Host: Murray Norton (MN)
Guests: Johnny Spurling (JS) Martin Bell (MB) Budweiser Beerleaders (BB)
Ally Beerleader (AB) Asia (AB2) Chantelle (CB) Trisha (TB) Amber (AB)
MN: Hello and welcome to the show. In the show today it's all pom-poms and dancing girls, cheerleaders and chants, so stay with us because we've got some great entertainment coming up for you. Our minds of course are set towards 2006 and the World Cup and England's chances are very, very good. Gerrard, Beckham and whoever else gets a game in there will be hoping that they do the business but before all of that the business is all about getting the crowd going, getting the chant going and the guys responsible for all of that are sitting alongside, we've got Johnny Spurling and Martin Bell who are with us. Thank you for joining us guys.
JS/MB: Pleasure.
MN: Now the important thing is to get the crowd going with some chants. You had great success with 'Sven, Sven, Sven'.
JS: Yeah.
MN: First of all, was that a surprise that it did as well as it did for you?
MB: No, it was a surprise for us but as soon as someone like Chris Tarrant had it and said, 'This is something completely different' and I think the first morning we played it the phone lines were jammed ...
JS: I think the ten grand we gave him helped.
MB: The ten grand we gave him did help us quite a bit because six weeks later we was on 'Top of the Pops' with it. It sold, I don't know, something like quarter of a million records so that was a bit of a surprise because we were writing quite a lot of songs at the time, weren't we.
JS: We were, yes, yes.
MB: All sorts of funny little ditties about different things.
JS: Well the fellow who was in charge of Capital Gold, Andy Turner, hello Andy, if you're watching, he was the one who was really responsible for it. He heard us at a live gig actually and commissioned us to do a lot of songs for him and 'Sven' was the first one, in fact it was the only one.
MB: We were supposed to write one every week for a football show and that was the first one and then we never wrote any more, did we?
JS: No, we never wrote any more.
MB: We got a load of royalties and went 'Tada, thank you very much.'
MN: The new one's called 'Golden Balls'. We'll come to that in a minute because that involves not only yourselves but The Bud Beerleaders as well.
MB: Okay, well we done 'Golden Balls' and 'Golden Balls' was our second single.
MN: Right.
MB: Which was a big hit just after ...
JS: No it was through the World Cup.
MB: Through the World Cup.
JS: Yes.
MB: And then the Budweiser ones that we've done for this coming World Cup are more of a ...
JS: They're chants.
MB: They're chants. They're for these Budweiser Beerleaders, which we're going to see very soon.
MN: Beerleaders?
MB: They're called beerleaders and they are the leading beer.
MN: Are they indeed?
JS/MB: Yes.
MN: You've written it very much in mind of the crowd, the audience getting to learn all the lyrics for all of these.
JS/MB: Yes.
MN: So you've got to be clever but you can't be too clever because ...
MB: Well, we've got to learn them ourselves, first, haven't we.
MN: That's impressive, yes.
JS: We've forgotten them already!
MB: No, no, no, they are, they're sort of – the start of it was they said to us, "'Can you write something funny, like you done with 'Sven' and 'Golden Balls?" and we've written it and it's probably a little bit too funny for the American market.
JS: Well the Americans wouldn't really understand our humour, our irony, so ...
MB: We've tailored it a little bit more and it's a little bit more sing-along now so we think that people will be able to chant them a little bit easier.
MN: Yeah, football songs are either very, very good and very clever or they're notoriously bad.
JS: Yes, right.
MN: Let's look back at the history of some of these. I suspect in '66 there was just 'England! England!' That was about it, really. Kind of repetitive as a song.
MB: Or 'You're going to get your head kicked in'.
JS: Yeah.
MN: What a golden day that was.
MN: It's a catchy one, that.
MB: No, just going back there were football songs like, 'Blue is the Colour' and stuff like that.
JS: But that was for Chelsea.
MB: For Chelsea, yeah, but what I'm saying is that there were football songs that were released.
JS: Yeah, 'Nice one Cyril' for Spurs, great song, that!
MN: 1970 'Back Home' was an England ...
JS: 'Back Home' was '78, I think.
MN: Was it?
JS: Mexico.
MN: '70.
JS: Was it '70, was it really?
MB: Yeah.
JS: There's me who's wrong. Eight years out.
MB: Mind you, for those eight years you were asleep.
JS: True.
MN: Oh well. You missed a great enthusiasm in those eight years.
JS: Was it 1970, 'Back Home'? It was.
MB: Yeah, yeah, mm, yeah.
JS: You're quite right, it was.
MN: So there have been some. 'Back Home' I didn't think was a particularly good one. 'Three Lions' was a great one.
MB: Yeah.
JS: 'Three Lions is the one, isn't it, that everyone talks about as – but you see our one wasn't a World Cup song. Ours was a football song about a particular game, which was when we beat the Germans, five-one, and about a manager and the second one was about David Beckham.
MN: Don't you get tired of mentioning that?
JS/MB: No, never ever!
