Official v Unofficial Italia 90 tune

May 31, 2026

A tale of two tunes here courtesy of the NME and Sounds weekly music newspapers from May 1990. For me Italia 90 was the most standout world cup, it had everything, Generation X rule ok.

NME and SOUNDS were perhaps the more respected rags round our way, Melody Maker was a tad off the mark, I'm sure I'll get hate mail now but at the time, the feeling was to grab these if you were heading down the newsagents. Sounds was pushed to stratospheric levels when Kurt Cobain wore a Sounds print long sleeve T-shirt, it was up there with the Inspiral Carpets Moo/Cool as F**ck and Maybe even the James flower print long sleeve T-shirt, I always opted for a faux Breton like this Zine Long Sleeve

Official (recorded 21 May 1990)

So the English F.A called Tony Wilson at Factory Records to see if he'd be interested in working on an official England World Cup tune for the 1990 world cup in Italy- Tony pretty much agreed instantly on the call to the offer. Months later after Gillian Gilbert persuaded the rest of the band: New Order, Gazza, Peter Beardsley, John Barnes, Steve McMahon, Waddle, Des Walker and Keith Allen headed to the recording studio. The story goes that the song originally proposed to the F.A was titled: 'E for England' the lyrics went along the lines of:

"E is for England, England starts with an E, we'll be smiling when we're in Italy"

Taking into consideration this was the official England team song, the F.A vetoed the title as its sounded a tad like a drug reference, these same toffee nosed public school boys that let: Lucy in the sky with diamonds The Beatles, Ebeneezer Goode The Shamen, We call it Acieed by D-Mob slip through the net. To be fair the tune New Order finally released is a stunner, so maybe it worked out well after all, having never heard 'E for England' I can't be certain. The F.A old guard were also uncomfortable with the line 'Loves got the world in motion' love apparently being not quite right for the mens team, the F.A formally requested 'We've got the world in motion' - thankfully the band put their foot down on that one.

New Order joked that they were certain it would upset the last of their Joy Division fans, as it was so upbeat and optimistic. Meanwhile the England team P.R set about rounding up gregarious types that might jolly well enjoy a sing song. The day of the recording Gazza, Beardsley, Waddle were all on the day considered a bit too northern and to be fair couldn't keep rhythm. John Barnes however really shone, so his rap was the one that made the final cut. On the sleeve of the E.P all of the above players were credited, but I'm not sure they did owt'. Rumours have it that the band all followed Manchester area teams and could not stomach having just one solitary name on the credits a Liverpool F.C legend, so Barnes name was sandwiched between other England players.

Unofficial (recorded 29th May 1990)

Somewhere in the West Midlands a Grebo band called Pop Will Eat Itself were setting out to disrupt with charts with their unofficial England world cup song for Italia 1990. PWEI were from Stourbridge (with 2 ex-members of The Wonderstuff), Birmingham and at one point PWEI tried to sponsor Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C so I'm guessing they were all Wolves fans?

Besotted with Italian porn actress Cicciolina the West Midlands fab four dedicated a song to her titled 'Touched by the hand of Cicciolina'. Around 1990 Cicciolina was pretty well known in the glamour world. At a time when Rapido and Eurotrash was on British telly this Hungarian born starlet was bought to the fore from sleazy to subcultural prominence years before Loaded magazine and New Lad period graced our country. Cicciolina went onto collaborate and marry the artist Jeff Koons in 1991, perhaps proof of her counter culture fame.

The tune 'touched by the hand of Cicciolina' is heavily sampled with the ubiquitous Kenneth Wolstenholme type "they think its all over, it is now" clips. The song reached a surprising number 28 in the UK singles charts- where it remained for 4 weeks. New Orders 'World in Motion' reached number 1 and stayed in the charts for 2 weeks.

The official versus unofficial England world cup songs are somewhat unique to the U.K. Lilly Allens dad Keith Allen was involved in the official New Order World in Motion song, apparently he thought up the rap for Barnes.

Fast forward eight years and Keith Allen penned with Blur bassist Alex James an 'unofficial' world cup tune titled Vindaloo which reached number 2. Thankfully the re-released 1996 England footie song Three Lions by Baddiel, Skinner and The Lightening Seeds reached number 1.

Absolute news to me the official, official England song for the 1998 world cup was (How Does It Feel To Be) On Top Of The World by England United; featuring: Spice Girls, Ian Mc Culloch of Echo & the Bunnymen, Johnny Marr and Simon Fowler of Ocean Colour Scene!!! it reached number 9.

Back to Italia 1990 and the NME and SOUNDS weekly articles, accompanied here with the Extended Play 45rpm covers. Come on England!