The poll has closed for the 1st round and the winner is…

He will now go up against our next contenders… Blind Granny’s Taxi Nightmare

These chaps have previous with an England World Cup song having previously released a previous version (have I said previous enough ?) of this tune four years ago. They have updated the lyrics > from Sven to Fabio > and are going to have another bash.

The song in question is one I didn’t mention in my 2006 coverage. The reason why was because when Blind Granny’s Taxi Nightmare first released this re-worded cover, it was overshadowed by a well known name who released his own version at the same time. But now they have another chance with their take on an old Jeff Beck classic:

Blind Granny's Taxi Nightmare - Hi Ho Come On England (2010) [See post to listen to audio]

The song is a bit laddish, but obviously has a very strong and familiar chorus which can easily be chanted on the terraces in the plastic seats.

- Find out more about Blind Granny's Taxi Nightmare on their Facebook Fanpage.

...and now a reminder from last week's victor:

The Shining Hour - To England With Love: [See post to listen to audio]

- plus an additional song from them:

NOW YOU DECIDE:

The winner will be declared once again this time next week.

- If you have a song or want to put one up for the vote then Contact us here.

We are bandwagon jumping and have invited Obscure Music and Football (which like F&M it does as it says on the tin…) to do guest post on here.   Read on Macduff:

Football songs are currently going through something of a renaissance. After being shunted for the past decade or so, possibly due to footballers taking themselves too seriously and being less willing to poke fun at themselves, football songs have become the comeback kid. No doubt due to the advent of Facebook and YouTube, footballers are now more than willing to unleash their musical credentials. But in a world where footballers are as characterless as Jamie Redknapp’s punditry, what is the modern football song like?

Unfortunately, Ryan Babel is the perfect example of how footballers have turned into attention-seeking cretins that don’t care about anyone but themselves because they’re so bloody great. It’s quite surprising for a man that sounds like he’s coughing up phlegm whilst rapping. When it comes to his lyrics, Babel is so arrogant to such proportions that it almost becomes unethical. It just shows how much football songs have changed as it’s no longer about hoping your team wins, finding love or eating sausage rolls. It’s now about how expensive your watch is, how big your car is and how rubbish everyone else is apart from yourself. Before football songs was about enjoying the situation and laughing in the face of adversity, but now it’s just full of spite and bitterness. Despite this Babel’s music seems to be very popular in the Netherlands. What do you expect in a country that sees 2Unlimited as demi-gods?

Another interesting change is how seriously music is being taken as a possible career by footballers. Before, you’d think that ‘Diamond Lights’ was conceived after a drunken bet or ‘Head Over Heels in Love’ was just a blatant-cash in. Even something like Andy Cole’s ‘Outstanding’ was not treated as a life-or-death affair. Now it seems like if footballers do not get the attention they crave or if they receive a single piece of constructive criticism, their heads will combust due to its devastating impact. It takes such an obsession on their lives, that in their deluded world, they think that it is now their major career path.

Take a look at Clint Dempsey who, under the alias Deuce (a name that is no doubt influenced by the cheesy manufactured group from the mid-1990’s), wants to be the new Pharrell Williams at whatever cost. Due to hiring the cheapest knock-off of Puff Daddy, however, his song ‘Don’t Tread’ seems to have the intensity of taking out false teeth and the terror of being happy-slapped by a midget. It’s obvious that Dempsey wants to be taken seriously here but, with lyrics describing how he is signed by Nike, his venture into music is as credible as Paul Gascoigne’s music career without even realising it.

Despite these accusations, there have been recent attempts to record football songs for charity. However, these seem to be a cynical attempt to further expose these vanity projects on the public radar rather than being a genuine attempt to raise funds and awareness for various charities.

The Players, for example – fronted by Norwegian Premier League players (i.e. obscure and/or unknown players to the average football fan) Freddy Dos Santos, Kristofer Hæstad, Raymond Kvisvik and Øyvind Svenning, along with Blackburn Rovers winger Morten Gamst Pedersen, they gathered to sing the track ‘This is For Real’ which raised funds for the charity Soccer against Crime. Fair play, until you listen to the song. As tepid as a John Major pose, it has the lyrical content that is likely to induce immediate projectile vomiting. Utterly pointless, where it feels like random members of Embrace, Orson and Westlife have instantly been turned into waxwork models.

