All words and images: Matthew Thomas
‘Get to the fucking mixing desk now. Turn the music off, the game is still on!’
In the wake of Sunderland’s monumental win at the Wear-Tyne derby, PA Announcer, Rory Fallow, reveals all about his journey to becoming the youngest PA in The 92, that Play-Off Semi-Final night where all hell broke loose and how a chance meeting with local band, Frankie & The Heartstrings, turned his dream job into reality.
May 12th, 2025. 10:26 pm. Wearside, Sunderland.
Rory Fallow is sprinting through the Stadium of Light. He is bursting through doors, jumping down from halfway up staircases and crashing into walls as he desperately tries to make it to the pitchside below.
Sweat is pooling on his forehead as he races through the corridors of the Jimmy Montgomery Stand. His cheeks are red from the effort. He is clutching a microphone in his right hand, his pre-match notes in his left, and his ears are ringing with instructions from a frantic security team.
He makes it to the player’s tunnel at breakneck speed. His shirt is untucked, his once tidy fringe dragged across his face, and he’s struggling to compose himself as his lungs bang on the walls of his chest. Emerging from under the canopy, he usually sees a flurry of 11 red and white shirts zipping across the turf.
Instead, there’s a horde of supporters on the pitch tonight. They’re screaming. Some are giggling. Others are crying uncontrollably. A few are running, jumping and waving their hands in the air. Adrenaline, stress and fervour have taken over their bodies.
Rory is motionless. He is dazed. His eyes are transmitting visual scenes to a brain that cannot comprehend what is unfolding in front of him. This wasn’t in the pre-match briefing. This wasn’t in the training manual. Utterly stunned, it’s not until his earpiece crackles into life with an exasperated security team screaming down the line that Rory becomes present:
“Rory! Rory! We need you to keep going. You need to tell people to get off the fucking pitch!”
“RORY!?”…
…
“It is a criminal offence to enter the pitch. Please make your way back to your seat.”
“AGAIN!” Snaps the voice in his earpiece.
“It is a criminal offence to enter the pitch. Please make your way back to your seat.”
“Keep going! We need everyone off the pitch. Now!” barks the security team.
“It is a criminal offence to enter the pitch. Please make your way back to your seat.” Rory is now pleading down the microphone; it’s not for another handful of minutes until the melee begins to settle and people begin to leave the pitch.
“I kept saying this over and over. I was on autopilot. It was surreal. I’m standing in the technical area next to Regis Le Bris and Kyril Louis Dreyfus. Jobe Bellingham has just sprinted past me, screaming his head off.” said Rory.
“During the chaos, Eli Mayenda has found a pair of sunglasses from somewhere and Dan Ballard is looking for his shirt that has been swallowed up by the crowd. Wilson Isidor has a fan on his shoulders and here I am telling people that it’s a criminal offence to be on the pitch.
“I had just watched my team secure their place at Wembley with the last-minute kick of the game. My throat was wobbling with tears, quickly filling the corners of my eyes. My hands were shaking and my knees were trembling.”
It was always red and white
From his first steps stumbling around the family living room in an oversized home shirt, to his first game with the family at the Stadium of Light in 1997, it has always been Sunderland for Rory and the Fallow family.
A local lad born no further than a 20-minute car ride to the city centre who became the envy of his adults and friends with the ‘Sunderland room’; a shrine in the family house that became talk amongst classmates, family and neighbours.
“Growing up, any visitors, such as family, friends or neighbours who were invited inside the house were told about the ‘Sunderland room’. There were shirts pinned to the wall, red and white bed sheets, scarves draped over cupboards, and cutouts of Kevin Phillips and Kevin Ball from programmes were plastered on all four walls. It wasn’t until I started heading to college and the idea of bringing girls over that it dawned on me: ‘actually, that A3 print of Niall Quinn staring back at people is a bit weird’.”
“I still remember bits of my first game in 1997. The Stadium of Light had just opened and Norwich beat us. I loved going to the match with everyone. My mam and dad, with my sister and me in tow, there are so many great memories. We still went together right up until I began my announcing at Sunderland.”
A season ticket holder since the age of seven, Rory began getting involved with local fanzines as another way to get closer to the club. He’d spend his working days thinking about an intro to an article on Will Grigg or a tactics piece for the weekend game ahead as he began writing for Roker Report before becoming the host of the Wise Men Say podcast.
