Hits 21 - 1990 (3): Madonna, Adamski, ENGLANDneworder

Episode Date: October 20, 2024

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Hits 21! It's time for a new season: Hits 21 - The 90s. At the roundtable from now on it's Rob, Andy, and Ed, with Lizzy stepping aside for the next while. This week we've got Sinead O'Connor covering Prince, the last gasp of the 80s and the first breath of the 90s, and we come across a song that's survived a 34-year assault by British TV advertisement. Twitter: @Hits21UK Email: [e-mail]

Music Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits21 The 90s where me, Rob, me, Andy and me, Ed are looking back at every single UK number 1 of the 1990s. If you want to get in touch with us you can find us over on Twitter, we are at Hits21UK that is at Hits21UK and email us too, send it on over to Hits21podcast.gmail.com. Thank you ever so much for joining us again, we are currently looking back at the year 1990 and this week we'll be covering the period between the 8th of April and the 16th of June, so we're skipping through and we're almost halfway through the year after just three episodes. Last week the pole winner, I thought it would be tighter, it wasn't Sinead O'Connor, nothing compares to you and for our listeners, nothing compares to Sinead. It's not too surprising. No, not a massive surprise that it won but

I expected better competition and better representation from the other two but clearly they didn't. They didn't have the power. Didn't have the power. but clearly they didn't have the power. No, they didn't have the power and the poll wasn't good to the other. So it's time to press on with this week's episode and here are some news headlines from April to June-ish 1990. Several European nations ban imports of British beef in response to the ongoing outbreak of BSE, or Mad Cow Disease. Amid rumours that BSE is spreading to other animals, Agriculture Minister John Gummer publicly feeds a beef burger to his daughter. I think she was fine. The BSE outbreak

would continue until the late 90s with EU restrictions on British beef remaining in place until 2006. While the troubles continue in Northern Ireland with four UDR soldiers killed in a bomb attack in County Down, Latvia declares its independence from the Soviet Union, eventually being recognised a year later. Meanwhile, the 1990 World Cup begins in Italy, which we might have something to say about later. England would eventually reach the semi-finals before losing on penalties to eventual champions West Germany.

21-year-old Stephen Hendry becomes the youngest player in snooker history to win the World Championship, beating Jimmy White in the final. And in more football news, Liverpool win the first division title, Manchester United win the FA Cup beating Crystal Palace in the final replay, while AC Milan beat Benfica 1-0 to win the European Cup. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. Look Who's Talking for three weeks, The Craze for two weeks, before Pretty Woman begins

a nine week run at the top. Meanwhile TV Asia launches which is the first UK channel dedicated to South Asian and Indian communities. Italy's Toto Cattugno wins the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest with his song Insime 1992, I think that's how it's pronounced, held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. the UK finished 6th with Emma's Give a Little Love Back to the World. The contest was most notable this year for a major technical fault during Spain's opening performance, which saw the live orchestra queued in too late. The Spanish performance was subsequently restarted.

BBC One airs a benefit concert for Nelson Mandela, featuring performances from Anita Baker, Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel and Patti LaBelle. The final episode of You Bet airs on ITV, while the channel airs the first episode of Art Attack. And on Coronation Street, Gene Alexander returns as Hilda Rogden for a one-off special episode. God, this is a long time ago, isn't it? This is a very long time ago, wow. 34 years, Andy. So, 34 years ago, how were those album charts looking? They were looking very different to what they are today, let me tell you, because there's every artist that we're covering this week, you'd never get them at number one. Now, we ended last week with The Carpenters just taking number one at the

very end of that period with Only Yesterday, the greatest hits of The Carpenters which was number one for two weeks and went quadruple platinum. That goes into this period, it's interrupted for one week by Fleetwood Mac with their latest Behind the Mask. Again, what a long time ago, Fleetwood Mac get a number one albums, good on them. That went single platinum and did only make it to number one for one week before The Carpenters went back to number one for another five weeks. So seven out of those eight weeks from 7th of April all the way through to the end of May. The Carpenters were at number one with that album, a really giant hit there there and to see us through June well Sorry, let's see through June to see us through the end of May and the beginning of June

We've got soul to soul with the greatest hits from them as well volume 2 1990 a new decade that's a terribly clunky title They needed to workshop that volume 2 1990 a new decade terrible title But nonetheless it made 3 weeks at number 1 and went platinum. That's your lot this week, we've got The Carpenters, Fleetwood Mac and Soul to Soul. Which do we think is most likely to get number 1 in 2024? I guess probably Fleetwood Mac. Yeah, I think if Fleetwood Mac reunited there would be, well I mean they're not going to now obviously for obvious reasons, but I think if they were to reunite for new material that would

That would definitely guarantee them a number one album So Ed to paraphrase Alan Partridge slightly. Let's see what these idiots did in America Go ahead Let battle commence Amazingly my job is gonna get easier and easier as this year goes on because starting from now there are only six more number one albums for the rest of the year in the United States one of them is only at number one for one week as well but starting in April for three weeks we have Bonnie Raitt's Nick of Time which only

reached number 51 in the UK on a completely other note seeing as from April into June with six weeks at number one it's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got by Sinead O'Connor which also hit it big over here obviously and then and unfortunately this is only thus just the beginning Please Hammer Don't Hurt Him by MC Hammer has three weeks at number one reaching UK number eight which seems awfully low from my recollection but don't worry if you think three weeks is very scanty for this this pop behemoth I don't he will be back and back and back again so yeah and lots to look forward to the other

two albums of the year but right singles quite a, and quite a few that I think made no impact over here. Mostly because I think they toy with a genre that, especially at the time, we didn't have ears for. I bet you probably know what I'm talking about. So yeah, in April we have one week at the top spot for Love Will Lead You Back by Taylor Dane which reached the grand but nice chart position of 69 in the UK. Then we have another unforgettable hit with I'll Be Your Everything by Tommy Page which scaled the heights of number 53 in the UK and then they catch up or vice versa. Nothing compares to You by

Sinead O'Connor is number one in America for four weeks and into June, we've got another pretty big hit that we will be discussing shortly. Vogue by Madonna. Which, yes, shock horror, gets the number one here as well. And then, oh, the children of Brian Wilson. How can they fail? It's Wilson Phillips for a single week with Hold On. Finally, for two weeks in June, it must have been Love by Roxette, which I was like,

that's an 80s song for sure! And it turns out it kind of was. It was originally released in a Christmas version in 1987, where it reached the top five in Sweden, and then was re-released with a couple of words change in 1990 and was a massive smash hit pretty much everywhere. However it only reached UK number three but is I think it's quite quite solidly remembered that track. Well thank you both very much for those reports. Before we get going with the music this week I just want to give a shout out to King Scott 91 on Twitter. You will have noticed during the first two episodes of our 90s series that we've been a bit confused

about the certifications awarded to certain songs, chiefly that the British phonographic industry certifications were much lower than expected. Now, King Scott 91 has provided us with an explanation for this. So it seems that a lot of the data we relied on for Hits 21 in the 2000s, that comes from a deal that was struck between the Official Charts Company and the Cantar-Milward Brown Media Group in 1994. So songs released before 1994 might have some outdated certifications due to incomplete sales information, Which means that going forward, we will slightly be changing how each song is introduced on the podcast. The change isn't major, but you'll notice it straight away.

