World Cup Anthems
(2006)

Some strange things happened in 2006...

First, the "official" Hamptons album which was planned got pushed back to 2007, the ’08, ’09, ’10!

Instead, we fell into the trap of yet more attempts at football songs, this time cleverly using the theme tune to "Dad's Army" and the old (written by a German) "Lili Marlene" tune! Both registered at least seven on the Richter scale of the criminally ignored.

A goodly number of recordings for a new album were made. This event was followed by some unsavoury hip hopsters, during their session at the studio, proceeding to invite a few more friends in, tie up the engineer and steal the studio! Now that ranks right up there with Brian Wilson and the "Smile" tapes... well, sort of. Mind you, the same engineer later half-inched some of our kit!

The above was followed by a teutonic diversion in the shape of the ample preparations made for our European tour. This comprised a gig in Munich (playing for a German law firm’s office Christmas party), so there was plenty of room left on the t-shirt...

A guy called Randy Singer (sic) from Nashville wanted to do a harmonica version of Helá Helá, though the opus, to the best of our knowledge, remains as unfinished as Schubert's 9th.

A different Cold War ended with the crumbling of the great walls of Tooting, supplanted by the quietude of a nice gaff by the Thames and the crepuscular dance of the swallows (steady now...).

In any event, we became, as they say "big(ish)" in Germany! Also a relatively unusual line up for the Hamptons, featuring, for the first time ever, a female lead vocalist, suiting, as it does, the twenty first century age of diversity. She was a right scally Scouser, later to feature on Track 7 of Wrinkly Andrew’s Pie Dish! Anyway, much as our “Smile” material seems to have survived, so we marched forward into the credit crunch! (P.S. well done, Bulgaria and Romania, getting into the EU - can't fault the Bulgarian female vocal choir musically – but can you now please leave??).