[See post to listen to audio] » The Players – This Is For Real

Neil Danns’ effort for the Haiti fund seems even more contrived and self-satisfied than others. In a doomed attempt to show that he cares about the world, he discusses terror and poverty with the substance of the average Metro article. In addition to committing manslaughter to Eric Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’, Danns tries to be cool and insightful by singing about 9/11 whilst using Auto-Tune and dancing in an ushanka:

Rather tragically though, Danns is the artist most convinced that he is set for music stardom as he is currently studying for a video editing and production course. You can imagine Danns spending every single second of his life thinking about Auto-Tune, given that Sheffield Wednesday duo Richard O’Donnell and Mark Beevers’ have practised the Kings Of Leon song Sex on Fire on Auto Tune with empty Coca-Cola bottles.

There are, however, two saving graces that revert to the stereotypical view of the football song….

One is Carlos Tevez’s band Piola Vago who completely understands the concept of recording a wonderfully bad football song. Recorded by musicians who are performing at five pitches higher than it should be, their musical incompetence is naturally brilliant in its own way. It is also what a football song should be; no boasting or being completely in love with themselves, just a bunch of football fanatics having a bit of fun and not taking themselves seriously with it. Whilst I’m convinced that the song ripped onto YouTube was played at completely the wrong speed, they are comedy geniuses.

Didier Drogba’s effort is equally entertaining. Whether the collaborator is called ‘Billy Billy’ or whether that is the name of the song is unknown, given that every aspect of this recording is completely incomprehensible. Utilising the modern techniques found in the Ivory Coast such as the using the horn function on the 1992 Yamaha PSR-75 electronic keyboard, it somehow sounds like a remedial class trying to play Caribbean music. As devastating as cot death, Billy Boy’s is hilariously bad with Drogba’s contribution a delight to marvel at.

Although it seems like a trivial subject to discuss, modern football songs parallel the criticisms of modern football (whether these are right or wrong is a different story). They are generally mean-spirited and soulless songs, recorded by a bunch of narcissistic show-offs who will throw their toys out of the pram if they don’t get their own way. As credible as Rio Ferdinand’s television career, it is the worst kind of music you can listen to -in the musicians’ warped world they think they are creating something groundbreaking when it is in fact the opposite. Apart from two people, that is. Thank god for Carlos Tevez and Didier Drogba.

About the author:

Chris Ledger is the writer and editor of the cult website Obscure Music and Football.

So the first question is then: How come Mexico got it again only 16 years later ?

It was because Colombia – the country who were originally chosen to host it, just at the wrong moment went skint. FIFA then placed an urgent advert in the Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle asking if anybody could accomodate them and their friends for a couple of weeks.
We’ll be very quiet and clean up after ourselves.

The Mexican President then looked in one of his cupboards and saw that they still had some corner flags and the nets left over from last time and said hey let’s put the show on (again) right here !

Many of us will remember this one better from that one incident, but this post will be a general overview of the tournament that year.   Ah maybe I’ll give it a mention. But first the main event…

Because of the heat and altitude the finals once again favoured the central/south American countries, but a few European teams got through to the Quarter Finals: They were France, Spain, England, Belgium…. (Belgium…seriously…? How did..? Oh three from their group of 4 qualified…couldn’t miss really) and West Germany.

England’s progress through the competition (after scraping through the group stage) was helped when their lucky talisman, the Captain Marvel was injured in the second group game against Morroco.
Although Bryan Robson tried to impede their progress by wearing a shoulder harness, it was clear that he couldn’t go on and after this England’s performance improved.

They made it through to the latter knockout stages and for the first time since the Falklands war, they faced Argentina in the Quarter Finals…  

…In which Maradona scored that goal and England were out.

After that more matches were played and eventually somebody won.

To the music then…

(Bah... If you want to talk about it post something in the comments)

The music – and before the England team departed they did the usual route of stopping by the recording studio first. The resulting cacophony (which reached the giddy heights of No.66 in the charts) was a song which is making it’s appearance here on the web for the very first time. Go on...go and google it, you'll not find it anywhere else.