Things should settle down again though once we reach the mid-90s amid the bookkeeping and statistics moving into a more modern context and one that fits with how we did things on Hits 21 for the 2000s so that was just a quick thing thank you very much to Kingscott91 for that information you will notice the change when it comes along and you will notice it in a couple of minutes because the first song that we have up this week is this Music Strike a pose. Strike a pose. Oh, oh

Oh, oh Look around, everywhere you turn is hot eight It's everywhere that you go You go around You try everything you can to escape But pay no less that you know Life has to be long And you all else fails and you long to be

Something better than you are today I know a place where you can get away It's called a dance floor Okay, this is Vogue by Madonna. Released as the lead single from her second soundtrack album and her fourth album overall titled I'm Breathless, music from and inspired by the film Dick Tracy, Vogue is Madonna's 27th single overall to be released in the UK and her 7th to reach number 1, and it's not the last time Madonna hits the top of the charts. Vogue first entered the UK charts at number 4, reaching number 1 during its second week on the chart.

It stayed at number 1 for...FOUR WEEKS! Across its four weeks atop the charts it sold 260,000 copies beating competition from Black Velvet by Elana Miles, Kingston Town by UB40 and Step On by Happy Mondays, Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul and The Wild Pair and All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You by Heart, Killer by Adamski and Seal and Ghetto Heaven by Family Stand and Dirty Cash by The Adventures of Stevie V and A Dream's A Dream by Soul to Soul. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Vogue fell three places to number four. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 14 weeks. The song is currently

officially certified platinum in the UK as of 2024 based on pre-Kantar data. So, Ed, kick us off with Vogue. Well this is very much Madonna entering the 90s should we say. I love the integration of house music into this. It's got such a lovely cool slick sinewy sound to it which entirely suits the vibe of the track which is reveling in the sort of superficial fashion world in the best sort of sense. I do really dig this track. But... I'm a joyless asshole, so I've got to have some sort of modifier there.

I've never been the biggest fan of Madonna's voice. It's just got a kind of nasally, slightly whiny quality to her voice that... I don't think it does the chorus any favors, but that's fine. It's fine, it's not a big issue. I think my personal issue with this track that stops it from being a song that I enjoy, which I really do, I think it's a good track, into something that I actually love, is that it kind of sounds a bit like it's neither fish nor fowl in terms of being a dance track or a pop song. And I mean, you

know, hybrids of those things are really cool. I'm not expecting them to be one thing or the other, but it feels like it hasn't got the detail or the, you know, the momentum of dance. And it actually hasn't quite got the, like the chorus focal point of pop either. And I know there's, there's, the chorus is obvious and quite clear, but for me it's sort of, it doesn't have that extra bit of kick. And there's something missing from the chorus for me

that stops it, so it feels like the song kind of, it persists on a level and not in a kind of sly in the family stone gonna groove it kind of a way. But it's not a big problem. I enjoy the track. Maybe if, I don't know, speaking of last week's episode,

if Jocelyn Brown had sung the chorus part instead, that might've just lifted it for me. But yeah, I I mean it's for a song about like the power of looks and appearances and things it is quite subdued but it is graceful I'll give it that it's it's it's magisterial yeah that's I do like it don't get me wrong and but obviously I'm just gearing up for the fact that I have a sneaking suspicion that the reception from you two might be a little more rosy than mine.

But it is good. It is good. Yes, my reading of it is a little rosier than that. I love this. Definitely my favourite song of 1990 thus far. And it will be in contention for my favourite number one of 1990 overall. I think this is Madonna operating at one of her peaks, she has a few, I think basically from the word go I'm into this, I think the moment that seals it for me comes really early on and it's when the beat kicks in, which would be enough on its own but you also get those keyboard stabs, the pop uh, like that underneath and then the

sample of Madonna's you know, strike a pose and you get these three things at once when it could easily just do one thing. And so you have a lot of what makes this special going on basically right there because I think there's numerous ideas that clash in this. You have a lot of house and dance pop, you have all the references to classic Hollywood, Madonna going from quite seductive tones and then switching up suddenly to belt out the chorus. I think if we were on Strictly Come Dancing and I was Shirley Ballas, I'd be pointing at the professional dancer saying, you have packed this routine with so much content, young lady, because... Nice impression.

Yes, I thought I didn't think it was too terrible. But there is so much content in this and so much of it, I think above anything else, sounds like a new decade. I think there's barely anything here that exists in the 80s charts. Like you have some Cathy Dennis stuff and maybe some black box. But this feels like it grabs that and shoves it into a near future. The thing about Madonna that I think I appreciate more than anything which is that between 83 and about 2007 she approaches every new era with this boldness and confidence whether it's a new image or a new sound or whatever.

She doesn't go ever go completely nuts or off the wall into like alternative styles but within pops I think she always tries to push it along either musically or aesthetically or with an image or you know the synergy between those forms of media and make POP what it is and she's seen something developing here underground through the latter half of the 80s and she's like right okay that's the sound of the immediate future let's go and that's without getting into the fact that she released this massive what it you, you know, I don't actually, I say became, it probably was a bit of a gay anthem basically from the beginning.

Right in the middle of the AIDS panic, put in the spotlight on LGBT scenes in New York with this right at the time when it was probably not so obviously financially lucrative to do so. But Andy, I'll give you the floor to discuss that more in a second. I'm just going to pull myself back from that. My one criticism is that after the second chorus I wish it just organized itself a little better. I don't actually have a problem with it having those four and five verses but and subsequently four and five choruses I just think it has to stop and start in a few weird

places to get itself back to the point. I think if I was writing this I'd maybe duck out the second chorus straight into that kind of Pet Shop Boys bit the Gritter Garbo and Monroe that bit but I Don't know if I'd caught the beauties where you find it bit either. I'd maybe put them together have them overlay You know like have the Hollywood names running away in the background instead Like, you know bring the two verses together names running away in the background instead, like, you know, bring the two verses together and then go wham for a big finish. But I still think overall this is a terrific pop experience. I think that I've come to this over the years via wedding parties, school discos, birthdays.

