England go into Euro 2016 without an official song – but this catchy number from a York school could become their unofficial anthem.
Called Better Never Stops it features the children and staff of Clifton Green Primary School.
The song was written by the school’s music teacher Jake Dalton, also known to music fans as frontman of York indie rockers the Y Street Band.
‘We all had fun’
“It’s about doing something fun, about making people smile and supporting England and their Euro 2016 campaign,” said John Hattam, community outreach worker at Clifton Green Primary School.
“One of our mission statements is ‘enriching childhood’. And through a project like this we really believe that we enrich childhood in many different ways.
“It’s a project that most of the people in school have been involved with, it’s a project that we all had fun creating – staff and children.”
The guys from Melrose Yard Studios came in to school to record the song, which features singers from Years 4, 5 and 6.
But almost everyone in school took part in the video – which also features dramatic drone-shot aerial footage of the school and some sporty action sequences.
And by Thursday evening (June 9) it had been seen about 4,000 times on Facebook.
‘We might make the final’
John said the song’s title is the school motto: Better Never Stops is all about trying to improve every day.
“As a title we thought it was quite fitting,” he said. It’s not specifically about football – you can draw on the lyrics in life in general.
“We don’t do ‘can’t’ and we sometimes get knocked down, but the final lyric of the song is ‘get back up’.”
An avid England fan John is off to see Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane and the rest of Roy’s boys take on Russia in Marseille on Saturday.
And who knows? We might get to the final…
The pupils at Clifton Green are being allowed to watch the second group game, when England take on Wales on Thursday, June 16 at 2pm. Parents can come and watch with them in the school hall.
So what is John’s hope for the song?
“We’ve created something and all we want is for people to enjoy it. It’s been viewed thousands of times and shared hundreds of times and that’s brilliant.
“It would be great if somebody recognised the efforts of the children and the staff, and it was shown on television at some point.”
Remixing Disco Mister
Meanwhile the original York school England football anthem, Bring It Home by Disco Mister, has been remixed in time for Euro 2016.
The song, by teacher duo Ian Wilson and Robin Parmiter from Huntington School, became the only new England song to get into the Official Singles Chart during the 2014 World Cup.
Now there’s a shiny new dance mix:
Ian and Robin said the one thing they didn’t quite manage in 2014 “was to get the song chanted in the stands at the England matches, so we’ve made that our mission for Euro 2016.
“France is much closer than Brazil, meaning you may have friends and family heading over to support England in the Euros.
“We call on you all once more to send Bring It Home their way, as well as enjoying it yourself all over again.”