JS: We never ever get sick of that.
MB: We should sing it in a minute; we'd get some more royalties.
MN: Actually, I think we will get you to sing it
MB: But do you know what, about 'Three Lions', we were saying about it earlier, I remember going to Euro '96, we went to every game and the first game was against Switzerland and literally no one was singing. It was quite a deadbeat affair really. It was only 'til we played Scotland on the Saturday that all the Scots were singing and all the England fans were walking around and didn't sing anything, saying, 'What are we going to do? What can you do?' And then 'Three Lions' come on and the words came up on the screen and nobody really knew it and everyone was, 'Oh, right' and that's when we all started singing.
MN: Right.
MB: And then I think the next game was against Holland, we beat them, four-two and then everybody knew every lyric and that launched that song completely.
MN: This is a stupid question to ask you now but you are obviously football fans anyway.
JS: Yeah, yes.
MB: Yeah, Teddy Sherringham is a very close mate of ours so over the years we've spent a lot of time going to see him.
MN: Let's face it, he's been playing for about sixty two years now.
MB: He's now seventy one years of age.
JS: He's forty in April in fact.
MB: Yeah, I was out with him about three hours ago.
MN: He's got stamina, that boy.
MB: He has got stamina.
JS: He's a fit lad though, he's very fit, very fit.
MB: Forty years of age, coming up, yeah.
MN: Okay, we're going to get you to sing some of the chants for us.
JS: Just give us a chance to learn it first.
MN: Okay, we'll get some of that. Before we do of course, we've got the Beerleaders, the Bud Beerleaders and they are fantastic.
JS: Yes.
MN: And just to let you know that they are warming up for us at the moment. Hello, girls.
BB: M-U-R-R-A-Y ... HI MURRAY!
MN: There we go. They're saying a quick hallo.
JS: Don't let them warm up too much.
JS: Don't let them warm up too much.
MN: I think that might be a very sensible move for you.
MN: I think that might be a very sensible move for you.
MB: A bit of 'Deep Heat', just rub that in.
MN: Alright, we're going to find out a little bit more about the chants because we're going to see the guys in action as they get themselves all prepared to warm up themselves with a few of the chants ready. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Bell and Spurling.
JS: Are you ready, are you, for this? We've got to show the girls, haven't we?
MB: We'll teach the girls.
JS: We wrote it, didn't we?
MB: No we wrote it, we've forgot the lyrics so here we go.
JS: We'll take it slower.
MB: Go on then.
JS: One, two, three, four ...
JS/MB:
Golden Balls,
He's the king of all free kicks,
With his golden locks
And pulled up socks
He's a dream for all those chicks!
Golden balls
He's the captain on the pitch,
He shows his ass
And when he gets a pass
And we love him 'cos he's rich!
He plays in Spain,
We know he's so vain,
He's such a stud,
Even when he's drinking bud! Hey!
Gol ...
JS: No, let's leave it for the girls, yeah?
MB: Yeah.
MB: Tada.
MN: That's the boys there, singing as they mean it with 'Golden Balls'. But let's face it we have much more attractive and much more intelligent company on the sofa now, I think you'll agree and this of course is the Bud Beerleaders. It's great to see you girls, thank you very much indeed for being here.
BB: Thank you.
MN: Let's do some quick, quick introductions. We've got Ally, Asia, Chantelle, Trisha and Amber. Good to have you all with us. Now cheerleaders, or in this case beerleaders, the Bud Beerleaders, we would associate you with American football, not with soccer as you'd call it, football as we'd call it, so Ally, what are you doing over here?
AB: We are so excited to be here. Budweiser brought us out to support their amazing 'Passport to Germany' promotion, in which Budweiser drinkers are going to get the chance to win FIFA World Cup tickets every forty-eight hours. We're really excited and it's an amazing opportunity for all of us.
MN: Well, I hope you have a great stay over here, you're over here for quite a while now, aren't you.
AB: Yeah, we'll be here for a week and then we'll return in June to do some more promotions.
MN: Well, enjoy your stay here. A little bit earlier on, as you would have seen when the girls were warming up and saying hi, they decided to have a run-through of their routine. Let's see the girls in action.
... Sixty-six,
Let's hope to break the mould
So celebrate with a Budweiser
But make sure, get it cold.
E is for England
N is for Now
G is for the Glory
L is for the Lions
A, N, D is for
'And it's time for another beer',
So raise your Bud and start to cheer,
England's here!
MN: I really enjoyed that. That was a fantastic routine. How long does it take to work out a routine like that, Asia?
AB2: We've been practising ours every day since we got here and we're working really hard to give everyone a good performance bur we're having a great time while we're doing it so, having fun.
MN: And in terms of how many routines you've got, there's more than one.
Al: We do, we have three routines so far. We have an England chant, we have Michael Owen and Rooney.
MN: Rooney? As in Wayne Rooney?
Al: Yeah, as in Wayne Rooney I mean.
MN: Talking about football, you're used to American football and yet you're cheerleaders for all sorts of different teams. Chantelle, who are you a cheerleader for?