I think it cemented its place there as a kind of dance floor anthem, if you will, and until Confessions on the Dance Floor, one of the danciest things that Madonna did, because obviously she spends a lot of dance floor anthem, if you will. And until Confessions on the Dance Floor, one of the danciest things that Madonna did, because obviously she spends a lot of the 90s after this point, in my favorite era personally, the kind of erotica bedtime stories, Ray of Light run, where she moves more into like down tempo and sounds of the 2000s in a way. I think like, you know, that's where I'm, I'm keen, uh, keenest on Madonna. But, you know, until Confessions of the Dancefloor, this is like, you know, this is like the closest thing she does, I think, to like the closest thing to like pure disco or at least disco worship

anyway. I kind of hear things like spinning around a little bit in the distance on this, not majorly, but just, you know, just a little bit. It feels like it's, you know, how can we do disco in the nineties and how can we combine disco and house? And yeah, I think there's a lot of interesting stuff going on here. So Andy, now it's your turn, go ahead. Thank you very much.

Love the idea, by the way, of Shirley Ballas contributing to this podcast. That would be excellent. Yeah. That was a very complex routine Madonna and I thought you did an excellent job today. Heel to toe, heel to toe, heel to toe. That was phenomenal. Yes well thank you for both acknowledging the fact that I will have many effusive comments to make about this because I am of course the

podcast's resident homosexual. Welcome to Andy's gay corner if that's not what you're up for go get yourself a cup of tea run a bath boil an egg you'll have time for all three anyway so yes I sort of I usually just make brief bullet points about you know what I want to talk about and just kind of freeform it a little bit because that's how I work but you sometimes get songs where I'm like no no I'm not going to be able to say everything I have too much to say I need to gather my thoughts and just follow a script. I did that with all the things she said, I did that with Can't Get You Out Of My Head I think this is one of them and a few points of order just before we do get started. It's interesting Rob you mentioned that you've

got into this like from family parties and stuff like that. I never really had this in family parties as I as a kid, when I was a kid and I got into this as with so many songs from Glee where this one they did a Madonna episode it was the first kind of theme episode they did and Sue Sylvester performed the entire song and did the whole video as well they recreated the whole video in black and white as well with Sue Sylvester and she just changed the Greta Garbo I love you to Will Schuster I hate you so whenever I listen to this song now I always just picture Sue Sylvester thank you Jane Lynch yes and also because I'm a huge huge fan of this song and so is my husband this song is on all the time in our house it's a it's a key. And you'll also know that we have a little dog called Richie

who likes to appear in the background of this show as well. And we have a version of Vogue that we sing about Richie actually, which I should probably share with you about things that he likes to eat. And it goes, I eat toes, also I eat rocks and poopy, rocks and poopy. Yes, because he does, he eats all three. That's his life and it is. Anyway, so those are my brief points of order.

I'll get straight to the point. This is a masterpiece. A masterpiece. I completely take the criticisms that you've both made. Obviously more Ed than you Rob, but I do take the criticisms that you've both made, obviously more Ed than the new Rob, but I do take the criticisms. Politely disagree though, because I think this is something that's just standing in its own kind of place in pop history really. Definitely that's a retrospective thing, but I do think at the time as well this was really striking while a particular iron was hot. The ideas of it are simple. Very simple, very straightforward. Celebration of fashion, open arms to the queer community, body and image positivity, shout outs to Hollywood icons and fashion icons

of the days of yore. And each one of those are big concepts that you could build a whole song around and Vogue manages to not just balance them with taste, with art and with very great ease, but actually it manages to combine all of those things into one and turn it into something entirely new, which is a sort of mission statement for a whole culture really. Because this song, you know, as much as some may consider it just like a PR exercise and it's not that at all, it's coming from a genuine place and it's not just even like a mission statement This is like a manifesto. This is like a whole kind of sit down and listen This is the book on how we want culture to be and it's awe-inspiring in that respect really

So many lines thrown in just read like a whole vision of the world that like end up Going down the decades into you know stuff from the noughties and stuff from the tens and stuff from the present day going right down into the present day. Stuff like beauty is where you find it and the you're a superstar yes that's what you are you know it. The don't just stand there let's get to it strike a pose there's nothing to it which I can't help but say in the rhythm. But like they're really simple concepts really simple lines but they just are sort of simple in a profound way and they're presented with

such boldness, with such confidence and with such a total lack of apology or compromise or justification that it feels revolutionary. Even though it's not really, it's not really, it's more of a kind of template setting but it feels like a revolution happening. But these concepts, they don't automatically stand on their own as things that make great music. Like plenty of songs have gone for ideas like that and they've often sounded trite. You know, like they're picking up easy points

or they sound inauthentic. I'm sure you know some of the usual suspects who I'm talking about with that, who kind of go for this kind of thing just to kind of pick up some points. That's not what this is. This is what is different about Vogue. The song itself is such an excellent companion piece

to the lyrics and to what it's doing. The song itself is so amazingly mysterious. It's so kind of big and epic sounding and stylish that it really works. It pulls everything together. And I completely agree with what both of you have said is that it almost doesn't really sound like a pop song. Like it veers so far into other things,

into other genres that it doesn't really sound like a pop song at all a lot of the time. But except it does because of what a huge banger it is, in my opinion, at least. Gorgeous production all the way through, extremely catchy verses, choruses, and bridges. I think you can easily just sing your way through the whole thing but what is so great about this and I listeners will know I do not often say this about songs one of

my favorite things about it is how much time it takes how sort of on the moment it is and how it does not rush its way through hugely hugely helps the song That slow build from the strings at the start like from from silence into just one instrument to then a throbbing bass underneath then the like you said Rob the sudden arrival of the drums and the synth pad and the striker pose all at once Madonna's voice gradually making its way more into the song But you don't get the first verse until a minute and 20 into the song. It's just all build up up to that point and then you wait almost a further minute again for the first chorus. This is theatrical. It's taking you away with it. It's camp in the coolest and most refreshing way and so

imaginative. All of that would be amazing to hear from a pop song at any time, but as Rob touched on, absolutely right, put this in context, right, this is, the year is 1990. Social attitudes at this time have been going backwards rather than forwards, certainly where LGBT people are concerned, going backwards for years at this point. On both sides of the pond we've got either Thatcher or Reagan and Bush who have been in power for the whole of the 80s and are still in charge at this moment. And for the queer community, HIV and AIDS is running rampant through our world, with actual legislation deliberately in place to not just prevent our efforts to halt the spread of the disease, but to actively silence us and to actively kill us all off, basically, and pretend we don't exist.

And as we hear from plenty of songs like It's a Sin or stuff from Communards like Enough is Enough and plenty of other things the rage of that, the shame and the futility and all of that is potent across pop music. What you don't often get is something like this. This is different because and it's so needed as well what we have is joy and confidence. Like, yes, the world is shit right now, but you look gorgeous.

