Love's Got The World In Motion

If I ever thought (and I don't think I ever did) that popular culture- sport, music, film, fashion etc- existed in an escapist bubble outside society and politics then the last few weeks have really made it clear to me. When Euro 20 started I had a really hard time summoning up any enthusiasm for supporting England. Given their frequent and regular poor performances at major tournaments I have watched them play in since 1982 this could just be down to England tournament fatigue, but there's more to it than that and much of it is down to what's happened during the last few years. 

People like to say that the St George's cross flag was 'reclaimed' from the far right at Euro 96. That may be true but it feels like the far right have claimed it back over the last decade. England flags flying from cars and houses have coincided with the rise of an ugly strain of English nationalism that has been used to drive wedges between communities. The national anthem is a pointless dirge, a celebration of monarchy which I can't sing or feel any kinship to. The never-ending obsession with the Second World war is baffling- it's over, it ended seventy six years ago, really, get over it. The crowd at Wembley booing other nation's national anthems- something they've done for years- looks worse and worse every time it happens. The people booing England's players taking the knee are even worse (and worse than them are those people booing while at home watching on TV and then posting it on social media- grown men filming themselves booing young black men for taking a stance against racism but then cheering them when they score. It beggars belief). You can argue that taking the knee a gesture that doesn't achieve anything but booing people for taking a position against racism is surely showing support for racism. That's the funny thing about modern racists, they want the 'freedom' to be racist but object to being called racist. Johnson's populist government's incessant culture wars are all wrapped up in this kind of politics, button pushing and barrel scraping, appealing to the worst in people, dividing and conquering. The rest of the UK seems to be coming round to a position of wanting to reject England and that small minded version of Englishness, and who can blame them?

On the other hand, the team themselves seem to be a genuinely decent bunch of young men, from multi- cultural backgrounds, led by a manager who is thoughtful and considered. In Raheem Sterling they have a young man from a North London council estate who gets a disproportionate amount of criticism from the press which you can only conclude is due to his skin colour. In Marcus Rashford they have a young man from a South Manchester council estate who has provided more effective opposition to the government and it's policies over the last year than the actual leader of the opposition. In Gareth Southgate you have a man who wrote a much more effective response to and defence of the position the team have taken against racism than any other I've read (a Tory minister has apparently said they regard his statement as 'suspiciously well written'- in other words, he couldn't have written it, a mere footballer, which tells you what you need to know about how this government look down at people they see as beneath them). As the tournament has gone on, I've tried to ignore the flags, the anthem, the booing, the tabloid version of Englishness and just appreciate the matches As they've gone on into the knock out stages (and become more fun to watch) it's become easier to watch and support England, but there's a latent nastiness to Englishness at the moment that is difficult to block out completely.

Overthinking it? Possibly. But none of this stuff- music, football, life- happens in a vacuum and popular culture and pop culture are products of or reactions to the real world. Tonight, England (the team) play Denmark (themselves the true heroes of this tournament with the horrific scenes in opening weekend when Christian Eriksen suffered a heart attack on the pitch and then the rest of the team were given the choice playing the rest of the game then or the day after). For once the England team have a genuine chance of reaching a final. It would be daft not to try to enjoy it. 

Back in 1990 pop culture collided with football in a way it hadn't before. Not New Order's best song but the best England World Cup song and one of the memories of a summer that seemed to go on forever. 

World In Motion (Carabinieri Mix)

World In Motion (No Alla Violenza Mix)

Do It At The Right Time

You've got to hold or give but do it at the right time//You can be slow or fast but you must get to the line// They'll always hate you and hurt you, defend and attack// There's only one to beat them, get round the back.

World In Motion (Carabinieri Mix)

Fifteen

There are two significant events today, June 14th 2018, one personal and one international. The first one, close to home, is the 15th birthday of number two child/number one daughter Eliza. Once, as the picture shows, she was young and cute and happily wore a Clash t-shirt. Now she is 15, growing up into a young woman and probably wouldn't wear a Clash t-shirt.

Every summer in recent years we've driven to France with a stack of music. I get accused of hogging the car stereo. Not true obviously. Finding songs we can all agree on is a bit of an artform. Last summer we got there on this one- I've got to say, I think this is a tune. So you can have this one as your birthday song Eliza. Happy birthday.



