WATCH: Gazza attempts World in Motion rap made famous by John Barnes

England team hold a training session at their training ground in Pula, Sardinia ahead of their World Cup Group F opening fixture against Republic of Ireland. Picture: England players Paul Gascoigne and John Barnes. 28th May 1990 (Photo by Staff/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
Paul Gascoigne and John Barnes training with England (Image credit: Getty Images)

A video of Paul Gascoigne attempting the World in Motion rap from the 1990 World Cup song has been released.

While England stars John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Gazza, Steve McMahon, Chris Waddle and Des Walker all turned up to help with the recording of the song by New Order in 1990, Barnes was the only one given a leading vocal on the song, with his iconic rap still memorable among football fans to this day.

Barnes has since shared audio of Gazza and Beardsley attempting the rap he made so famous over 30 years ago, at a LiveScore Live Fan event.

Paul Gascoigne attempted John Barnes' rap on World in Motion

England World Cup Squad in the recording studio after joining music group New Order to record a World Cup Song ahead of the finals in Italy later this year, pictured 25th March 1990. The song will be called World In Motion. Recording studio in Berkshire Steve McMahon Chris Waddle Peter Beardsley John Barnes Des Walker.

England players record the song (Image credit: Chris Grieve/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

"I'm going to play something special for you," Barnes said at the event. "When we did that England song, there wasn't supposed to be a rap because they're [New Order] not a rap group.

"But [songwriter] Keith Allen quickly wrote a rap, and all six of us who were there had a go at the rap. And because I was the best, obviously I did the rap.

"However, I was working about four years ago at an event where they had a sound engineer, and the sound engineer said his dad was the sound engineer live in 1990 when we did the song - and he's got a version of Paul Gascoigne and Peter Beardsley's attempt at the rap."

Barnes proceeded to play both Gazza's and Beardsley's rap attempts to the assembled crowd, bringing to light their raps that had previously never been shown to the public.

New Order basist Peter Hook was present for those recordings, and recalled encountering a young Gascoigne to FourFourTwo last year.

“I remember Paul Gascoigne running off the pitch and getting into a Mercedes with two girls standing up through the sunroof, holding a bottle of champagne each. I thought, ‘He’s going to do well, that boy’," Hook said.

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - JULY 01: Newcastle United player Paul Gascoigne pictured at the pre season photo call ahead of the 1987/88 season at Benwell in July, 1987 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Danny Brannigan/Hulton Archive)

Gascoigne attempted the World in Motion rap (Image credit: Getty Images)

He added: "It was two different songs: we never recorded the proper version, which was without the rap. It would have been a great New Order song – that’s why it sounds like a great football song."

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Ryan Dabbs
Staff writer

Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture's websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future.