You will probably not thank me for digging it up after all these years, but here it is anyway:

[See post to listen to audio] » 1986 England World Cup Squad – We’ve Got The Whole World At Our Feet

I don’t know why but like BBC’s 1990 World Cup theme this one is embedded in our memory like…like Gazza’s plastic breasts…

[See post to listen to audio] » World Cup Mexico ‘86 ITV Theme

Additionally… Keep an eye over at Twohundredpercent because they are undertaking a series looking at all the telly themes from 1966 onwards.

EXTRA TIME:

- From a comment posted by Doro a few months ago. He added a link to the video below, and on the YouTube page there’s another link where you can download the audio version, again below.

UPDATE: The poll has closed and the winner of Round 1 is…

As you are well aware by now there will be no official song for England leading up to the World Cup. This is obviously bad news for the listening public as there’s obviously going to be a deluge of songs that will attempt to fill this void.

Since there’s no way of stopping it we might as well decide which tune should be the semi-unofficial England World Cup song.

How this will work is with a weekly knockout competition in which YOU WILL VOTE on who is the winner that week to go through to the next round. The last song left standing come June 11th will be declared the winner and in our eyes, the best half-decent England tune.

Starting us off…

Johnny Normal v The Shining Hour

Johnny Normal bio:

“Johnny Normal creates a musical bag of ‘Englishness’ that finds its roots in pop, punk and electronic music from the 1980s onwards. Johnny’s inspiration is drawn from the life he sees around him, the things people gloss over… everyday stuff like family, fried breakfast, relationships, fear, envelopes and being run over…

… The style of johnny normal is very much what electronic 1980 England should have been together with an oddly modern edge. “

His entry into the England song stakes is a track called “God Save the Team” and yes, it is a reworded cover version of a familiar tune. Correction: An electro punk version.

There is an element of Frank Sidebottom with his Casiotone keyboard, bordering on the Jess Conrad there… I’m sure this is tongue in cheek… But either way taken a listen below:

[See post to listen to audio]

- Stream only: Purchase & download the 3 track CD. (including the above song)

- Find out more: MySpace: Johnny Normal music. (*Warning: music starts automatically*)

The Shining Hour bio:

“Mark Cohen has been writing and recording his own songs since 1985. He has been influenced and inspired by 60’s pop, 70’s punk & new wave, 80’s indie & alternative and 90’s Brit Pop. In the early 90s he adopted the name, “The Shining Hour” and has produced a number of home made CD albums.

In 1998, Germany’s Apricot Records released a limited edition 7 inch single EP entitled “Five o’Clock Rise” which sold out. A 15 song album “Long Lost” was finally released in November 2006.”

Mark’s entry is a love song to the national side. It begins with that football and music ingredient of the crowd chanting and then the song is a bit of jangly pop. It is catchy. Has a great chorus with the footie crowd once again involved via a sample. Very clever.

[See post to listen to audio] » Video

- I don’t know if he has any plans to release this song commercially so: Stream only.
- You can download for free the above mentioned ‘Long Lost’ album here. (Nice stuff)

- Find out more: MySpace: The Shining Hour.

So there are your two contenders, now you have to decide who goes through. VOTE NOW:

The winner of this round will be announced around this time next week, plus we’ll find out who they are up against next.

…But if you heard their music – and especially their collaborations you’d know exactly who they were.

Colourbox (pictured above with vocalist Lorita Grahame) were on the seminal 4AD label from the early-to-late 80’s and were proto-trip hop. The combined and drew on influences as varied as blues, soul, rock, dub and funk.

Their releases hit the charts with four of their singles reaching the top 10. Their only proper (self-titled) album went to number one.

Then in 1986 they released two different singles simultaneously on the same day. A rare thing for an indie label and a big risk. But the gamble paid off as the single Baby I Love You So reached No.4 and the other single, which got to Number 6 in April of that year wasn’t even originally written as a football-related tune:

This from their profile on 4AD Records:

“…Alongside this (Baby I Love You So) release, in an entirely characteristic change of tack, they issued “The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme”, timed to coincide with that year’s football tournament in Mexico. And it damn nearly lived up to its title, too – the BBC seriously considered using it to soundtrack its national TV coverage of the event. The track remains Martyn’s favourite Colourbox recording, although, he says, they’d originally written it as a baseball theme. “I’m not even that interested in football, but I do know the BBC came very close to choosing it.”