You're a superstar and you are unstoppable. So sod them all. Get to it. You know, legends in your history have stood up there, put on a show and inspired you and now it's your turn. No matter who tries to stop you. Don't just stand there. Let's get to it. It is a genuine, and the phrase is used a lot in our community, but is a genuine cultural reset at a time when that was needed the most. Future queer icon herself, Lady Gaga, is so often described as the Madonna of that generation and that's one of the key

reasons why I think because Madonna in this moment represents a social and cultural leader producing this kind of five minute rallying cry to be who you are, do what you do and enjoy the hell out of doing it and it's as important now as it was then. So I think in terms of the music, in terms of the lyrics, in terms of what it's doing, the video, the whole package, it's an iconic moment in queer history and in pop music history, I think, immaculately produced and immaculately executed. I think it's the highlight of Madonna's whole career and undoubtedly one of the greatest,

most impactful, most influential number ones of the early 1990s and beyond. And we have a super secret scoring system, obviously, which we don't like to share. But again, thank you, Rob, for queuing me in on this because if I was Shirley Ballas I'd be saying it's never too early for a 10 from Shirley Amazing amazing breakdown loved that so much. Should we do an Andes gay corner every single episode? Oh, we do a regular feature No, no, we need a jingle. We need a proper jingle. Andy's gay corner. Well you say that. I've already done that as well because I've literally made Vogue the theme tune of this season of the show.

The whole podcast is your gay corner Andy. Yeah I was saying this joking about this before that I always do these mad long diatribes about like the gay experience and stuff and put camp songs at the start of the show And I was joking saying I will not stop until everyone on this planet is homosexual I think we should turn it into a bit of a challenge to see if you can make anything gay about Turtle power by partners in crime next week. Leave that one with me. Thanks for the assignment, okay? There's something gay about everything and sometimes the harder it tries not to be gay, the more it can end up being gay, so hey. Four blokes living alone. Hmm, no.

I'll think of something. So we will move on to our second song this week, which is... This! So few want to be free Live your life the way you want to be Will you be healed if we cry? Will we live or will we die? Tainted hearts, here with time, shoot that love So we can stop the bleeding Okay, this is Killer by Adamski. Released as the second single from his debut studio album titled Dr. Adamski's Musical Pharmacy, Killer is Adamski's second single overall to be released in the UK and his first to reach number one.

However, as of 2024, it is his last. The song also features vocals from Seal. Killer first entered the UK chart at number 45, reaching number one during its sixth week on the chart. It stayed at number one for...four weeks! Across its 4 weeks atop the charts, it sold 274,000 copies, beating competition from Better the Devil You Know by Kylie Minogue and Cover Girl by New Kids on the Block, Hold On by Unvogue and Won't Talk About It by Beats International, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by Chimes and Take Your Time by Mantronix, World in Motion by England New Order, Venus by Don Pablo's Animals and How Can We Be

Lovers by Michael Bolton. When it was not at the top of the charts, Killer dropped one place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 18 weeks. The song is currently officially certified gold in the UK as of 2024 based on pre-Kantar data. Ed, you seem to have lost it there at the mention of Don Pablo's animals. Are you doing ok there? Sorry, I had to mute my mic.

I don't know, that just set me off. Just this random bloody nature. Anyway, carry on. I'm sorry, call me. Oh dear. So, Andy, I'll come to you first on Killer. How are we feeling about this? Yeah, don't worry. You wouldn't need to hear as much of my voice now because I've not got anywhere near as much to say about this. This is not an iconic moment in music history, but it is very, very good, this. I really enjoyed this. It's such a shame because it's not like my favorite number one of 1990. It's not even my favorite number one this week but those are the breaks you know you've ended up

in episode with Vogue but otherwise this probably would have been my favorite of the week because there's a lot that I really really like about this. I love that thumping, thumping percussion and the bass that goes with it, which kind of indistinguishable, the two of them together, that boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Oh, love that, love that. And weirdly, I do think it's kind of reminiscent

of a future Madonna hit, strangely enough. So that's probably reminiscent of this and that that ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba all the way through. It's really given me ray of light and Yeah, and I had this weird memory of Getting these songs confused when I was younger kind of combining them into one ray of light and this and there is a tiny little bit of DNA between them I mainly knew this song

From going to cinema when I was a kid I had a showcase cinema which was my local and they used to play this kind of trailer thing of like, well, not even a trailer, a kind of, let's all go to the lobby kind of thing. But it was like, no smoking, and the exits are here and here, and they put some music behind it. And I literally found it today

just to make sure I wasn't going mad. And yes, they adapted Killer for that. So this was kind of Muzack for me as a kid, which I associated with, oh, I'm gonna say Tarzan or the Phantom Menace or Mulan or whatever's next. So thank you for that. Yeah, so I have huge nostalgia for this

for a very weird reason, but I never actually sit down and listen to this. I don't know why, because it's not like I'm unfamiliar or it's not like I don't like it. I just never really sit down and listen to this. And I'm really glad that doing this show has made me do that because it's definitely going back into my regular rotation in this. Um, I love Seal's performance, that kind of grainy, like sort of plaintive,

almost kind of like, I don't want to say whiny. I'm trying to think of a positive way of saying that, but that kind of voice that goes through it where it's really quite sort of raw and emotional that goes through it. Really perfect counterpoint to that super, super slick production behind it. I could do without the little tinkly keyboard in the middle. I think that distracts from the super, super cool vibes of the whole thing other than that. But other than that, I don't really have much bad to say about it at all. I think this song is a great advert for atonality by which I mean not sticking to a major or minor key or either or both or neither, you know, just kind of because this song kind of starts with no real

major or minor tonality at all and then it goes into a very clear minor key in the chorus and then literally bar to bar, within a bar even, just flits in and out which gives it this really kind of odd, almost empty character that you can kind of project yourself onto it and get whatever mood you want to from this For me, because it's got that kind of ray of light, kind of sort of feel into it a bit of William Orbit sensibility like I kind of get a feeling of like flying from this, like sort of like just something kind of tonal and hmm just a nice feeling from this because there's not any kind

of specific thing being forced onto you. I really like big wide open songs like that that have that kind of space for you to put your own kind of feeling and your own emotion onto it. Really really enjoyed this. I don't think it's like the best thing in the world and it's not even the best thing of this week as I said but yeah big thumbs up to this one, absolutely. I'm sort of with you on this Andy, I came to this only kind of tangentially kind of knowing what this was like you know just kind of being aware of it because through the years I've always been like trying to listen to all of the number one singles that have ever happened but like you know I got the I think it was a Guinness book or something like that with it was the big book of

