We’re not very good about ceremony in England. While our European neighbours throw parades and parties for saints’ days, and Americans seize every opportunity for patriotism and pageantry, we find sincere celebration uncomfortable. Apart from Guy Fawkes Night, anytime we do indulge – street parties, jubilees, village fetes or May Day – events become excessively twee, hijacked by politics, or feel simply too cringe to involve yourself in. Unlike Celtic countries, most of England has not been raised on folk music, close community ties and a shared feeling of ancestral belonging.
But, standing in a bucket hat at Wembley watching the Oasis reunion tour last year, it struck me how many people use their music as folk song substitutes. Oasis is simple music – about love, longing, regret, aspiration, and hope – all memorable and easy to sing along to, and with lyrics ambiguous enough to allow us to project onto them our own memories and emotions.
Now, more than ever, their music conjures a feeling of melancholy and nostalgia that is so powerful when shared that it becomes a kind of joy. So I’m not remotely surprised “Wonderwall” has become a World Cup anthem for the England team this summer. I’m only surprised, given its last-orders, lights-up ubiquity, that it’s taken 31 years.
After England beat Croatia 2-1 in the first group game, Oasis blasted through the stadium in Dallas to a swaying, grateful crowd and a line of tearful, worn-out players. It was spontaneous, organic, and quite sweet – Harry Kane said it was one of his “favourite ever moments in an England shirt… It’s the emotional connection with the fans, we know how much it means to them.” Declan Rice said, “That was special. Being in Dallas, singing ‘Wonderwall’. There’s nothing like that first time.”
And so, a new tradition was born – and now after every game the team stand sombre and magnanimous as the fans chant it out, regardless of whether quite so much adulation is deserved (0-0 to Ghana? A late comeback against DR Congo?). I’m just glad it’s kicking the interminably dreary – and naff – “Sweet Caroline” into the long grass.
Liam and Noel Gallagher during the Oasis reunion tour (Photo: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni)The Gallaghers are loving it, of course. “Wonderwall belongs to the people, and it was a magical moment between the people and the players,” Liam wrote on X, “And rightly so it’s a fucking classic, and I sound BIBLICAL on it.”
Noel, who wrote it, said in an interview, “Do you know what, I thought it was a great moment. I’m staggered that Jude Bellingham knows the lyrics, but it’s one of those songs.” He’s changed his tune: in 2018 he was perplexed by John Stones’ revelation that Oasis’s beloved Manchester City always walk in to “Wonderwall”. “Would you not prefer ‘Rock And Roll Star’? ‘Wonderwall’s a bit ‘end of the night, my bird’s left me’.”
Honestly, I’m with him – “Wonderwall” is a dirge. Isn’t victory better celebrated with the soaring crescendos of “Live Forever”, or the energetic “Supersonic”? “Champagne Supernova” might be slow, but it’s big, euphoric, sings of tenacity and resilience (well, like all Oasis songs, I suppose it’s about whatever the listener wants it to be) and surely would get the crowd going more than “Wonderwall”.
The terrace anthems blasted through the stands and the pubs during an England game are all about riling up the fans: “Three Lions”, “Vindaloo”, The Fratellis’ “Chelsea Dagger”, Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” and Gala’s “Freed from Desire”. Doesn’t “Wonderwall” bring the mood down?
Well, that’s England all over, isn’t it? While Team USA belt out life-affirming songs by Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen, our concession to corny earnestness (when in Rome!) comes in the form of a maudlin Britpop ballad, which is just as upbeat and optimistic as “Hey Jude” and “We Are the Champions”. (Not very).
Happy, spirited, party music won’t make English people link arms with strangers in the stands and surrender to the kind of unity we repress until there’s a football game. Oasis have better, bigger, more triumphant songs, but “Wonderwall” is the one everyone’s sung together with their friends, the one everyone attaches a memory to, the one everyone knows. It is about the one person you always depend on, about life not being easy and happiness not coming easy – “And all the roads we have to walk are winding/ And all the lights that lead us there are blinding”. No-one understands that more than England fans.
Singing along just about breaks down our cynicism and lets us admit we can’t express ourselves: “There are many things that I would like to say to you/ But I don’t know how.” There is no anthem more English than that.
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