As you will see from the cover scans below, the front cover of the single featured a vintage pic of Jimmy Hill and the back had Bobby Robson:

[See post to listen to audio] » The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme (7 inch) [See post to listen to audio] » Phillip Glass (7 inch version) [See post to listen to audio] » The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme (12 inch) [See post to listen to audio] » Official Colourbox World Cup Theme/Phillip Glass

But it doesn’t end there…

There was a post over on The Vinyl Villain back in November 2008 in which MrsCTel talked about this Colourbox track. On the comments natp noted that this track had inspired Saint Etienne to create the following track (as a B Side) four years later:

…and of course we have to have the A Side too (12 inch version mind) because with the name of the band and the name of the group this will complete some…sort…of…trifecta….or something…

We are still not done yet…

I mentioned at the beginning about Colourbox and their collaboration. This occurred a year after the World Cup single when they got together with A.R. Kane, then gave the name to this project: M/A/R/R/S – and you know the rest…

[I've mediafired these files - clicking on the link will take you elsewhere] - Pump Up The Volume (Extended) - Pump Up The Volume (Bonus Beats - Pump Up The Volume (Instrumental) - Pump Up The Volume (Radio Edit)

Alright now we’re finished.

“I used to think (after Inter) I could not go on and the strife was nothing but very long. But now I know the meaning of true love, now I’m earning on the everlasting Sheikhs. If I can see it… then I can do it, If I just believe it, there’s nothing to it…

I believe in my training methods. I believe that I can touch the Sky (Plus). I watch Corrie every night and day, spread my bingo wings and then Gareth Barry – away !

I believe that I know, I see me running through that revolving door, I believe I’ll be fired.

See I was on the verge of breaking the status quo, somehow stumble the team into the top four. There are miracles in life that they must achieve, but first I know it starts with me getting my cards if I don’t achieve.

I can see it, if some believe it, but there’s nothing to it. (Is there ?)

The Special One also sees it. He’ll be next I know.”

[ Bob Mankini, aged 45 and ¾ ]

(Some of these words may or may not have been lifted from an R Kelly song)

[See post to listen to audio] » De Scalzi Bros – Roberto Mancini

Extra Time:

[See post to listen to audio] » De Scalzi Bros – Sampdori – Samba De Toninho [See post to listen to audio] » De Scalzi Bros – Uno Scudetto Nel Cuore

» More info

Many of us have fond memories of the 1970 World Cup, even though many of us have never actually seen it. But yet it still stays fresh in our minds.

This is because we’ve seen the clips, we’ve read of those historic moments and we hear of people still talking about it all the time. It remains to this day as legend, one unmatched ever since ?

Might it also signify the peak of when football was great™ and there’s nowt like it nowaways ? That’s one for you to discuss.

Mexico ‘70 (not the band) was the first major international tournament to be broadcast in colour. The first sight of Brazil’s bright yellow shirts was burnt into our minds. After 1966 the whole of the country stopping to watch the World Cup holders fly to a far off land to defend their title. But with Bobby Moore’s arrest just before the tournament and then Banksy’s stomach bug just before the Germany game, it seemed that the football gods had decided that it wasn’t going to be two in a row.

But for Brazil it was a third time win and for this achievement they kept the Jules Rimet trophy.

Before I get to some music a few more firsts and a last:
Mexico ‘70 as mentioned was the first broadcast in colour. It was also the first time that there was an opening ceremony and the first World Cup not to have any sendings off.

It was also the last World Cup for Pele, who’s last goal for Brazil was the opening goal in the final.

So to the actual tunes and to begin with – an instrumental (which I think was used as theme music for their telly coverage) and some commentary from David Coleman at the end:

[See post to listen to audio] » Unknown Artist – Good Morning Mexico

Oh and… Go and have a listen to Coleman giving the TV director some constructive criticism.

I’m cheating with this next one:
It was actually used back in 1968 as the theme for the UK Olympic team back then.

[See post to listen to audio] » Long John Baldry – Mexico

Top of the pops…

The website EveryHit.com has a page which looks at each World Cup and what were the biggest sellers during that time.

