a week-long beer festival at The Hotspur pub, Percy Street, Newcastle upon Tyne on the night of 9 June 2012. Modern race The Blaydon Race is a 5.9-mile athletics race from Newcastle to Blaydon that takes place on 9 June every year and starts off with the singing of 'The Blaydon Races', as the words are used as the basis for the whole race. Other uses "Blaydon Races" is often used as a chant by supporters of Newcastle United Football Club. The song was adopted as its marching anthem by the British Army Infantry soldiers of the Fifth of Foot (The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers), of Fenham Barracks, Newcastle upon Tyne. Today it is the Regimental Song of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the modern descendants of The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. In November 2009 a charity version of 'Blaydon Races' was recorded by Jimmy Nail, Kevin Whately and Tim Healy, from the cast of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, in aid of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, featuring an additional verse about him. William Irving's 1903 painting. 'The Blaydon Races – A Study from Life' is on show at the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead. The painting depicts the fairground festivities associated with the race. Recordings The Friends of Fiddler's Green on The Road to Mandalay, 1994 Bob Davenport and The Marsden Rattlers, released in 1971 on "BBC's Folk on 2 presents Northumbrian Folk" (BBC Records REC 118S [LP, UK, 1971]) In the opening scenes of The Lone Ranger (2013) the song playing in the background on an organ is "The Blaydon Races" See also Geordie dialect words Notes External links Blaydon Races 1962 Centenary English folk songs Football songs and chants Songs related to Newcastle upon Tyne 1862 songs Northumbrian folklore Scotswood