THEY may have been selected to write the anthem to accompany your summer of football but Suffolk has today shown the red card to indie rockers Embrace.
THEY may have been selected to write the anthem to accompany your summer of football but Suffolk has today shown the red card to indie rockers Embrace.
In an Evening Star web poll to find your favourite footy anthem, the Huddersfield band's 2006 World Cup song - World at Your Feet - received the lowest number of votes of the four tracks available, polling just five per cent.
The 1998 classic Three Lions, originally released for Euro '96, polled the most votes with more than two thirds of participants supporting David Baddiel and Frank Skinner's catchy number.
The runner-up, with 20pc, was the 1990 New Order track, World in Motion, which features the renowned John Barnes rap.
And Embrace will be sick as parrots when they discover that their guitar-based ditty was even beaten by the cringe-worthy England 1970 World Cup squad with Back Home.
Despite the thumbs down from football fans in the county, Michelle Edwards, manager of Virgin Megastore in Ipswich's Westgate Street, said she expects the 2006 song, which will be released on June 5, to fly off the shelves quicker than a Frank Lampard thunderbolt.
She said: “I'm sure it will do really well. It's not as catchy as the Three Lions song - that was a one-off success - but it's still pretty good.
“Given the shock announcement about 17-year-old Theo Walcott being in the squad, interest in the World Cup is already high and that will help Embrace.
“And the further England go in the tournament, the better the song will do.”
But Tom Brown, drummer with Suffolk band The Runes, who appear on The Star's new Breakthrough album, said World at Your Feet lacks passion.
He said: “The beauty of past World Cup songs has been the shoddiness of them. They're not supposed to be great songs, they're just meant to get people excited about the tournament.
“I've only heard the Embrace song once and can't say it was anything special. It certainly didn't do anything to get me excited about the football.”
The World Cup in Germany begins on June 9.
Weblinks: www.eveningstar.co.uk; www.fifaworldcup.com
The web poll results:
1 - Baddiel and Skinner - Three Lions - 67%
2 - New Order - World in Motion - 20%
3 - England Squad - Back Home - 8%
4 - Embrace - World at Your Feet - 5%
Total votes: 307
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here