- A couple of hits from the summer of 1970 to finish things off and I’m not going to choose the obvious ones, but a couple of tunes pretty much forgotten now from way back then:

Via Wikipedia:

“Yellow River” is a popular song recorded by the British band Christie. Written by band leader Jeff Christie, the song was offered to The Tremeloes, however they turned it down so Jeff Christie added his own vocals and released it. The song became an international hit, reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart for one week in June 1970.
The song is the thoughts of a young man whose time in the army (possibly the Vietnam War, given the time the song was recorded) is over and he is looking forward to returning to his home town in the country on Yellow River. The actual location of Yellow River is not known.

Via Wikipedia:

“Mr. Bloe was the alias used by the DJM record label producer/arranger and multi-instrumentalist, Zack Lawrence.

“Groovin’ With Mr Bloe”, written by Bo Gentry, Bernard Cochrane, P. Naumann and K. Laguna, and featuring Harry Pitch on harmonica, and Zack Lawrence on piano, entered the UK Singles Chart on 9 May 1970, peaking at Number 2.It was denied the number one spot by “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry. In total “Groovin’ With Mr Bloe” spent 18 weeks in the chart. A follow up single, Curried Soul, failed to chart,and an album, also entitled Groovin’ with Mr. Bloe, was released in 1970 but flopped, leaving the act with the one-hit wonder tag.

Additionally this one: ” The song was partly recorded by The Fall in 2003, for a Peel session as the beginning of their song, “Green Eyed Loco Man”.

Read more…

When going through my CD collection here (with a view to writing down to see what I have here and to maybe selling them to a second hand record shop) I rediscovered some half forgotten gems in the form of my Pop Will Eat Itself collection. It must have been about 10 years since I played any of the CD’s – plus vinyl – half of them I bought on plastic before that compact disc revolution took over.

I’ve dismissed music in the ’90s as a sh’t pointless decade, but there were some exceptions. Radiohead and Nirvana excepted, but Pop Will Eat Itself too.

I know that I’ve rasied some eyebrows with mentioning PWEI in the same breath as those two, but if you have any of their albums in your collection go back and have a listen to them. They have a place in musical history. All these mashups that you hear now – they were doing it years and years before.

But I digest.   The reason for this (unplanned until yesterday) reappearance of the Hungarian-born/Italian prOn star-cum-politician *ahem* is because of PWEI’s “tribute” to her.

Cicciolina’s…don’t google her unless your safe search is on… it’s difficult to find a picture of her with her clothes on… real name is Ilona Staller…Did you also know that her stage name of La Cicciolina means “the cuddly one” in Italian and when political speeches, in fact at any given moment she liked to pop a tit out – as I mentioned when I first posted about her.

As I was listening to the Poppies this track played and I decided at that moment to gather together all the various versions of the song. After a quick bit of research… to find more info about the tune you mucky minded people… I fortuitously stumbled across this great review/comment on Discogs.com »

:Pop Will Eat Itself always maintained their punk attitude, even when producing acid house/new beat-influenced dub tunes like Touched By The Hand Of Cicciolina. Released as ‘The Unofficial World Cup Theme’ in Spring 1990, the tune samples football fan chants, tv speakers, a female opera singer, and features trumpet, piano, a mighty bassline, and a breakbeat at 112bpm. Only occasionally, Clint and Graham of the Poppies chant their slogan of ‘Cicciolina for Italia 1990′, but the tune is rather to be called an instrumental. It has stood the test of time remarkably well, and from today’s perspective it can be said that Pop Will Eat Itself were on one level with acid dub pioneers Renegade Soundwave and Meat Beat Manifesto in 1990. “

- Take a moment to read the whole thing. It gives an excellent background all about this single.

[See post to listen to audio] » Touched By The Hand Of Cicciolina (1st Half) [See post to listen to audio] » Touched… (Edited Highlights) * [See post to listen to audio] » Touched… (7 inch version) * [See post to listen to audio] » Touched… (Extra Time Mix [See post to listen to audio] » Incredi-Bull Mix (2nd Half) [See post to listen to audio] » Diva Futura Mix [See post to listen to audio] » Renegade Soundwave Mix - Video - PWEI on ToTP

I think that Edited Highlights and 7 inch version are one in the same, but I’ve added them because I’m a completist.

