The focus of this pod is when Jackie Charlton was the boss so we are looking at Euro ’88, Italia ’90 and USA ’94. The golden era for Irish international football.

Because of the limit I set for the pods (keep the length under an hour) it was very hard to select which tunes to include. I once again called upon our football and musical consultant Fredorrarci from the occasionally visited Sport Is A TV Show because it was he who first found all the Ireland-related European/World Cup songs.

I read his reply to my email, took in his thoughts and then pretty much ignored most of it. Apologies to you Fredo, but because of the number of songs and time constraints I had to be tough with the selections.

So here now is the latest FootieAndMusic Podcast – Dreaming of Ireland:

Tracklisting:

1. [audio] Jackie Charlton interview before the 1988 European Cup
2. [audio] Ray Houghton goal v England at Euro ’88 (Danish or Swedish commentary ?)
3. The Pogues – Fiesta
4. [audio] Ronnie Whelan’s goal v Soviet Union at Euro ’88
5. Christie Moore – Joxer Goes To Stuttgart (live)
6. Dublin City Ramblers – The Boys In Green
7. Dermot Morgan – What A Beautiful Team
8. Republic Of Ireland Football Squad – Put’em Under Pressure
9. [audio] Kevin Sheedy’s goal v England – World Cup 1990
10. Watch Your House – Ooh Aah Paul McGrath
11. The Memories – The Game
12. [audio] From the film The Van – the penalty shoot out v Romania at Italia ’90
13. The Dubliners & The Pogues – Jack’s Heroes
14. Charlie O’Neill and the Goal Celebrities – Drive it Jack
15. Against The Grain – On The Ball
16. [audio] Ray Houghton’s goal v Italy at the 1994 World Cup
17. One Hit Wonder – Ole 94
18. Dr Morgan – That Old Jack Magic
19. [audio] Jack Charlton and John Aldridge go mental at the officials in the match v Mexico
20. Born Na Gaeilge – Seo Linn Go Mherica
21. Paddy Reilly, Ray Treacy And Shamrock Rovers Squad – Thank You Jack

Additionally…

I really wanted to include all of Fredorrarci’s suggestions but as mentioned… I have though previously posted the World Cup songs by Dermot Morgan here and here.

Additional to the additional:

The band The Dublin City Ramblers, like Dermot Morgan sang a few songs about football.
One of them was included in the podcast and there’s two more here:

[See post to listen to audio] » Dublin City Ramblers – Que Sera Sera [See post to listen to audio] » Dublin City Ramblers – You’ll Never Beat The Irish

It is with thanks to @Dunnie77 for the suggestion of the Ireland theme.

When going through my CD collection here (with a view flogging 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.

» Touched By The Hand Of Cicciolina (1st Half) » Touched… (Edited Highlights) * » Touched… (7 inch version) * » Touched… (Extra Time Mix) » Incredi-Bull Mix (2nd Half) » Diva Futura Mix » 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:

» Cicciolina & Franco Franchi – Cappuccetto Rosso - Video » Cicciolina – Muscolo Rosso   [see note] » Ilona Stalla (Cicciolina) – It’s All Up To You » 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.

As promised some related Englandneworder/Worldinmotion tunes…

Embrace me

The official English entry for the 2006 contest cover their 1990 counterparts:

[See post to listen to audio]
» Embrace – World In Motion (Live on the Chris Moyles Show

For Every Coke…

There were many (many, many, MANY ! many) CD compilations released to cash in on WC’06 and this track was buried… sadly for you, until now… in one of them:

[See post to listen to audio]
» Offside – World In Motion
Remember those Top Of The Pops albums released in the ’70′s, when they got session musicians to record [dodgy] cover versions of the chart hits of the day ? This is a hark back to that.

Lounge Lizard

Get yer maracas out…

[See post to listen to audio]
» Hector Cortez and his Formation – World In Motion
Yes even the Barnsey rap is in there too

Flogging A Dead…

In 2002 there was a reissue which was an attempt by the record company to get their own cash in, plus to promote yetanotherNewOrdercompilation. Five Live jumped on this bandwagon with:
'Features the new track: "such a good thing" - BBC Radio Five Live World Cup Theme' [More info]
Since when did FiveLive start playing music again ?

[See post to listen to audio]
» New Order – Such A Good Thing

Route (19)66

Saving the best to last. This is a radical reworking/flashbacking project by Hull based DJ and mixer epicentre. More about – and from him another time.

