It was back in 2006 when I spotted this article about a single that was recorded in 1982 by some members of the England 1966 World Cup team. But because of some different unclear reasons we never got to hear.
A “lost” World Cup song with vocals by Sir Alf Ramsey and the victorious 1966 England team is to be re-released.
We Were There was recorded in 1982 as a good luck message to the World Cup squad of that year.
The single was never properly released, but recording studio director Lew Branston held on to a video of the players miming to the song.
He plans to release it on DVD, with a share of the proceeds going to the Bobby Moore Fund for cancer research.
In the video, Alan Ball plays violin while Bobby Moore shakes a tambourine.
Geoff Hurst, who scored England’s winning goal in the 1966 World Cup, is seen playing the drums…
…The lyrics, written by Bob Wragg from Leicester group The Dallas Boys, contained the lines: “And so to the boys of ’82, we would like to wish good luck to you.
“And remember when you play the game, play it fair because you know we’ll be there.”
I bookmarked the article to wait for the actual audio/video would appear, with the intention of doing all I could to help promote. And then there was nothing. It seemed, like in 1982, that the single disappeared again.
Then after 10 years it appeared again. Via BBC News:
A football anthem sung by England’s 1966 World Cup winning side has been released after spending 34 years hidden in an Isle of Man attic.
We Were There was written by Leicester singer Bob Wragg for the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain.
Mr Wragg, 82, said its original release was deemed “inappropriate” following the outbreak of the Falklands War…
…He decided to search his attic for the song and video after reading that three of the squad were living with Alzheimer’s disease.
It has been released coincide with the European Championships in France and all funds from the song will go to the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK
I don’t know what happened in that space of time. Maybe there were an issue with the rights. Either way it was finally released as mentioned in time for Euro 2016 but sadly it did not get the attention it deserved.
The thing is that nowadays when England are heading to a major tournament, everybody and his auntie immediately rush to record their own England song. With the technology and resources we have now that is all too easy. I wish it wasn’t.
Because of this overflow of audio dirge that is uploaded to YouTube/posted to Soundcloud, it is easy to get lost in the crowd. Even with the pedegree of the artists involved. Also a slight guilt from me because although I noticed it in 2006, I did not when reappeared in 2016. As I said lost in the crowd.
As you can see with the above BBC articles there was a decent push at promotion. There was even an appearance by Bobby Wragg on The One Show:
The next World Cup is approaching (in 2018 in case you are reading this in the future) so I wanted to give this some exposure in the hope that the few of you who read this click the links at the bottom of this post and purchase the single. All profits go to charity and it only costs around a quid.
Before you do you need to hear or see this song done by the boys of ’66 for the lads of ’82. Because I want you to buy the single it is stream only:
England World Cup Winners 1966 – We Were There:
There’s also the original promo video which was recorded at the time. There is a watermark over it. If you want to see it without click the purchase link below.
» Buy the CD/download here or get the limited edition two disc set (single/video).