![]() Still, if singing the songs in the stadium and in the UK’s pubs and bars can help England beat Croatia and secure their first World Cup final place since 1966, the whole nation will be queueing up to kiss him. There’s an interesting and welcome sociopolitical dimension to thousands of largely male football fans – not always known for their progressiveness – singing: “You still turn me on” at young manager Gareth Southgate, a dapper, waistcoated, married heterosexual. ![]() The girl group has disbanded and gotten back together several times over the years, with Natasha Hamilton and Liz. I wonder who made that first connection by starting to sing it, and suddenly everyone was doing it.” Southgates new song comes from the 2001 tune Whole Again by Atomic Kitten. “Any time something you’ve created becomes widely accepted is humbling and touching. “The Kittens are really chuffed and are actually considering remaking the single with the England lyrics,” reveals OMD’s Andy McCluskey, the Whole Again songwriter who first heard his song’s curious renaissance when the national team beat Tunisia. September has inspired club football songs for years, but for EWF and Atomic Kitten, having their tunes adopted nationally represents a rare – nay, noble – honour, acknowledged when Atomic Kitten’s Natasha Hamilton tweeted herself singing the Eng-er-land version. Even further back, the old “We hate Nottingham Forest, we hate Liverpool too…” chant derives from Elgar’s Land of Hope and Glory. Joy Division’s classic Love Will Tear Us Apart has spawned various chants, from “Giggs will tear you apart again” (sung by Manchester United fans) to the mocking “Leeds are falling apart again” (subsequently ironically adopted by Leeds supporters when the team actually wins). Ian Curtis - perhaps not the most obvious choice for a lairy football anthem. Also heard at the World Cup, and aimed at Jamie Vardy, has been Gala’s rave classic Freed From Desire: “Vardy’s on fire / your defence is terrified” – itself adapted from a chant for Wigan striker Will Griggs. ![]() Arsenal fans sing “1-0 to the Arsenal” to the tune of the Village People’s (Pet Shops Boys’ covered) Go West, while Leeds United fans recently lionised their Swedish central defender to the tune of Wham!’s Last Christmas (“Last Christmas, I gave you my heart… This year, to save me from tears, I’ll give it to Pontus Jansson”). Perhaps even more bizarre is the fans’ adaptation of Earth, Wind & Fire’s September as “Woah, England are in Russia / Woah, drinking all the vodka / Woah, England’s going all the way!”Ī 2001 girl group hit and a 1978 smash by an American funk band with no obvious “soccer” allegiances aren’t the most obvious vehicles for new football chants, but football takes on popular songs – which are repetitive, simple and thus chant-friendly – have a long history. There’s been “Looking back on when we first met / I cannot escape and I cannot forget / Southgate you’re the one / You still turn me on / football’s coming home again!” sung to the tune of Atomic Kitten’s Whole Again. F rom bars and stadiums in Russia to the pubs and TV screens back in the UK, England fans at the World Cup have been serenading the team’s unexpected successes with some more imaginative songs than the usual Three Lions, Vindaloo et al.
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