Recycle 20: World In Motion

[Link removed 20 November 2012] (74 MB)

World In Motion
Factory Records Fac 293
Produced by Stephen Hague (except The B-side, produced by Roli Mosimann)
May 1990

Tracklisting:

1. World In Motion
2. The B-side
3. World In Motion (Subbuteo Mix)
4. World In Motion (Subbuteo Dub)
5. World In Motion (Carabinieri Mix)
6. World In Motion (No Alla Violenza Mix)
7. World In Motion (Alternate Subbuteo Dub)

1 - 6 sourced from rips of PolyGram Canada CD single 846 237-2
7 sourced from Factory/MCA UK 45 RPM 12" single Fac 293R

Notes from Bruno Republic:

A string of tragedies struck English football starting in the mid-80s. On May 11, 1985, 56 people were killed in a horrific fire at Valley Parade stadium in Bradford. Later that same month, 39 spectators were killed at Heysel stadium in Brussels at the European Cup Final between England/Liverpool and Italy/Juventus after confrontational Liverpool fans started a melee. On April 15, 1989, 96 people were crushed to death at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield due to inadequate crowd control. Finally, on June 3, 1990, mobs of football fans pushed sales of this single to the top of the charts, giving New Order as well as Factory Records their only number one hit. How did this happen? Well, the song was done as the theme for the English football team during the 1990 world cup.

50PoundNote doesn't want me to be too harsh on this song, so I'll hold back the snark from this point on, and stress the positives.

[Insert protracted silence here.]

Not too much to do here, mercifully. For the most part, just volume adjustments.

There are numerous different edits of several of the tracks. We've gone with the longest ones that we know of in each case. The only exception to this is what we're calling the Alternate Subbuteo Dub, which appeared on the remix 12", which is being included as it's a slightly different mix and cannot be recreated from editing down the longer version. There's a few snippets of spoken word near the beginning and end, the now-horribly-dated M1 piano sound is panned slightly differently.

Many thanks to JohnC for the lossless rips of this single. The Canadian CD from which most of this was sourced now goes for a fortune on eBay, as it's the only place where many of these mixes ever appeared on CD. Although for many years I could easily obtain this disc locally, I never bothered. I chose to get a UK copy instead because it had a superior tracklisting, with only four versions instead of six.

Some notes from Wikipedia:

• The lyrics were co-written by comedian Keith Allen, who also appears on the track
• The original title was to be "E For England", but the Football Association nixed it
• The backing track is strikingly similar to the Reportage theme, which was also written by Stephen and Gillian
• The track has regularly topped polls to decide the best football song ever

At the time it was released, I quite liked this track. May 1990 was pre-internet, and Americans were/are largely ignorant to the World Cup, so it was a nice surprise to have an unexpected New Order single dropped in my lap. It's a shame, though, that the band's only #1 single amounts to a novelty song.