British hit singles to mark the thousandth number one in the UK and they did a whole book with like full of stats and every act and every song that had ever charted ever, singles or albums, full book of it and so and at the back there were thousand number ones in like the last sort of like 50 pages or whatever and I'd listened through them all over time as a kid and so coming back to this I was like I can't remember this from like 15 years ago, 20 years ago, whatever, but listening to it now for the first time in a long time, I'm quite struck by how much this seems to predict the direction a little bit of like dance and progressive house through the 90s and into the 2000s. I think just in a Hits 21 context, I can hear things like Tom Craft, where this just allows dance to be more mysterious and full of shadows. You know, we've just had something bright and shiny with Vogue which is a bold

declaration to the rest of the world but this looks inward and it sits in darker corners, basically straight away, it's curious for something like this to be number one. But for 4 weeks, I think the British public were caught up in something pretty good here, this is something that emerged out of the rave scene of the late 80s which is a whole new thing for Seal at the time Gave him a new lease of creativity, which he takes advantage of here. I think his performance is great But as much as his performance is great, I like how he's never allowed to dominate here He's not even given top billing next to Adamski, you know, it just kind of shows that you know, Adamski is the one in control

He's the one arranging things. He sets the atmosphere and the mood and Seal kind of has to work on his terms, even on the version that Seal re-recorded a year after this for his, I think it's for his debut album or for his second album, you know, that backing beat is still loud and unmistakably this. And I think why I've become quite taken with this is that I love that specific brand of like Afrofuturism that appears in the early 90s when we begin to understand like what it is and the term actually starts to be used by like scholars and stuff like that you know a lot of early 90s rap and black american dance music you know really thought about how web 1.0 aesthetics could be applied to music I'm talking about like you know the sound of Detroit techno, the progressions in hip

hop and rap that were made around this time, there's also little bits of acid house in this and I think this collection of songs that we've got this week is quite exciting, it feels like the decade's opening up a little bit, I can see things from the future in these three songs in one way or another. What probably leaves me slightly unable to vault it though is just that whenever I'm away from it I can never really remember the structure or how half of it goes. When I'm with it I'm constantly picking things out, taking a look, you know, what have you, but when it's off I'm just like, I need to listen to this again just to remember kind of how it goes. It doesn't, I don't know, it doesn't stay with me. It kind of goes through my system.

It's like nice, but it just doesn't stick in the way that I want it to, because when it's there, it's all very curious. But I feel like if I didn't have my notes in front of me, I'd kind of be going, yeah, you know, pretty dark and interesting, I suppose. I just, I think I need more time with this. I think me and this song need more time together.

So ask me again at the end of the year, 1990, how I feel about this and I may nudge it into the vault in the future. I may, you know, or when we come to the end of the 90s and, you know, we get the chance to revolt something that we might have missed earlier in the decade. But I find this interesting enough to give it the time that I might need to love it, if that makes sense. Ed, how about you? I agree with pretty much everything both of you have just said. I've not got a huge amount extra to add. There are some things I might contextualize

in a different sort of way. I mean, straight away, Andy, you hit on it with it, just the, the way that the percussion has been matched up with the, the riff is so infectious. I mean, I'll be honest as great as Seal's voice is Rob, you mentioned it doesn't, uh, Seal's voice doesn't dominate the song and it doesn't, I mean, the track is all about that riff. The doong, doong, doong, doong, doong, doong, doong, doong, doong. Seal's voice doesn't dominate the song and it doesn't. I mean, the track is all about that riff. The, do,

do, do, do, do, that's fantastic. That could go on for a good long time as far as I'm concerned. It does feel,

it feels good. It feels very open, as you say, Andy. And that's the same way I kind of feel about Vogue as well It's got such a nice sound to it It's very classy and in it sort of asserts itself very quickly without needing to shove in a load of extra bells and whistles But it's interesting because you both what you said this about Killer Rob and Andy you said it about Vogue, there's a mysterious quality to them. And I hadn't quite picked up on that, but I think that might be what I'm angling at when I say that

both for me, both Vogue and this kind of lack that sort of central lightning strike moment that I'm looking for. And maybe that's just my expectation, but maybe that's counter to what the feel of the song is supposed to be. Maybe it's just not that kind of song. Maybe it is supposed to be just a sort of a, an almost ambient mystery in a way. But then again, Rob, you're saying that maybe if you hit,

if we asked you again at the end of the year, you might be well on top of it. I mean, I'm very familiar with this song. I've liked it for quite a long time, but I still get the same feeling, Rob, that I'm like, it's the riff. That's what I get. And the rest of the song, I have to push myself. It's like, Oh, that that's the solitary brother. It's that one, isn't it? And then when I listen to it, it's like, that's not, it's not really a chorus. It's not really backed up. It's like, there's not a specific like ebb and flow or crescendo point or anything like that. But again, it's just not got the dynamic build or anything that a dance track would. So it kind of leaves me a bit, you know, I don't know

how to hold this exactly. It doesn't quite resonate with me. Do you get what I mean? It's really interesting you say that because I made that comment last week. I know it's not quite the point you're making, but I do think it's on the same theme where I think I said it about the power or I might have said it the week earlier actually about how a lot of songs of this era kind of have a sound slapped on them that goes from start to finish and there's no rise and fall there's no zero to 60 and I don't think it's really a problem with this but I do think that sensibility is still there where it's like you put this song in the club and

you can kind of either stitch it to the end of another song, stitch it to the front of a different song and you can kind of have this continuous beat from song to song. Definitely a bit of a thing of this era and not just a dance music thing. I definitely think that's a noticeable trend. I think it works better here but yeah I do agree that that's something that's really coming out in so many songs, Vogue being the notable exception, that there isn't much of a build up and down in most of the songs we've covered in 1990. Yeah there's an ambient horizontal aspect to them they look like a kind of line in my mind and it's interesting because a lot of

music that I love that is based around you know one cyclical chord sequence one rhythmic motif over and over again, that uses that as a sort of a bed to build off. Whereas this, it very much, it rides that beat. And I bloody love that riff. It's great. But it doesn't feel like that much is added to make it much more than how cool you find that beat and how cool it is when the slight noodly bits of the chorus question mark drop off and you just

left back with the DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN because that's that's great that that's that's a bit classic and talk about the power of videos have you ever seen the video of this song? Haven't actually no. Yeah it's not aged great it's got some very kind of zappy late 80s Doctor Who effects in it but it's pretty simple and memorable it's basically as I recall it's Seal is singing the song it's his his head is on screen three times at different angles and they are slowly rotating around the screen into the foreground and away from you like he had three miniature heads of his put in a

microwave I don't think that was the intention I just think I always half expect when I open my microwave to find Seale in there singing away about solitary brothers I like it but again I just I can't it's not got that that lightning strike that I need to really vault it literally and figuratively. Tell you who doesn't have one single solitary brother the Ninja Turtles. Good foreshadowing for next week Andy.. A foreshadowing's the meme that's going around at the moment, isn't it? We're cool, we're down with the children. On TikToks and whatever.

