John Barnes manufacturers England teammates ‘frauds’ for skipping World In Motion recording for pub
The former England ace opened up about the recording of the iconic 1990 World Cup anthem ‘World in Motion’, throwing a couple of his teammates under the bus in the process
John Barnes belted out ‘World in Motion’ in 1990(Image: YouTube)
John Barnes has dubbed some of his former England teammates “frauds”, saying some of them preferred the pub over recording the iconic World in Motion football anthem.
Speaking to online bingo provider Zingo Bingo, the former England ace reflected on the making of the 1990 World Cup anthem, recorded with New Order. He recalled performing the song’s famous rap and noted only Paul Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley, Steve McMahon, Chris Waddle and Des Walker were among the England players who actually took part in the recording.
Barnes added the rest of the squad skipped the session to go to the pub, describing them as “frauds”.
“There’s a story behind this, and I’m going to expose a lot of the frauds involved. As much as this is a number-one hit for the England World Cup song from 1990, there were only six people who were on the song.
“Only six people turned up to do the song because we did an album in 1986 for the Mexico World Cup. The single was Viva Es Spana. It was 22 players all around each other on Top of the Pops; it was terrible.
“When 1990 came along and Bobby Robson said, ‘Are you going to do another song?’, the players remembered ’86. We didn’t know it was going to be New Order. We thought it was going to be typical: 20 players with their arms around each other, the song was going to be terrible, and we knew nothing about the song.
“When Bobby Robson said, ‘Go to the studios in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, in February to make the song,’ all the players felt the song wasn’t going to be any good, so only six of them turned up and the rest went to the pub.
“When it got to number one, everyone got one of these, everyone was on the video, and here we go.
“It was not until we got to the studios that we saw Keith Alan, Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner from New Order.
“That was the first time that we knew it was a New Order song and it was going to be good. The six people who turned up were me, Paul Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley, Steve McMahon, Chris Waddle and Des Walker – only six of us.”
Elsewhere in the chat Barnes opened up about the importance of his family for his football career .
“My family is the most important thing,” he said. “I’ve got my kids and stuff. My mum and dad, they are the reason I’m the person I am and do everything I do. They’re the reason I’m a footballer and I became the husband and father I am. I’m hoping I’m a good one for my children. Everything that I do, I’ve been guided by those two people.”