It is with grateful thanks to The Vinyl Villain and Madchester Rave On for originally posting & letting me borrow a tune (or two) to complete the above. Both are exceptional places to visit.

Additional:
I asked JC of The Vinyl Villain (the supplier of the 12″ version) which other PWEI track I should throw in and he suggested Wise Up! Sucker and it to be dedicated to Garry Cook, the Manchester City Chief Exec who in his words: “….is doing his single-handed best to turn Man City into the most hated team in Englishire.” He also used the word loathsome in his description, which as a long suffering Citeh supporter myself I’m inclined to agree with. His remarks also gave me an idea for another F&M post, but that’s for another day.

But it doesn’t end there:
As well as Cicciolina’s political oration and video fellatio, she tried another line of work in the guise as a pop star. A few samples of her output, in English and in Italian below:

[See post to listen to audio] » Cicciolina & Franco Franchi – Cappuccetto Rosso - Video [See post to listen to audio] » Cicciolina – Muscolo Rosso   [see note] [See post to listen to audio] » Ilona Stalla (Cicciolina) – It’s All Up To You [See post to listen to audio] » Cicciolina – Satisfaction (Rolling Stones cover)

» If you like that sort of thing then you can find more of this sort of thing here. Safe(ish) for work.

About that 1970 World Cup…

Again we are all familiar with it now. You know, that save which denied Pele.

I’ve previously posted a quote from “O Rei” on what he thought of that stop. The man himself reminisced about it in July 2008 when he met up again with the Brazilian legend as he unveiled a statue of Gordon Banks outside Stoke’s Britannia Stadium.
Banksy said of that moment:

“As soon as I got my hand to it, I thought it was going in the top corner,” he said.

“But after I’d landed on the hard floor, I looked up and saw the ball bounce behind the net and that’s when I said: ‘Banksy, you lucky prat.’ “

Despite his goalkeeping heroics England still lost that game remember.

England were still in the competition though, they finished 2nd behind Brazil in their ground and were through to the knockout stages where they were due to play… West Germany. The team were confident. “We’ve beat this lot before”. But there was a setback, and it was with the Banks of England. The day before Banksy had complained of a stomach upset and spent most of his time in the bathroom. The England doctors gave him medication and rest but he didn’t recover in time. Peter Bonetti was then summoned to take his place and England initially went 2-up in the match, but then Beckenbauer got one back and Seeler scored to take it into extra time. Eventually they came out as winners when Gerd Mueller slipped one past Bonetti in the 108th minute.

Conspiracies began to surface that Banks had been “nobbled” by someone in England’s hotel and that his food had been somehow spiked, but this was dismissed by Banks.

Back to the league…

After the World Cup he returned to his club Stoke City and in 1972 was part of the team that beat Chelsea (his opposite number in their goal that day – Peter Bonetti) to win the League Cup.

But then on a dark night in October 1972, whilst driving home Banks lost control of his car which ended up in a ditch. He lost consciousness and was rushed to hospital. When he came round Banksy was informed that he had not suffered any life-threatening injury… but he had lost the sight in his right eye. Thus ending the career of one of the greatest goalkeepers to grace the game.

Actually no it didn’t.

After a few years hanging around the sidelines of football, as a scout and then managing non-league Telford United, he once again took up his position between the sticks. In 1977 he went to play as a named superstar for the NASL side Fort Lauderdale Strikers along with George Best. After that 1977 season, the ever-present Banks was voted Best Goalkeeper in the NASL.

Lesson to be learned – never let a disability drag you down.

Whilst at Stoke their fans sang in praise of the legendary shot stopper:

[See post to listen to audio] » Chris Renshaw & The Keepers – Banksie

EXTRA TIME:
I’ve posted before about an album by the 1970 England team just before they flew off to Mexico.
“The World Beaters Sing The World Beaters” it was called with various players taking a turn to sing a cover of a bit hit of the day.

Banksy’s contribution was a strange choice… On the album sleevenotes it says:

Lovey-Dovey: Your actual “reggae” music with Gordon Banks in true Carribbean form.

[See post to listen to audio] » Gordon Banks & the 1970 England Team – Lovey Dovey

-+ Update: LATE BREAKING NEWS +-

It was the usual sort of thing… When I was looking for something else I stumbled across another song that the great goalkeeper had recorded. But even better that that – It was released as a single.