It started with a lift…
Rory’s story would not have been possible without Frankie Francis. The once PA and now club commentator for Sunderland, Frankie, originally fronted a local DIY indie band called Franke & the Heartstrings back in 2011 and had stints as a presenter for Amazing Radio. Rory, a young kid studying music at college, was instantly hooked after first hearing ‘Hunger’ by the Heartstrings.
“I’ve known Frankie and the guys a while now. I used to go on tour with his band, which, for an 18-year-old fan, was the stuff of dreams. I’ve been across the UK with the guys, where we’ve all been bundled into a van racing to pubs and clubs with Frankie & the Heartstrings. I was selling t-shirts, records and other merchandise across the UK.
“I remember the situation that led to me becoming more involved with the band. It was a 5:30 pm kick-off at the Stadium of Light back in 2011, and I had plans to finish the match and head straight over to Middlesbrough Empire to catch the band playing.
“I didn’t have a driver’s license as I’d just turned 18. My mam dropped me off, and the venue was closed. Shutters down, lights off. None of the usual commotion usually expected outside the Empire. I hadn’t realised that it was a regular club-night gig.
Michael McKnight, the band’s guitarist, pulled up along the road. He locked eyes with Rory and hopped out of the taxi that was barrelling down the street.
“Ye alright like? What’s the craic?” Said Michael to Rory.
Rory, being a superfan, was in total shock. He couldn’t believe someone he spent most of his teenage years idolising was speaking to him.
Rory squeaked: “I’m… I’m here for the show?”
Michael smirked, faced the venue and nodded his head.
“Nightmare, mate. It’s a club night… Don’t worry about it. Do you want to come hang out with us instead of out here? We’ll drop you back off at home, too.”
Three days later, Rory called Michael up and said he’d love to sell their merchandise as a ‘thank you’ during a Heartstrings show at The Cluny in Newcastle. Following that, Rory quickly became part of the band and he was whisked away on a three-week tour, sleeping on floors in clubs, pubs and cultural hubs up and down the UK.
“Having been with the band around two years, sleeping head-to-toe with the guys and spending upwards of 18 hours together, I got to know everyone really well. We have kept in touch ever since.”
The call…
In 2021, changes were afoot at the Stadium of Light. Frankie was moving on to become part of the commentary team with Danny Collins. It was clear that the club wanted someone local to the area, who had a Mackem accent and had experience of speaking and, most importantly, resonating with a local audience. Rory had expressed interest in the role.
Frankie had put extra weight behind Rory’s name at the boardroom level. A month before Sunderland kick off their League One campaign, life-changing news was heading Rory’s way.
It began like any other normal day for Rory. Sitting at home, typing away on his laptop with a lukewarm coffee quickly losing its appeal to the right of him. He is aiming to finish off his script for the next podcast that he’s about to record for Wise Men Say. Later on, England will be playing Denmark in the Semi-Final of Euro 2020.
“Frankie texted me asking if he could ring me. Everyone knows those kinds of texts only ever end up in bad news.” Said Rory.
But this call was different; it held a life-changing moment for Rory.
“Frankie told me that he had news and gave me the X-Factor pause that lasted way too long. He said he didn’t need an answer now, but the job of being PA Announcer was mine if I wanted it. I said yes a million times there and then. He said, “Good lad, I’ll be in touch”, and the call ended.
“My forehead had gone cold. I paced around the living room. I thought about my Sunderland room growing up and got emotional. I rang my mam and dad, they screamed down the phone and were so excited. I rang my girlfriend straight after, who was so proud. It was a beautiful day and a feeling, a memory that I treasure.”
From that moment, Rory spent every second of every day rehearsing before the season started. He’d wake up and ask his partner to test him on the current squad numbers. At lunchtime, he’d watch old videos on YouTube of how Frankie whipped the crowd up as the players emerged from the tunnel. He’d be in the shower and working on the pronunciation of players, testing different emphasis and inflexions on certain players’ surnames:
“Number 13… Luke O’NEINNNNNNN”
“Number 32… Traiiiiii Hummeeee”
“Number 11… Lynden GOOOOOOCHH”
“My first official game was against Wigan. We won 2-1 and I remember naturally adding emphasis on Ross Stewart’s surname. It felt good, it rolled off the tongue without hesitation and my friends seemed to like it too. That was the first instance of me adding my style and character to the role.”
