Expat. Brits Attempt New World Cup 2010 World Record

By Bootlace Records Dated: May 25, 2010

London – World Cup 2010 fever is finally in the air. For two weeks at least, the world can forget about BP oil leaks, trouble in Korea, and kick back to enjoy some edge-of-the-seat international football. One country – the birthplace of football – always tends to go OTT (over the top) at this time of year: England. Since there’s no official World Cup song from the England squad this year, the fans and supporters have released a massive 165 or more ‘unofficial’ songs to cheer the national team along.

In an effort to stand out from the crowd, one such ‘unofficial’ World Cup song for England contender, “Chant Like an English Fan” by the Laddz, is trying something very different. The independent label behind the track, Bootlace Records, has decided to show the world exactly why the English are unique and can achieve the impossible. With under three weeks until kick off, the team are attempting to have their track simultaneously played at over 1966 pubs and sports venues in the UK and around the world during the half time break of the first England match against America on June 12th. As well as trying to set an ‘unofficial’ World Record with the attempt, they are also raising money for the British Legion and donating all their record sale proceeds.
The idea for the World Record attempt came after Alan Keegan agreed to play their song during half time earlier this year at Old Trafford during the Manchester United v Fulham match, where Man Utd won 4 – 0. “We thought, if ‘Chant’ really is a good omen like that, maybe it can help England bring the Cup back home this year,” said Donnelly. “Just like when we originally came up with the song idea, we thought, ‘How hard can it be to set a new World Record?’”

The expatriated song writing duo (Richard Eyre and Anthony Donnelly) have put a big dent in their target of 1966, and have over 500 different venues already willing to participate in their World Cup World Record stunt. Most of the locations signed up to participate so far are in the US and UK, although they also have pubs taking part in Hong Kong, Brazil, Spain, Australia and Italy. Although they are a long way from their goal, they are optimistic that they will hit their target come June 12th.
“We’re only just starting to promote the event publicly,” said Eyre. “It’s incredible the help and support we’re getting from other Brits abroad that want to help out.” With no marketing budget and just a lot of hard work, the pair is working day and night via the internet and on the phone contacting as many new venues as possible.

Pubs wishing to participate can contact the Laddz at ant@theladdz.com or Richard@theladdz.com and the track “Chant Like an English Fan” can be heard on their website www.theladdz.com and will be available on download from itunes on May 31st. “For obvious reasons, we tried to get the song played during the friendly against Egypt earlier this year, but the FA declined,” Donnelly said, glumly. “But the crowning glory of this whole event would be, if they’d agree to play it during the half time of the actual match in South Africa, but I doubt they’ll do that either!”
Although Guinness World Records have declined to formally acknowledge this new World Record attempt, the team is optimistic that the event will be so large and gain much publicity that it will eventually

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