One of Eliza's presents is Dolly Parton's 9 To 5 on 7" (which she should have opened by the time this is posted). So here's your birthday bonus song...



We survived our first 'proper' teenage house party at the weekend, a mixed group of 15 of them in our garden, with music, dancing, shrieking and  'controlled' drinking (you can control what they drink in your house- more difficult to control what some of them have drunk before they arrive). Apart from some minor damage to our already patchy lawn there was no harm done and much fun had. The party playlist was dominated by 80s pop, some disgraceful 80s soft-rock and some more contemporary stuff. Back in 1985, when I turned 15 this was the UK's number one single...



19 is groundbreaking in its own way and genuinely memorable, and kept at the number one slot by regular releases of remixed versions. Vietnam was big in the mid-80s. A decade on from the end of the war people were getting to grips with it, what had happened and what it meant. I read somewhere recently that the average age of the combat soldier in Vietnam wasn't actually 19 but 22. But that doesn't really change the message of the song or the fact that if you were poor, uneducated or black you were far more likely to end up in Vietnam than if you were wealthier, educated and white. Does it Mr. Trump? Coincidentally I played it to my Year 11 class recently as part of their depth study on The Vietnam War. They weren't very impressed if truth be told, the sounds were too dated and quaint, the stuttering vocal too cliched and the female backing vox too cheesy. But they took the message and the visuals in.

The other event today is the start of the World Cup, Russia 2018. This is my 11th World Cup. I have some vague memories of Argentina '78 aged 8, memories of the final at least, which I was allowed to stay up and watch some of. Spain '82 is the first one I really  remember- in the picture above Bryan Robson celebrates after scoring against France in England's opening game. Mexico '86 was a blast, taking place during my O Levels, the magnificence of Diego Maradona in his prime, England out in controversial manner and an epic France v Brazil game. Italia 90 was ace, mixed up as it was with New Order's World In Motion, No Alla Violenza, Toto Schillaci, Roger Milla and an England run to the semi-finals.

Twenty-eight years on, this is still the only world cup record that really matters.

'Love's got the world in motion and we can't believe it's true'.

World In Motion (No Alla Violenza Mix)

World in Motion (Andrew Weatherall & Terry Farley No Alla Violenza Mix)

It's the World Cup again. They seem to come around fairly quickly now, must be a sign of getting older. I'm not here to beat a drum for England, I have fairly low expectations, and think they'll do well to reach the quarter finals. Not enough quality in the first eleven, aged defence and no Rio, too much rests on Rooney. We'll see.

But we should celebrate the football fiesta of the World Cup. So, today's post takes in two Bagging Area favourites (New Order and Andrew Weatherall) and takes us back to the only good World Cup song (comment all you like, the rest are awful, and I speak as a man who was born when Back Home was number 1), from the moment when English football changed, Italia 90. All the amateur footballologists can explain why it all started on the fields of Italy. Within three years of Gazza's tears and the penalty shoot out with the Germans we had the Premiership, player's wages going through the stratosphere, football shirts worn by people that had never been to game, shiny new (but soulless) stadia and the end of terracing (although obviously Hillsborough played a part here), foreign stars and coaches showing us how to play, the magic of Sky TV, and much more besides. Oh yeah, and men able to show their feelings in public.

It was also the only time football and pop culture and club culture collided in a way that was not just acceptable but cool. The opening keyboard stabs of World In Motion and that 1966 commentary sum up the summer of 1990 as much as Adamski, Happy Mondays and Spike Island. There was Bernard Sumner in the pale blue away shirt in the video, even John Barnes' so-called 'rap'. And in the spirit of the times let's not forget New Order lobbied the F.A. for the song's original title to be used- E For England- rather than World In Motion. E For England was spelt right for huge numbers of people that summer, in more ways than one.

We should also pause to appreciate the sample of beautiful official World Cup posters displayed here (from the top Uruguay 1930, Switzerland 1954, Spain 1982), works of art rather than the focus group, computer generated, corporate bilge we've been fed since USA '94. Would FIFA today risk art deco or Jean Miro to advertise their product?

'Love's got the world in motion and we know what we can do'

World in Motion (Andrew Weatherall & Terry Farley No Alla Violenza Mix).mp3