Ch: I support the San Diego Chargers.
MN: Does that mean you do the cheerleading on the pitch with them as well?
Ch: Oh yeah, definitely!
MN: A big audience for that, I mean some of the crowds there are massive, aren't they.
Ch: Yeah, the crowds are really big sometimes and it's just really exciting to lead the crowd to support the team.
MN: Do you think this cheerleading is going to catch on in soccer? Would you like to see that?
TB: I think it would be fun because cheerleading always brings more excitement to the game I think and it's always great to have girls down there when the game's not going as well as you'd like it to be.
MN: Amber, what about 'soccer' as you call it, do you know much about it at all? Have you seen much soccer?
AB: I've heard about it, I know it's like this ... some sort of ball with like, black spots, right? I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. I do know a little bit, I used to play a little bit back in my junior high but I wish it was more popular in the States, it's a very fun sport, yeah.
TB: When you're little kids, we have 'soccer mums' as we call them, mums that take their little kids to soccer games. But once you get older it's more football, baseball, or basketball.
CB: But we definitely know David Beckham.
TB: Yes!
MN: David Beckham, why him in particular?
CB: Somehow he's in our media as well. He's not very attractive at all.
AB: Chantelle's boyfriend actually plays professional soccer.
MN: Oh, right.
AB: He played in Holland and now he plays in the U.S., for the Galaxy, for a major league soccer team.
MN: Wow, that's very impressive. Do you know, I'm just so pleased you've got a boyfriend; I'm just so thrilled about that. Thanks for letting us know.
MN: In the meantime, the offside rule, you know the offside rule, don't you? I'm so impressed. Can anybody here explain to me what the offside rule is in football?
MN: That's the best explanation I have ever heard of the offside rule, better than anyone else I know, including most of the guys in the office in the studio here. So I think that's a great effort, well done for attempting that.
Al: Thank you.
MN: Do you know anything about Sven, Sven Goran-Eriksson? Has anyone ever heard the name?
Am: That's a film, right? 'Eriksson'?
MN: That's a film, yeah. Eriksson is a film, you're right, yeah. They'll be delighted you mentioned that as well. Sven Goran-Eriksson is the national coach, the team manager of England and has a great reputation, fantastic reputation. He's scored many times but never on the football field ...
MN: It's true, it's true. And I'm delighted to say that we managed to twist the boys, twist the boys arm in order that they can do a little show for us and we've got Bell and Spurling here with their rendition of 'Sven, Sven, Sven'.
JS: Sven, Sven, Sven, what a leg, what a classic.
MB: Number seven, 2001 we got it, didn't we.
JS: Yeah, the record, yeah? Shall we sing it?
MB: Sing it how it was originally written.
JS: Oh, go on then.
JS/MB:
Sven, Sven, Sven Goran-Eriksson
He's a lovely geezer,
Don't forget that he's from Sweden.
MB: Yeah but it's better ...
JS: Better the other way, isn't it?
JS/MB:
Sven, Sven, Sven Goran-Eriksson
He's a lovely geezer,
But don't forget that he's from Sweden,
He buys too many players from Holland
How'd he get Collimore?
They say he's insane,
Sven, Sven, Sven Goran-Eriksson
MB: Yeah, that was better.
MN: That was great, we love that, didn't we like that, girls. Well done indeed. Good performance guys. Good performance.
MN: 'Sven, Sven, Sven' from Bell and Spurling. In fact I think the boys ought to come in and join us. Johny, thank you for coming over and Martin. That was a great performance.
MB: Thank you very much.
MN: You're used to doing this, aren't you.
MB: Yeah, we've done it for a few years.
MN: In terms of 'Sven, Sven, Sven', that's going to come out again, is it?
MB: Yeah, I think we're bringing that out again for the World Cup or just before, anyway, and then putting 'Golden Balls' just after with a bit of luck.
MN: Perfect, get them both going as well. We've also got these marvellous cheerleaders
JS: Certainly got him going all right. Sorry about that.
MN: These marvellous cheerleaders are going to help us on to more success, obviously.
MB: I think so, yeah. I mean we just have a laugh. In fact when we did 'Top of the Pops' with the other ones, we used the Page Three girls.
JS: Oh, yeah, that's right.
MB: But these girls from America, I think we've topped it now.
JS: Yes.
MN: Well, let's hope it all goes well. I hope it goes very, very well for you. Thank you very much indeed.
MN: Listen, Asia. If it does really take off in terms of cheerleading and soccer as you call it, football as we call it, you girls will come back and teach us how to do it properly again, won't you.
As: Oh yes, we would love to if the invitation is there.
MN: The invitation is there, isn't it boys?
JS: Yes.
MN: If you want more information at all about the 'Passport to Germany' all you've got to do is log on to www.budweiser.co.uk. Good luck and we'll see you at the World Cup.
MN: 'Bye everyone.
JS: Shake your poms, girls, shake your poms.
TTB: Bye!
JS: Aah, lovely poms!
