Chris needs your help. He’s got a song stuck in his head and it’s driving him mad.
He’s emailed me and I’ve drawn a blank. He’s been on every forum to ask and no joy.

Here’s a post from him on the WSC message boards:

“In 1970 when Back Home was the official England World Cup Song there was another song that got little airtime but sounded like the squad (although it could have been anyone) and the words included members of the ’70 England Squad passing about leading up to the words “Martin to Ossie and bang”.

Thats all I can remember and I have tried all the usual searches, tried posting this same question on numerous football websites and even emailed the homepage of a couple of old england players from back then…no replies of any relevence to date.

The Martin to Ossie words were reference to Martin Peters (Tottenham) and Peter Osgood (Chelsea) and I have posted the question on Chelsea and Spurs sites as well.”

Chris told me that the name of the song was “On The Ball” and as soon as you see that you think – ah, that song which Ant & Dec sang for the England/World Cup in 2002.

Well yes but…

The Ant&Dec song was reportedly a cover version of an old Arsenal chant/song, which is weird because Chris found more evidence about this record via this Japanese website which has scans of the record covers and/or labels of every footballing song released in 1970 (which I’d give my right arm to get hold of all of them) and on that page is a scan of a label of the song that (Chris thinks) he’s looking for:

Curious thing – the track was written by Harold Spiro who was a big Spurs supporter. He is credited as co-writer on the 2002 A+D England WC song.

A short while later Chris mailed again with some news…

“getting closer…

Someone on a Chelsea site has just pointed me to Discogs and someone on there has the record but with a different Catalogue number and release date a year too late…

I’ve ordered it although I’m waiting for him to get back to me, I think it could be a mistake with the date as the one in my pic says 1970 in small letters and 72 somewhere else.”

As he said Chris ordered it and a short time later…

“Oh mate I’m gutted…got the record and although very similar its not it and was released in 1971 obviously for the Arsenal double winning side back then…I don’t know if they were singing it before that and it influenced the one I’m after or if they got the idea from the one I want but it is very similar…”

So then there’s the question – Is that 1970 song by The Supporters one in the same as the one recorded for the Arsenal ? Because nobody has a copy of that 1970/Supporters single in their possession (and if anybody does speak/write in Japanese and could email that above site), we will never know.

Unless you can help.

Where is your old record collection ? Is it shoved away in a cupboard somewhere ? Drag it out and have a look through. You might have it.

- Until then have a listen to the 1971 (Arsenal) version of the song, as supplied by Chris:

…and because I’m feeling a bit vindictive today (for no reason) you are getting PJ & Duncan as well:

UPDATE:
After doing some thinking, and a quick discussion with Twohundredpercent via Twitter – I’m thinking there wasn’t a song released in 1970 sung about England, but it was in fact this song by The Supporters about the Arsenal double winning team.
He may have misremembered the lyrics and thought he heard Peters and Osgood, maybe it wasn’t.
These are my initial thoughts. More updates whenever.

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…

» The noted and much respected journalist Hugh McIlvanney recalls Mexico ’70 with fond memories:

[See post to listen to audio] » Brazil 1970 and Pele remembered with affection by Hugh McIlvanney

Tenuously related…

There were two bands out in the 90′s who were influenced by the above World Cup because of what they called themselves – which if the world wide web was around at the time probably wouldn’t have because both are impossible to search for.

The first one were named: Mexico 70.

Via Cherry Red: “Songwriter and lead vocalist Mick Bund gained valuable experience with Felt and working on Boy’s Own Records projects Airstream and the Bocca Juniors, but he gives full rein to his talents through Mexico 70.”

- This track comes from their 1996 release Imperial Comet Hour and chosen for the obvious reasons:

[See post to listen to audio] » Mexico 70 – Best and Hurst

They are still going…well the lead singer is still going under the Mexico 70 moniker and can be found MySpace.