“I recently caught up with Frankie and we spoke about the phone call and laughed about that X-Factor pause he gave me. He also said that he wouldn’t have taken ‘no’ for an answer from me. I asked him why.
“He said:
“Aside from being the best person for it, you will play a part in the history of the club. After a period of time, you will become the voice of the Stadium of Light. I couldn’t let an opportunity like that, as a Sunderland fan, pass you by.”
A steep learning curve
Frankie has been an omnipresent guide for Rory, especially during his first season at the club. He’d been there alongside Rory from the minute he walked through the doors, going through scripts with him, guiding him around the mixing desk controls and offering little snippets of guidance when it came to half-time presentations and announcements.
“The best bit of advice I’ve received has come from Frankie. He told me to let emotion and intensity of the crowd be the loudest, most present energy in the stadium. My job is to give them a boost, maybe increase the volume on our pre-match build-up if it needs an injection of emphasis, which has rarely been the case this season.
“Things do go wrong from time to time. The biggest cock-up we’ve had, which I can claim some immunity on, was during a Championship game against Burnley back in 2022.
“I was casually making my way down to the pitchside for the half-time presentation. I was pleased with myself for what was a decent job so far. I was going over the script for the half-time activities with a local charity presentation as I slowly emerged from the tunnel and started to hear the opening thumps of Bennie and the Jets by Elton John. The match was still going on, and I could see some of the players looking to the sky in confusion.
“My forehead went icy cold with shock and anxiety. The kind of physical feeling reserved for major mistakes and mishaps. I peered over the dugout to the gantry to see Frankie launching himself past rows of radio journalists, cameramen and photographers to reach the mixing desk, desperately clawing at the volume knob to turn it off.
“We had accidentally begun playing the half-time playlist during the middle of the game. I was screaming down my radio ‘Get to the fucking mixing desk now. Turn the music off, the game is still on!’ People were so bemused and confused. That was an eye-opener and a memory we sometimes nervously laugh about.”
The youngest PA in The 92
To get prepared for the Premier League, Rory set out on a summer of research. He visited grounds up and down the country, taking notes on presenters, PAs, pre-match build-ups and goal announcements. He joined the PA Announcers’ WhatsApp group – home to presenters from across The 92 and beyond who offer help and advice when needed.
“All clubs do a great job because each club is unique to the identity of the city it serves and the people who represent it. So saying a PA for this club is below average is subjective and unfair, as they have a style to match the typical match-going experience for that fan. What I love about the group is the openness and sharing of knowledge. No one is too precious to help.”
“Rich at West Bromwich Albion, Alan Keegan at Manchester United and John Foster, who once voiced Sunderland and is now at Middlesbrough, stood out to me with little nuances of inflexion, emphasis and the structure of their script. I think going to the away games and not even football matches in some cases, is the best for research and learning new tips and tricks for this role.”
From low points to sheer ecstasy, dismay to desperation, Rory has seen it all when it comes to atmospheres at football games. The youngest PA within English football’s 92 teams, Rory’s learning curve has been steep; he’s been to Wembley as PA Announcer on both the winning and losing side. Now, he’s reading names from a team sheet he’d never imagined.
“It’s recently dawned on me the names I’d be potentially reading out this year.
“Number 11… Mo Salah. Number 41… Declan Rice. Number 10… Cole Palmer. Number 9 for Manchester City… Erling Haaland.
“Even for us. Number 34… Granit Xhaka. That is a monumental signing and luckily for me, one that I can add a bit of emphasis to every time it comes around to reading his name aloud.”
A PA Announcer’s nightmare…
One new aspect that has caused Rory to tweak his style slightly was the introduction of VAR at the Stadium of Light.
A natural line in the sand for the journey from the depths of League One to the Premier League that Sunderland, Rory and 46,000 matchgoing fans find themselves on is the introduction of VAR. A notorious entity first experienced against Brentford at home earlier in the season.
“I’m still getting used to VAR. If anything, I feel I’m a bit late in announcing goals compared to our League One and Championship games. I used to fly off the handle during those days because I’d be able to check the linesman, the fourth official and referee for any signals before jumping on the mic.
“Now, I tend to hold back until the ball has reached the centre circle for kick off before I announce the goal scorer. We have a specific volume fader for VAR that is taped up to the max on the sound system that we’re not allowed to touch. It’s the volume for the Referee Control Room 250 miles away. I’m so scared of giving it big guns for Stockley Park to come across the PA system: “VAR check ongoing”, and then it’s overruled.”
