Lake Poets perform as hundreds flock to Zone

Hundreds of people packed into the Beacon of Light as Sunderland’s Fanzone moved undercover.

Supporters had the chance to meet past and present players, as well as club bosses Charlie Methven and Stewart Donald.

Club mascots Samson and Delilah and the mascots from match rivals Bradford City also posed with fans.

The highlight of the proceedings was a performance by Martin Longstaff – aka The Lake Poets.

The short set included a rendition of club anthem Wise Men Say, which had fans swaying and singing along and culminated in a haunting rendition of Shipyards – which provides the stunning soundtrack to Netflix’s Sunderland ‘Til I Die documentary series .

The song is a tribute to Martin’s late grandfather George, who worked as a rivet catcher and later crane driver at Austin & Pickersgill

He performed the song again on the Stadium of Light pitch at half-time, thanks to Frankie and the Heartstrings frontman Frankie Francis, who oversees the music selection at the stadium.

“I’ve known for about a week that I was going to be performing at half-time,”said Martin. “It’s all thanks to Frankie. “We sound-checked on Wednesday just to see how it went.

“There’s no real setting up to do – it’s just a couple of radio mics and a guitar.”

Martin has been taken aback with the reaction to the song, which has attracted attention from around the world on social media.

“It is nice to be the person who makes people feel proud,” he said.

“I have had a lot of messages from people saying that at this time of year they are missing family members and it makes them think about family.”

Stewart Donald was stunned by Martin’s performance. “It was fantastic,” he said. He had been given a sneak preview of the behind-thescenes series and fell in love with the theme tune.

“I was Googling for 24 hours, trying to find out who it was,” said Stewart.

“I got hold of Netflix and they put me in touch with Martin.

“I messaged him to say what an amazing song it was.”