John Barnes has revealed the audio clips from 1990, showing Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne and Peter Beardsley attempting his iconic rap for ‘World in Motion’.
The England legend played the clips during a recent interview on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, looking back at how he recorded a section of the New Order song ahead of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.
That song became New Order’s only number-one single on the UK Singles Chart, and Barnes won the opportunity to rap on the track after a competition with other England players, including Chris Waddle, Paul Gascoigne, and Peter Beardsley.
Looking back at his feature on the song, Barnes told Moyles that it was between him and five other players, who were each battling it out to provide the rap section, and revealed that he still has the audition entries from Gascoigne and Beardsley on his phone.
“What happened was only six of us turned up to do the rap,” he explained. “I can give you an exclusive of some people doing the rap live in 1990 on my phone. I can play it there if you’d like!”
Barnes went on to share that it was originally “not supposed to be a rap, because New Order are not a rap group”, but when they realised that only six players turned up to contribute, they decided to change course.
“At the end of the session when the song was finished, and there’s only six of us who’ve turned up to do it, Keith Allen [co-writer] went, ‘Well, why don’t we just put a rap in it?’,” he said. “And Bernie Sumner and Peter Hook – they were from New Order – said, ‘Well, we’re not a rap group. So, you know…’
“And he goes, ‘Oh, it’d be great!’ The song was finished. And so, he just wrote it there and then, and we had to have a rap off.”
As for who he was up against, Barnes shared: “It was between me, Gazza, Peter Bearsley, Des Walker, Steve McMahon, Chris Waddle. We were the only six who turned up; the rest of the lads weren’t even there. Because we didn’t know it was going to be a song with New Order.
“We thought it was just going to be a ‘Here we go, arms around each other.’ So, the players didn’t turn up,” he continued. “We all had a go at the rap. It was between me and Des Walker… obviously I did it.”
He then went on to play Gascoigne’s attempt at the rap, saying that “Gazza’s not bad”, before saying that it is Peter Beardsley’s attempt that is “the one you want to hear”.
“Peter’s a good friend of mine. Peter knows I’ve been doing this for years, so Peter won’t be offended,” he said, playing that clip.
He also added that he got the audio after meeting the sound engineer who worked on the track in Leicester around eight years ago, who offered to send over the clips. Check out that section of the interview above, or tune in to the full thing here.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins next Thursday (June 11), and the opening match will see co-hosts Mexico vs South Africa go head to head at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca.
When ‘World In Motion’ was first released, NME asked Barnes how excited he was to be collaborating on a football song, to which he responded: “If I thought it was going to be the same as the usual crap, why bother? But this is alright.”
Barnes’ rap was written by the man himself and performed – legend has it – in one take. Check out more facts about the song here.
In other World Cup news, Baddiel, Skinner & Lightning Seeds have announced a 30th anniversary re-release of ‘Three Lions’, as England head into another World Cup this summer.
Belle & Sebastian have also shared a buoyant 2026 Scotland World Cup anthem ‘It Only Takes One Lion’, and frontman Stuart Murdoch told NME about his hopes for the team.
When asked about the mood in Scotland since they qualified, the singer said: “It’s funny. I’ve noticed this everywhere: with the World Cup there’s a mixture of cynicism and anticipation.
“When the actual tournament starts, everyone will get excited about it. Because of FIFA, the peace prize, the ticket prices, people seem quite down about it. I found that in Mexico. They were quite fed up with the general hype about it. I’m in the States just now and you shouldn’t believe all the hype: people are people. The States are just as ‘great’ as ever. We love coming here, we love the cities. The general sense of North American optimism will make for a good tournament.”
“With Scotland though, people will definitely be excited about it. You have to understand, it’s been 30 years since Scotland qualified so I think everybody and their dog has written a song for the team.”
Leave a comment