In the space of five years, the city and the club are in a totally different world, a universe where investment and infrastructure, both on and off the field, have unleashed a new identity for Wearside. The club and the city have had a hard time in recent years, but there’s a feeling of unity swirling around Wearside that translates from the pitch to the stands and flows into the streets of the city.
“Stepping outside the front door and walking to the stadium on matchdays is electric. You can feel that sense of optimism and joy radiating through the people. It’s funny looking back at what has happened in these past four years since I first held the mic. How this club has written a new chapter for itself in the Premier League. The people at the club and the players who have come and gone for better and for worse. The seasons we’ve struggled through and the lack of harmony has resulted in a euphoric feeling that seems to pocket around the city at the moment. I think the upcoming derby will serve as a timely reminder to people watching that Sunderland is mighty and on the rise again.”
Readying the war cry…
With the Wear-Tyne Derby mere days away, Rory is planning a few extra additions to his script as preparations to welcome visitors from 12 miles up the road to the Stadium of Light continue. There’s a panto-villain character bubbling beneath the surface for Rory. He’s ready to deliver a biased, partisan performance to the crowd.
“I think I won’t be anything other than biased during a derby. I remember a negative comment from a Southampton fan that actually became great feedback for me. I got sent a link to a Southampton fan forum page that said something along the lines of:
‘Uh, their announcer, by the way. Mumbling our players’ names out and doing lusty proclamations for their team. Disgrace.’
“I remember thinking, ‘Well, yeah, it’s my job.’” That comment stuck with me and sort of set the tone of what I wanted to bring to the role moving forward.”
“With the derby, I think it’ll be the quickest I’ll ever read a team sheet out. A speed run. I might challenge myself to see how quickly I can get through their line-up.
“I’m going to be purposefully quiet as well. Because that Stadium will be shaking and that hostile energy will be heard by their team. I don’t want my booming voice to take away from what our crowd want to tell Newcastle United that day.”
A few days later, on a cold and windy Sunday, Wearside burned with a ferocious passion of red and white.
Fans lined the city centre from as early as 6:30am and families arrived around the Stadium of Light with no plans other than to soak up the atmosphere and cheer their team on at 2:00pm. Friends hugged, drank and chanted songs about Niall Quinn’s disco pants and a Gary Rowell world outside of pubs. Some Mackems lined either side of the St Peter’s train station to let travelling Geordies know what they thought of them and their football team.
In an unexpected twist, Sunderland had plans. Plans to make the derby as hostile as possible. The club refused to show the away club crest on the scoreboard and nor would they reference their club name at any point during their visit. Rory wasn’t given an away team sheet. He was told not to mention them at any point. To not give credence to their existence.
As both teams emerge from the tunnel, pitchside, Rory is cool, calm and collected. His SAFC jumper is peeking out of his coat as he clicks the ‘On’ button to his microphone and brings the Sunderland teamsheet up to eye level. Showtime.
The voice of the Stadium of Light led his 46,000-strong Mackem orchestra through the Sunderland team to rapturous cheer. Rory brought it to a head with a lusty proclamatory pronunciation of Sunderland captain, Granit Xhaka and ignited the fire with a few extra decibels during Wise Men Say as Sunderland lined up on the pitch.
There was no mention, no speed run of the visitor’s starting eleven dribbling out of the PA system as Rory had originally expected. Instead, they were shunned, ignored and left to deal with a cacophony of toxicity, hiss and ferality of the crowd.
Minutes before the final whistle for a famous 1-0 win for Sunderland, Rory Fallow is calmly walking through the Stadium of Light. Heading to the gantry, he nonchalantly opens doors, ascends staircases in a normal fashion and is enjoying a serene realisation that Wearside is about to burst into euphoric celebrations that only a derby win can create.
Making his way through the corridors of the Jimmy Montgomery Stand, Rory’s physical and mental state is at the other end of the spectrum compared to a wild night in May, eight months earlier. Today, the security team are not barking down his earpiece and he does not have to plead with fans to get off the pitch.
“At full time. I was taking in all the celebrations around me. I felt like I was floating through the stadium. It felt like a special moment, like a crossroads for our club and our upward journey. I made my way to the gantry, entered the booth and put together a playlist of tunes to match the scenes in the crowd. It felt like I was DJing at Wearside’s biggest party.” Said Rory.
All words and images: Matthew Thomas