We're going to move on to the third and final song this week. Which is... This! Well, some of the crowd are on the pitch, they think it's all over, but it is now. Express yourself, create the space you know you can win Don't give up the chase, beat the man, take him on You never give up, it's one on one Express yourself, it's one on one Express yourself, it's one on one

Express yourself, you can't be wrong Especially ourselves It's one on one Especially ourselves You can't be wrong when something's good, it's never gone Love's got the world in motion and I know what we can do Love's got the world in motion and I can't believe it's true Okay, this is World in Motion by England New Order. Released as a standalone single, World in Motion is New Order's 21st single overall to be released in the UK and their first to reach number 1, however as of 2024 it is their last. It's also the first and only single to be released by the Italian 90 England

Men's Football Squad. World in Motion first entered the UK chart at number 2, reaching number 1 during its second week on the chart. It stayed at number 1 for...2 weeks! In its first week atop the charts it sold 88,000 copies copies beating competition from Hear the Drummer by Chad Jackson which climbed to number 3, Doing the Do by Betty Boo which climbed to number 8 and The Only One I Know by The Charlotons which climbed to number 10. And in week 2 it sold 71,000 copies beating competition from Step by Step by New Kids on the Block, which got to number 2, Sacrifice Double A Side with Healing Hands by Earl and John, which climbed

to number 5, It Must Have Been Loved by Rock Set, which climbed to number 6 and Hold On by Wilson Phillips, which climbed to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, World in Motion dropped 1 place to number 2. By the time, nope, the song initially left the charts in August 1990 but re-entered the top 100 in 2002, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2024, meaning that it has spent a total of 26 weeks on the chart. The song is currently officially certified gold in the UK, but that's based on that pre-Kantard data that we mentioned before.

Hmm, I wonder what happened in 2002, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2024 that means that World in Motion would re-enter the charts. Ed, do you have any idea? Well, not being a sporting person, I don't have any idea. But yeah, so Ingerland New Order then, as the song insists it's pronounced, strangely. But yeah, this is all about context for me, because on the one hand, given what it fundamentally is, it's great. And on the other hand, as a New Order song from someone who rather likes New Order, it's pretty mid, to be honest. It ain't great. I would say I love 80s New Order, you know, substance stuff. I didn't really follow them after like True Faith, the original version. But, um,

and I have a lot of time for Bernard Sumner's kind of, you know, bloke next door vocals because they're very earthy and it added an extra bit of sort of pompous charm to these... it was just unusual to have these grandiose like dance pop rock constructions with this sort of, you know, really unassuming, very unforceful voice talking about like, should I go out to the club or should I stay and be sad and that was like a nine-minute megamix about that that's I like that however this sort of short rabble rousing track where he's supposed to be singing about come on let's let's rouse everybody to victory Bernard Sumner doesn't quite cut it in this circumstance. He just disappears into the background.

I mean, is there anybody, they've got one for the, for the rapping. Is there anybody on the Inga land side who could have actually done more forceful singing on this? Do you think? Glenn Hoddle, Glenn Hoddle. Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle. Yeah, they should have sung it. They can bloody sing.

They should have sung it. Yeah. Exactly, they can sing better than Bernard Sumner. No offence to Bernard Sumner, but they can. There's David Platt in the team at this time. Yeah, yeah. Ah, that's a shame. You've got the Beach Boys right there, Jesus.

But yeah, this is, it's fine for most of it. It really becomes fun, I think, when there's the harmonic shift and you get the recordings of the, you know, I think it's all over. That's probably a re-recording, to be honest. And it starts getting interesting. And then you have the charmingly sort of simple,

straightforward rapping, which everyone remembers partly because it is so kind of prosaic. I am the England man. But he does it, he pulls it off and he actually has somehow more presence than the lead singer of the band, which is odd. But, yeah, and then it comes together for that coda, which I think is the best bit of the song.

It's the point of the song. You know, the Ingelander, Reva Dirtshe, it's one-on-one. That's a good bit there, but it is all a little bit placid and the vocals don't help. And it also doesn't help that they really could do is mixing up their sound a bit at this point because while they were ahead of the game in about 1987 they're kind of being overtaken by slightly more forceful and alien sounding variants that they kicked off because this isn't really that different from stuff they were doing in about 86, if you know what I mean, sound-wise. And it does just end

up sounding a bit like a less hard-hitting version of like a Pet Shop Boys single, just because it doesn't have the solid, you know, melodic punch to it. It's not got that hook throughout the rest of the song that's needed. But for a football song, this is about as good as you're going to get. And that's, I don't know whether that's laudatory or just a bit sad, but it's good. Well, I'm full of enthusiasm this time. So yeah Well, um Glenn Hoddle wouldn't have been able to sing I got ahead of myself there because he was slightly over the hill by this point David Platt and

Chris Waddell are both in the squad At this point Mark Wright He had a bit of a career using his voice admittedly just as a pundit But I don't think any of them Paul Gascoigne. He's he's had a bit of a career using his voice admittedly just as a pundit, but I don't think any of them. Paul Gascoigne, he's had a pop career around this time. Fog on the Tyne is all his, all his. Oh Christ. I keep forgetting that deliberately. Yeah, there aren't many players in the England squad with a musical bone in their body. I always find it's a bit of a surprise when I find that footballers are in bands and things like that

That does happen just to kind of you know, keep things, you know Keep the energy going and that sort of thing when they're not training they break the tension out by playing instruments or rapping or singing or whatever But yeah as evidenced by Peter Beardsley's version of John Barnes's verse Which is available on YouTube if you just type in Peter Beardsley, World in Motion, you will hear a man trying to understand what music is while performing at the same time. I don't think he's heard a musical note in his life before. He's being taught the concept of rhythm

as he's delivering the verse. It's not great. Andy, World in motion, in good new order. In order to give some cohesion to my thoughts, I will be clear at the start and say I do really like this and I think it's probably the only football song that I actively like. I think Three Lions is like okay, like I'd probably just about put that as a positive but it's just kind of fine. Generally, I fucking hate football songs. I think they're really bad.

Like I would happily just get rid of all of them, to be honest, mainly because of the context of them and that I think they represent a really ugly side of British culture and a really ugly side of our attitudes to bloody foreigners scoring goals. They want to have voice. Sorry. So I just kind of have a distaste for them because I sort of feel physically unsafe when I'm listening to them a lot of the time.

