Alex James says that having a long-lasting football record is half as good as having a good Christmas record, because whereas Jesus’ birthday rolls round once a year, a football tournament comes round every two. Not that the bassist, coming off the back of a triumphant 2023 with the returning Britpop heroes, is moaning. As the co-writer of Fat Les’s , the spin-off rabble he formed with comedian and actor Keith Allen and artist Damien Hirst, James was the creator of one of football’s most enduring anthems, one that will be undoubtedly unavoidable over the coming weeks as England’s Euros campaign cranks into gear.
stands alongside Lightning Seeds and Baddiel and Skinner’s as one of the all-time great football songs, and James loves how it gets reignited as soon as tournament-season is underway. “I know how Noddy Holder feels at Christmas!” James told in 2022, just before the World Cup. “It’s really amazing.
There was a new version of that I didn’t have anything to do with, with Keith Lemon and a bunch of people for the last Euros. England had a good win and I looked at my phone, I was looking at iTunes, and I was like ‘wow, it’s number three’, and it went up to number two whilst I was looking! Then one of my kids sent me a screenshot of iTunes and it was number one and it was number nine as well, both versions.” James said the song’s persisting appeal was a testament to what he called the “just keep turning-up ethos of work”.
“Looking back, i.