[See post to listen to audio]
» World in Motion (Epicentre’s Route 66 Remix)

Coming soon: Some related video.

[See post to listen to audio]
» Englandneworder – World In Motion (Single Mix)

*Vinyl rip. Vocals [The Squad] - Chris Waddle/Des Walker/John Barnes/Paul Gascoigne/Peter Beardsley/Steve McMahon

[See post to listen to audio]
» Englandneworder – The B Side

Vocals [Naff Football Shouts & J B Impersonation] - Keith Allen

“Mind how you go now…”

[See post to listen to audio]
» No Alla Violenza Mix

Mixed by Andrew Weatherall & Terry Farley

[See post to listen to audio]
» Subbuteo Mix

Remix by Graeme Park & Mike Pickering

[See post to listen to audio]
» Carabinieri Mix

Mixed by Andrew Weatherall & Terry Farley

[See post to listen to audio]
» Subbuteo Dub

Remix by Graeme Park & Mike Pickering

Fast forward six years…

[See post to listen to audio]
» New Order – World In Motion (96 Remix)

Coming up next: More related music which didn’t make the above first team, but will be on the subs bench. Plus some video.

Italy. Are worried.

Italy. Playing at home, (down south in Bari instead of up north in Rome, because as Liam speculates in the above article, when they are worried they move the match 233 miles – and not because they want to give the southern Italian fans a chance to see them play I’m sure) are worried…

But then Brady, who had retired from Internationals just before the 1990 World Cup qualifiers and then un-retired once they had qualified – but Jackie chose to take the players who got them there and not a bandwagon jumper, could be onto something there.

Italy are currently 1st in their group on 13 points, which is what the Republic would have had if they didn’t shoot themselves in the foot with the draw last Saturday. It will be a difficult game for the Azzurri on Wednesday night and Brady brings up the memory of the 1994 World Cup match to unnerve them further.

Because yeah, they never recovered from that one loss 15 years ago did they…

- Or it could be simply that Liam Brady is simply doing a bit of comedy and paying homage to the late, lovely Dermot Morgan who included him in this skit from 1990:

[See post to listen to audio]
» Dermot Morgan – Deck Of Cards
Based upon the famous Deck of Cards song

Dermot also sang (Italian style) about the wonderful lads:
[See post to listen to audio]
»Dermot Morgan – What A Beautiful Team

…and followed closely with this very funny riffing on everything Eyetielian:
[See post to listen to audio]
» Dermot Morgan – Not A Great Player

Extra Link: On the Various Ramblings of Danny Invincible blog – Danny gives us A Brief History of Irish International Football, with part three being about World Cup Italia ’90.

…”Pogue is also a derogatory term for an Irish person. In the Irish language, pogue (spelt póg) means “kiss”. Perhaps the most well-known phrase in Irish is “póg mo thóin”, which means “kiss my arse.” The term pogue is not usually considered very offensive.“

The title is obviously like the others done this week, is in relation to the featured artist.

And the song is about the Republic of Ireland team:

As mentioned in the Wreckless Eric post there were 29 songs released in time for England’s appearance in the 2006 World Cup – But years before this when the Republic of Ireland qualified for the 1990 World Cup (in Italy) there were about that many, if not more.

Four years before Jackie Charlton had guided the Republic to their first major championship finals at Euro ’88 and there were a few songs done then, but then they qualified for the WORLD CUP and that got everybody singing…

- The most well known artists of all these are two bands who I’m sure need no introduction whatsoever.

[See post to listen to audio] » The Dubliners and The Pogues – Jack’s Heroes - Lyrics They wear green And they are beautiful And their hearts are filled with love They’re as pure as any lily And as gentle as the dove They’ll sing and cheer in harmony Till their throats are cracked & sore But there is no doubt You’ll hear them shout When Jackie’s heroes score Too-ra-loo Too-ra-loo And we’ll follow Jack’s heroes Whatever they do They’ll come from Dublin And from Cork, from dear old Donegal, From London, Boston, & New York, From anywhere at all, From Parramatta to Fermoy, Strabane to Skibereen (And will) the shout go up When the World Cup Is raised on Stephens Green (Yes it will) And when we’re there in Italy On Sardinia’s sunny shore We’ll be the boys you’ll want to see The boys you’ll all adore We’ll play like perfect gentlemen To win, to lose, to draw For we’re here to take the World Cup To Paddy’s shamrock shore » There’s a video too

You noticed the thumbnail above is from when they performing another song on Top Of The Pops.
Ah g’wan then:

[See post to listen to audio]
» The Pogues and The Dubliners – The Irish Rover

- -

…and going for the hattrick with a solo effort by The Pogues with this one which was featured on another film about football, but had lots of music as well:

[See post to listen to audio] » The Pogues – Fiesta

…continuing the Irish theme with a couple of songs (from the many !) recorded to celebrate their first appearance in the World Cup Finals.