But this one is good. And I think, it's not rocket science really, I think the reason why this is probably the best football song that I'm aware of is that the football thing is an afterthought to some extent. It's just a good song. It's just very, very fun to listen to. It ain't a football song.

But like, weirdly, second time of the week we have mentioned Fairy Tale of New York, but like, I don't think it's a coincidence that that's a lot of people's favorite Christmas songs because it's a genuinely really good song and Christmas is just kind of in there. And that's the same with this, that yes, it's got the whole England England New Order thing but I think this is more New Order than it is England. I think if there's a kind of tug of war between the two and a lot of football songs do sound like a tug of war between is this music or is this just England England England and this is definitely a proper song it just has an England theme to it. I don't think it needs the England bit because that always reminds me when I'm listening to a bloody football song but I wouldn't be surprised if like this was just

written as a completely different song and then they kind of got this out of the drawer to think yeah let's turn that into an England song we've been asked to do an England song so let's just use that. It sounds a lot like True Faith which which I love, absolutely love that song. And speaking of what it sounds like, I mean, this is a slight, I don't know if you know this is even a bad thing, really. I don't know if this is an insult to the song, but you know, we've had Vogue at the start of the week where I'm like, that's like kind of perfectly on the borderline between eighties and nineties. Um, where I'm like, oh, we're just pushing into a new era here.

And then with Killow, it's like, oh yeah, definitely. We're into the early 90s here. Fresh new, you know, brave new world here. This, it's like I've been absolutely catapulted back about five or six years. Like this is so 80s, this. Absolutely awash with big, boom, boom, boom, synths all the way through,

like the McCoy era of Doctor Who. Like it's just really like very loud to listen to. And that means that there's big problems with the mix. Completely agree that the voice is really buried in the mix. I don't know what happened there. Maybe they didn't have much time to put it together. It shouldn't work because of everything that I'm saying,

but it somehow does. I think the idea is so mad that it might just work really that you've got this new order mild banger that's absolutely cacophonous and it's got John Barnes doing a rap in the middle and it works it's actually a very fun song to listen to and it kind of just get me cheery listening to it. I almost wonder like is this good or am I just kind of being taken away with it like I kind of like is this good or am I just kind of being taken away with it like I kind of have to question whether this is actually good but I do enjoy it. And as for John Barnes I think he does a good job every time I

listen to it now I'm constantly reminded of the scene of Gavin and Stacey where they all sing his whole bit. That's how I know all the words to that really. I think he does a decent job it's again it's a strange idea which shouldn't work at all. Like can you imagine, say if he'd done this like 10 years later and he'd had Wayne Rooney or Michael, God forbid, Michael Owen doing it. You know, it would have been awful. Like it shouldn't work at all but it does and that's the point I've said repeatedly that I'm gonna stick on. Shouldn't work but it does. This is pretty fun. Just a few other things to point out. Weirdly, again, Madonna, like unintentionally,

but there's a Madonna theme this week because I can't be the only one who constantly thinks of her with the express yourself that goes through several times. And it's the same melody, just in a different key. It's the same melody as when she does express herself. So there's that. But also a theme which I do like, very minor point, and I don't know if this is something about pop music at the time, but all three of the songs

that we've covered this week have some kind of offbeat rhythm at the bottom, which really gives things a nice dancy quality and a sort of genuinely offbeat quality. You know, cause Vogue's got that boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom at the start and then Killer's got the boom, boom, boom, boom, and then this has got that kind of boom, da, da, da, da, da, thing with the synth in the bridge. Really like that, really, really like that. We're kind of not so boom, ju, boom, ju, boom, ju on things these days.

Really, really like that. So yes, definitely more positives than negatives and I have a soft spot for this just because it's so tacky and so silly that I give it points for the attempt to be honest. Not the greatest thing in the world but I feel quite kind about it to be honest because I'm not going to be kind about any other football song so enjoy this. Yeah. Well, I think I've kind of made allusions to it on the podcast, but because the 90s kind of represents the slow death of the football song as kind of like anything other than a

novelty thing, unless you've got a novelty act doing it, you're not going to get anywhere with a football song in the 2000s. All the big ones like We're on the Ball, Grandad and his son Elvis, Tony Christie, Is This the Way to Win the World Cup, all those, Englander Jolly Dee, they're all novelty. By the 2000s a football song is regarded as a novelty thing, not a serious thing. You go all the way back to the 70s and the 80s and obviously through to the 90s and even to be honest in the 60s you had Will Cup Willie Lonnie Donoghain in 1966 Sorry, being childish there

Yeah, that was the name of the mascot Back home? Yeah, back home in 1970 you had all of the FA Cup songs that used to get on top of the pops through the 70s and the 80s you got in it oh god with the Aussie RD like thing the Indie Cup for Tottingham thing where they made fun of the fact that he was an Argentinian in the UK in the 80s. Are you daft? I love that both of us do it, we both have the same kind of voice where we do this aggressively northern thing to represent bigots.

Garlic bread? Garlic bread? Argentinians? It's the future, I've tasted it etc. It's basically just the default gammon voice, let's be honest. But I think that some football songs are really, really kind of, I think Three Lines 96 is beautiful. I will get to that in 1996. I think that is the ultimate song because again, as much as it is about football, it's about Three Lines 96 is about the feeling of football and the actual true feeling of football not like this we're gonna win we're the best kind of thing it's more of a 99% of football is just misery and it's the 1% of it's the 1% of we might win today or we might score a goal or we might do this or we

might do that that's what everybody keeps going for. It's the hope that one day, it's your day. And that's why Three Alliance 96, I think, is so beautiful. I'll get to that in six years' time. With World in Motion, as someone who is big into football, I've been into football for as long as I've been alive. I've been a Manchester City fan for 25 years at the time of recording. And obviously, I've been through phases with the England team

through the 2000s. It was kind of like my way to live vicariously. What what what is it like to support good players? Because city was so mediocre through Mase, basically most and all of my childhood. And so getting to watch players like David Beckham or Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard, you know, that was like, you know, my like the 2000s, I was like, yeah, this is great. And then I kind of got put off by all the kind of jingoistic-y nationally thing, like nationalistic stuff.

