‘I see a little bit of my royalties, a few dollars here and there. A few shekels that come after a long time.
“I haven’t told anyone this, but it’s quite a strange version they play; it’s become a kind of tradition for them.”
Brady revealed he settled for a much lower fee than his lawyers wanted and even offered to perform a new version of his song for Derby County.
Derby County have previously been accused of “borrowing” songs and changing lyrics.
Five years ago, Leeds United were fined £200,000 over the Spygate scandal and responded to their detractors by adopting the Oasis song Stop Crying Your Heart Out.
This backfired when Derby mocked Leeds in the Championship play-off semi-finals, using the song in their victory celebrations with the lyrics “Stop crying, Frank Lampard” to pay tribute to their manager at the time.
The club has also adopted Luciano Pavarotti’s classic Rigoletto La Donna è mobile for its battle chant, used with various lyric replacements throughout different parts of its history.
Brady also revealed that he offered to travel to the UK and play the reworked version of his song if Derby County were promoted to the top flight, but the club declined.
“They said, ‘Oh, that’s very nice, but you’d have to pay your own money and we couldn’t pay you anything if you came to sing,'” Brady said.
‘I thought, wow, that’s the big league making the AFL look like a small organization and they couldn’t afford it.
“Lack of budget is a universal thing.”