In this country tinged tune Bansky sings a bit and then talks about England’s 1972 performance (?!) That’s right I said ‘72… plus his domestic duties at Stoke City. Downright weird if you ask me.
(This was all before his car accident obviously)

[See post to listen to audio] » Gordon Banks & his Friends – We’ll Be Together

Thanks to Crying All The Way To The Chipshop for originally posting this gem.

Now back to your normal programming.

To counteract that dour (Lovey Dovey) rendition, a couple of namesake versions – but as I said – in name only, these are not the same song as above.

» More singing 1970 England footballers.

Don’t really need to introduce you to the man who said those now famous words…

… But I’m still going to because I like to fill in some space before I post the music.

The son of a Afro-Surinamese migrant and his mistress, Ruud Gullit started playing and developed his football skills on the street. In 1978 he signed for (the now defunct) HFC Haarlem by the coach and former West Brom player Barry Hughes. In his time there he scored 32 goals in 91 appearances. Then in 1982 he moved to Feyenoord and Ruud played alongside Johan Cruijff. The season after they won the league and cup double plus Gullit was named the Dutch Footballer of the Year. There was another move in 1985 when he signed for PSV and bagged 46 goals in 68 league appearances as well as another Footballer of the Year award.

By now, with his international performances also gaining attention, it was AC Milan who came calling in the form of that shrinking violet Silvio Berlusconi who paid a then record fee for him. Gullit slotted into a team that already had his compatriots Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, along with Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi. More success came to him and the club when they won their first Scudetto in 9 years. In the following seasons Milan won back-to-back European Cups.

With his playing career and himself slowing down Gullit was signed to Chelsea by Glenn Hoddle, initially to play as a sweeper but eventually moved into midfield where he started scoring goals.
A year later Hoddle would leave to become another disappointing England manager and Ruud was appointed as the player-manager. Then a season later he led Chelsea to their first major trophy in 26 years when they won the FA Cup.

That first time as a boss was the highlight of his management career because after this…   well let’s get to the tunes shall we ?

Winding back to 1984 when Ruud was the darling of the (Dutch) game. Feyenoord had won the double plus Gullit had won his first Footballer of the Year award. He was in the papers all the time and he could do no wrong.

Then the big fan of reggae music did what every other footballer does when this spotlight is shone upon them. He released a single:

[See post to listen to audio] » Ruud Gullit – Not The Dancing Kind

A turgid effort but it didn’t matter to his fans, one remark I spotted said:

“This actually made the top 10 in the Netherlands, but Ruud was so popular back then that a record of him farting would have made the top 10 too.”

In 1987 a Dutch reggae band who Ruud had befriended (he had even occasionally played bass with them) released a single in praise of the dreadlocked midfielder:

[See post to listen to audio] » Revelation Time – Captain Dread (live) - Video

Sample lyrics:
"He runs like lightning / Thunder when he kicks the ball / Don't try to stop him / Natty dreadlocks a go pass them all
Captain dread / Captain dreadlocks at the ball / Captain Dread, natty dread /Bongo natty dreadlocks in full control"

In that same year Ruud had won the Ballon d’Or and in his acceptance speech he brought attention to South Africa’s apartheid regime.   Via an article in The Times:

The gesture was intended to raise awareness. It certainly raised eyebrows. Ruud Gullit, 25 years old at the time, had just been named European Footballer of the Year and, on receiving the award, he dedicated it to the world’s most famous political prisoner. “This is for Nelson Mandela,” declared the Dutchman, then of AC Milan. “In Italy,” Gullit recalls with a smile, “that made a big stir. There wasn’t such an activism about apartheid over there.”

Then in 1988 he got together with the Revelation Time band to record a single, once again to raise awareness of what was going on with South Africa:

[See post to listen to audio] » Revelation Time (feat. Ruud Gullit) – South Africa

So what has Ruud been up to lately…?
He’s been named as the president of the joint bid by Belgium and The Netherlands to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.
Other bidder they are up against include England, the USA, Australia, Spain/Portugal, and Japan.

Plus I’m sure he will be on some pundit couch for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa – In which he wants to see Holland win ugly.