And then sort of in the Southgate era, the guys are quite nice in the team. You know, we're starting to show again that what England actually is, which is something that we've always welcomed the world to our shores and the team reflects that and I've always liked the personality of the players during the Southgate era and stuff even if I find the football itself to be kind of turgid and difficult to sit through. So I've always kind of had a more than a passing interest in the England team and and the World Cup in So I've always kind of had a more than a passing interest in the England team and the World Cup in general. I've always been really excited for it. And those years

at the beginning 2002, 2010, 2014, etc. Every time there's a major tournament on this comes back. This is kind of like a biennial Christmas tree in the way that it gets brought out every two years. So I've had a longer relationship with this song than I think any other song that we've covered so far in the 1990s. From about 2002 onwards I've been very keenly aware of this for the Euros and the World Cups. You know I got to know it via the music channels on TV. Whenever there was a Euros or World Cup tournament on there would be an hour on the music channels of like, football, footy, which is a word I hate, footy classics, yay, for an hour on TMF or The Hits, channel 18 on the old freeview, I got to know it that way, and this always stood out as one of the better

ones. I think this works from the brief that it's not necessarily a football song, as John Barnes says, but more just like a synth pop song that is about football. And I think it's strongly enough about football to kind of make me stroke my chin about whether it's a football song or not. I don't think John Barnes is completely right in what he says there, because it is a football song,

but it just doesn't sound like one. The lyrics of this are where my issue comes in, it's just a kind of vague references to how you can run with the ball and score a goal, but they're disguised in a way that kind of sounds clever and metaphorical but if you're into football even remotely this is like just hearing melodic punditry. Like the space beat your man it's one-on-one it's sort of immersion breaking for me because my favorite song is about football and there aren't many they tend to focus on like i'm saying before the feelings of football the reality of football it's not about winning it's about carrying on in the face of defeat. Why do you do the irrational thing like supporting a football team when disappointment is always

possible? Why do people do it to themselves? Why do so many people do it to themselves? And why do we keep coming back to something that breaks our heart week upon week unless you support like the 1% of the good teams that exist. You know, Three Lions 96, Don't Come Home Too Soon by Della Metri, you know, there's another one as well which is way more of a deep cut, was never released as a single. It's a solo song by Rivers Cuomo called My Day is Coming, which was written in the despondent aftermath of the USA being knocked out of the World Cup in 2006

and it kind of ends with a sad like him just reeling off the names of the squad one by one, all 23 of them. Whereas this, as much as the references are kind of oblique, like they still can't resist the Briggs section with the singing for England and then England? Is this responsible for that suddenly developing the third syllable that doesn't exist? Like I just, I've always kind of hated that kind of England look at it. It's just England. Just why are you doing it? And again, I think it kind of taps into this, Andy, this feeling about why you feel physically

unsafe when you listen to football songs and like the three lines on my chest can't go wrong like but outside of that I think this is just a sleek pop song. It has to incorporate lots of things and be a lot of things as well, you know, it sounds very Pet Shop Boys but there's also the gang vocals, there's the commentary samples, but there's also the Italo House dance flavors, there's a rap verse, you know, it loads in as many late 80s staples as possible, and it's amazing really that it doesn't collapse under that weight, you know, and compared to something similar from two years before, which I think influenced it, which is the stockache in Waterman, This Time We'll Get It Right, which is the 1988 Euro song Waterman, this time we'll get it right, which is the 1988

Euro song, and England went out in the group stages of that, they played 3 games, drew one, lost two. This is a much sleeker example of football trying to blend into pop. A big vote in this songs favour is that I just feel like for the longest time in the 20th century, football songs couldn't move away from that marching band aesthetic and stylistics. Even songs I think are quite sweet on a lyrical basis like Back Home from the 1970s squad that we mentioned before, or even funny ones from later like We're on the Ball, they're still trapped in this idea that every football song must go, wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub w slightly militaristic side that's very easily co-opted. Do you think the match of the day theme might have had something to do with that? Yes.

Engrained in people's brain. Exactly, yeah. That's probably one of the best examples of it actually, isn't it? That's pretty good. Yes. As a marching kind of march along thing. The match of the day theme tune is actually quite a nice, I think it's a nice piece of music.

I think if you were to watch on YouTube the quick Bill Bailey bit where he does the match of the day theme tune and he interpolates it and moves it around in various keys and styles and stuff you can see that as a melodically you know as a structured thing it's a nice classic theme but after that point it just seems like like they just kind of slow it down and make it more wonky. There's a comedy trombone waiting to go at every single point in basically every football song after that point. But I think this world emotion, it largely avoids that stuff apart from the England chanting. Otherwise just a nice breezy synth pop tune with a nice chorus incorporates more than it's been given credit for. I will play at the end of this episode Peter Beardsley's verse though, that he did, that obviously didn't make it because you get John Barnes doing his best effort at that.

The verse is fine, it's not a classic, but it's really funny how like everyone sees it as like oh, this is super cool This is the cool bit of the song and it's like is it I think it's kind of like the cringiest bit of the song It's so bad. It's good bit like it is the best Charming yes, it is charmingly mundane right if you know what I think I'm the England man kills me Kills and the insistence that it ain't a football song, but hey, you know, it sort of is, but it's one of the better ones. I totally agree that football songs, or pop songs about football, are on the whole shit.

That side of it, I think, just focus it on winning and change the sound of the songs which is a bit less aggressive. Play what you could do, just to carve out a second gay corner for this week, you could do a cover of Vogue but come on, Goal! You could just do that! You could celebrate Goals and you could celebrate it in a non-toxic masculine kind of way. I believe it can be done. And I do think there is a great football song out there because I think people are ready for another big one. It's been about 20 years since we had a good one. Oh god Andy, what you just said there saying it can be done. That is literally the lyric from Embrace's World at Your Feet which was the England 2006 song. Yes it can be done. With the world at your feet there's no one

you can beat. Yes it can be done. That was the that was the line Before we go, we're just gonna check so Andy it sounds like we could be on for a hat trick for this week Are we on for a hat trick Vogue killer world in motion? Don't think I didn't notice the football reference there We might be we might be we'll start with We might be, we might be. We'll start with Killer, which I think is aptly named because it is indeed Killer and that's going straight into the vault. As for World in Motion, just about, I'm just, just going to allow it in, just about. And I'll be honest, it's John Barnes that got them in there. Yeah, I just think something like that should be recognised.

And as for Vogue, you've got to just... Bum, bum, bum, bum... Vault. Boo! Amazing. Ed. Madonna. Adamski.

England New Order. Vogue. I like it. It never dies, nor does it ascend. It's what gamers like to call a vogue like So yeah Killer it doesn't quite get into the vault I do prefer the follow-up single a bit a bit but yeah and and Completing my miserable hat trick

I don't know whether to vault world in motion for being a football song that doesn't suck or pie hole it for being a half-assed New Order song so it can be fast or slow but it will stay on the line unfortunately you could say that it both hit you and hurt you Yes. So for me, Vogue, Volt, Killer, no. World in motion, no. So... Oh, that's how it's done. Yeah, well done. Yeah. That was fast. So, we will continue on our journey through 1990 when we come back next week.

Thank you very much for listening to this week's episode. It's been a fun one. It's been a great one. Hopefully next week is the same. We will see you for it, so... Bye bye! Bye! See you later! Thanks for watching!