This next lot from Liverpool named themselves after Edison Arantes do Nascimento:

From their website: “Pele were formed on Merseyside in 1990 by guitarist and frontman Ian Prowse and keyboard player Andrew Roberts. They were joined by Dally on drums, James McCallister on bass guitar and finally Nico on violin. After gigging around Liverpool and Chester the band were signed to brand new label M&G Records after the head of A&R heard a rough demo of Megalomania. Within weeks the band set about recording their debut LP, Fireworks, at Metropolis studios in London with producer Gary Langan.”

- This track comes from the above Fireworks album, which was released as a single.

[See post to listen to audio] » Pele – Raid The Palace

After the band split up the lead singer Ian Prowse went on to form (another impossible one to google) Amsterdam. I’ve previously featured them here on F&M when Ian go on the John Peel train.

But first before I begin with all that…

Another international run out this coming Saturday and the tradition is to post something England related:

We can question and grumble about the reasons why the FA suits want to go off on a money spinning jolly to the Middle East to play a pointless friendly, but there is method in their madness.

Capello hasn’t – and neither should we forget that despite them going to sleep in the 1st half of the Confederations Cup Final back in July, the Brazil team are always a danger and are always capable of winning another World Cup.

This will be a good first hand look for Fabio to see if he can spot any potential weaknesses in the Brazil team and of course the England one.

That all depends though and what squad he will have after the usual “pulled out because of injury”, but the players know that nobody is guaranteed a seat of the flight to South Africa yet.

That’s enough guff about a future matchup, now let’s go back to a previous meeting between these two which took place nearly 30 years ago…

The Time: 1970.
The Place: Mexico.

The Players: Before the tournament had even begun there was controversy when the late great Sir Bobby More was accused and arrest for shoplifting. The charges were later quietly dropped and we found out many years later he was completely innocent.

In the draw for the first round group stages England were put in the same group as Brazil, who had Pelé playing in his forth and last World Cup. This particular tournament was the first to be broadcast in full colour and the bright yellow shirts of Brazil via the medium of television pierced the eye.

Then on the 7th of June it was the match that is still remembered to this day.
It was the one where Gordon Banks made that save to deny Pele.

The man himself described the moment:

“He came from nowhere.

“I headed it perfectly towards one corner of the net while Banks was at the other corner.

“I was already shouting GOOOL!!! when Banks, like a salmon leaping up a falls, threw himself in the air and managed to tip the ball so it slid over the crossbar. It was an impossible play.”

Then later on Jairzinho (the scorer of the single winning goal) was denied when Bobby Moore made that tackle.

After the match ended the two footballing giants were captured in another historic moment (pic to the right there). Pelé later on described Moore as the greatest defender he had ever played against.

Despite the loss England finished runners up in the group and met a certain defeated 1966 finalist in the quarter finals (corrected - see comments) Gordon Banks got sick before the game with food poisoning and Peter “The Cat” Bonetti went between the sticks for the match.

As for the music:

In the months in the run up to the Finals the England team recorded a single AND an album. The album was called “The World Beater Sing The World Beaters” and had various team members singing cover versions of popular songs from back then. It was re-released years later (I think in part because of his appearance on Baddiel & Skinner’s Fantasy Football) as Jeff Astle & The 1970 World Cup Squad – Sing !

I have that album and I’ll explore it further another day…
Ah stop yer moaning. You'll get what you are given.  I did previously post a couple of tracks featuring Sir Bobby Moore here. That might shut yer up ferrabit.

But for now and for your entertainment the single featuring all the England ’70 World Cup Squad:

[See post to listen to audio] » England World Cup Squad 1970 – Back Home » Lyrics Back home, they’ll be thinking about us When we are far away Back home, they’ll be really behind us In every game we play They’ll share every goal we are scoring Out there We will still hear them roaring and we’ll give all we’ve got to give For the folks back home Back home, they’ll be watching and waiting and cheering every move Back home, though they think we’re the greatest That’s what we’ve got to prove Once more we will meet with the best Like before we’ll be put to the test Oh we will give all we’ve got to give For the folks back home They’ll see as they’re watching and praying That we put our hearts in our playing We’ll fight until the whistle goes For the folks back home [See post to listen to audio] » England World Cup Squad 1970 – Cinnamon Stick