More people outside of the Isle might remember the 1994 World Cup better – because of the first wally – this one without a brolly, but for the Republic of Ireland it was Italia ’90 which was the most successful of the two World Cups in which they qualified.

Pic from M+MD's photostream

These were the finals in which Packie Bonner made a save (pictured above) in the game against Romania. After this David O’Leary stepped up after and scored the last pen to put Ireland into the World Cup Quarter Finals for their first time in their history.

In the quarters they proved to be a difficult opposition against an Italy team which included Maldini, Vialli, Baggio and Schillaci – the scorer of the only goal in the game.

Before the tournament they were sent off with a plethora of tunes and I’ve selected two from the many for today.

- The first one up is one co-crafted by Larry Mullen, the drummer from U2.
It is based upon a 70′s song by the Horslips -Dearg Doom, with samples of Jackie Charlton included, as well as the singer from Clannad who adds the Olé Olé Olé tune and yes… even the Ooh Ahh is thrown in for good measure:

[See post to listen to audio] » The 1990 Ireland World Cup Squad – Put ‘Em Under Pressure

- Click for the lyrics

- More info about the single can be found on this exhaustive/obsessive U2 fansite.

» Not much is known about the creators of this next one. If you have any knowledge then add a comment. What I do know is that it borrows the tune from Billy Joel’s – “We Didn’t Start The Fire” and adds it’s own words:

- Full lyrics here

It is with thanks again to the assistance of Fredorrarci from Sport Is A TV Show that I now have a pile of songs… pile isn’t the right word for it…or maybe it is after listening to a few of them….anyway alot from Ireland which will mean that I will be returning this theme.

Tomorrow it will be the Scotia boys turn and then after that, the Angles.

Oh I give up.

I got some great responses and yesterday I posted the first one about an outstanding defender and today is the second one – and like the previous this one is also a tune that everyone knows, but this time because it borrow from a previously recorded song.

Firstly a big hello and thanks to Fredorrarci from the Sport Is A TV Show blog. It will be added to the Friendlies and I recommend that you visit. His writings is better that what I can…err…write…

He let me know of a defender who played for that team but was one of those who you would have liked to have seen play for your lot. (Apart from Wayne Bridge, I don’t want to see him play anywhere… ).

But this isn’t about his club exploits… although I will mention in passing that Paul McGrath had his demons and hit the bottle a few times, I’m glad to report that he hasn’t followed Gazza into the gutter. He was there, but is doing much better now… it was his national service which gave reason for some people to burst into song.

It was 1994 and Big Jack and his boys had managed to qualify for their 2nd World Cup in a row.
As usual there was a trip to the recording studios before their journey to the tournament in the USA .

I can’t find any more info about who these people were, but some musicians or producers under the name of “Watch Your House” recorded a tribute song but with a difference – they actually got the man himself to appear on the record.

Last Minute Update: I’d like to break into my own posting here to tell you about a late find…

This wasn’t the first time.

I discovered by accident, that a certain somebody had got in before them.

I was searching for extra background information and stumbled across a very short mention on Wikipedia on another recording about the same subject.

Before his “big break” thanks to Father Ted, the beautiful and much missed Dermot Morgan was famous in Ireland at the time because of his RTE Radio 1 show Scap Saturday. Then in 1990 for their qualification to the finals in Italy he recorded a rap song…

[See post to listen to audio]
» Dermot Morgan – World Cup Rap (Paul McGrath)

- Going back to what I started talking about and the 1994 song with guest vocals from:

[See post to listen to audio]
» Watch Your House featuring Paul McGrath – Ooh Ahh Paul McGrath

So it is double your pleasure on this post. (Oh here I go again…) Two songs about one man and because of these he will make the F&M 1st IX.

Which one I prefer I don’t know – What do you think ?