*this article originally featured in Stonewaller Magazine, June 2021
Football and music have combined to produce some truly iconic moments in recent history. From Pavarotti belting out Nessun Dorma at Italia ‘90, to John Barnes joining New Order to invent rap music, to some twenty-thousand Hibs fans expelling 114 years of hurt with their post Scottish Cup win rendition of Sunshine on Leith in 2016; the two have always been inextricably linked both culturally and emotionally.
Perhaps the most fascinating intersection of the two concepts is the World Cup Song. Many national sides, for better or worse, have been sent to the biggest sporting event on earth off the back of some truly captivating tunes. But what makes a memorable World Cup song? It should inspire, of course. Evoke a sense of national pride? At a minimum, yes. It needs terrace appeal - something for the fans to chant in the stadiums. The songs that live the longest in the hearts of fans though? Well they need to have something a little less quantifiable.
October 1997: Craig Brown’s Scotland side beat Latvia 2-0 at Celtic Park to claim a place at the France ’98 World Cup. While hard to believe now, Scotland were once something of a regular fixture at the World Cup, qualifying for five consecutive tournaments between 1974 and 1990. Missing out on a place at USA ’94 had hurt the nation, and France ’98 was an opportunity to remedy this, on and off the field.
Scotland were France-bound, and we needed a fitting anthem to send us on our way. As a nation, we had had previous successes with World Cup songs - Argentina ‘78 saw Andy Cameron release “Ally’s Tartan Army”, an iconic anthem that rallied a nation behind a Scotland side expected to win the World Cup with ease. That level of hubris, ironic though it may have been, was seen as being ill-advised this time around; Scotland fans were somewhat more realistic about the chances of a side ranked 41st in the world at the time.
On more than one occasion we had seen rival nations go into major tournaments and succumb to the weight of their own expectation: returning home with egg on the faces of their David Beckham effigies. Scotland needed a song that reflected who we were; enthusiastic but pragmatic. Passionate but familiar with the taste of disappointment. We needed something intrinsically Scottish.
Step forward Del Amitri.
The Glasgow indie rockers were tasked with writing the official song of the Scotland National team at France 98, duly delivering with Don’t Come Home Too Soon.
A hit commercially - the song debuted at Number 15 in the UK Singles Charts and topped the Scottish equivalent. Critics were less kind however, with many considering the song to be overly dour and mawkish - specific reference being made to lyrics such as opening salvo “So long, go on and do your best” and “The world might not be shaking yet, but pretty soon you’ll see, even long shots make it.” Perhaps not so much a “let him know you’re there early doors” as a polite and bashful throat clearing while asking for the ball if it’s not too much trouble please and thank you.
However, the song is often mistakenly and perhaps unfairly read as defeatist by those less familiar with our national relationship with the beautiful game. Don’t Come Home Too Soon exhibits a uniquely Scottish sense of self-awareness in the face of the maudlin. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the accompanying music video; a parody of Nike’s now iconic Brazilian Airport 98 advert. We may not have had the samba flair of Ronaldo, Denilson, and Roberto Carlos, but what we did have was the perfect setting for the music video in Prestwick Airport. A sparse throwback of a building; the airport stands as a monument to a town that reached the 1960s and thought to themselves “this’ll do us”. It matched the tone and spirit of Del Amitri’s song perfectly.
The video opens on shots of the Tartan Army. Napping, killing time while stuck in the purgatory of the airport’s departures lounge. Among them sit Del Amitri guitarist Ian Harvie and singer Justin Currie; his crooning matched only by his most Rod Stewart of tartan trews. A young boy decked out in a kilt, Scotland goalkeeper’s jersey, and full Braveheart face paint starts kicking a football around before booting it out onto the airport’s concourse. The music swells into its chorus as we are met with the glorious site of Scottish captain Colin Hendry, football at feet, triumphantly leading a horde of Tartan Army faithfuls through the airport. He then meets fellow members of the Scotland National Short Straw Five-A-Side Team Gordon Durie, Christian Daily, Colin Calderwood, and Scott Gemmill for a kickabout with the waiting fans. This scene is accompanied by the tercet “And I don't care what people say, We can laugh it all away, But if I have a dream at all, For once you won't be on that stupid plane”. Outrageous as it is engrossing.
Of course, we went on to claim only a solitary point in the tournament and were sent home after just 13 days; a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Morocco seeing us finish rock bottom of a group consisting of Brazil, Norway, and the aforementioned North Africans.
Our tournament was over as quick as it started. But even in defeat one's mind turns to those scenes in Del Amitri's Prestwick airport playground. Players and fans coming together under the refrain “We’re gonna laugh it all away”.
Del Amitri. They got it.
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