The (men’s) World Cup is starting today – you might have just heard something or other about it – and Noel Gallagher has been sounding off about it. You’d expect nothing less.
The Oasis guitarist was appearing on Talk Sport when the subject of the Final Half Time show came up. Yes indeed-y, there is going to be such a thing in 2026 and it’s being curated by Chris Martin of Coldplay, who has enlisted his great mates Madonna, Shakira and BTS. And the Muppets.
When asked by the host whether he’d been asked to play in the show, Gallagher quipped: “I’m doing the half-time raffle… for a leg of lamb.”
(Older listeners may well have chuckled at this, for that was exactly the sort of glamorous half-time entertainment you could have stumbled across at a lower division ground in the 1970s, around the time Noel first started going to games.)
“No, I don’t like changes in football. I’m looking forward to these new rules about corners and time-wasting, that might be a good thing for the game, but I don’t like the razzmatazz of football; it’s been functioning perfectly for hundreds of years,” Gallagher said, before returning to the subject of the Half Time show: “They’re not really football people who are performing anyway, are they?”
He also revealed that he'd once been invited by the FA to get involved in an official England team song. “It was back in the '90s,” he remembered. “It was… Ocean Colour Scene were involved and Ian McCulloch (of Echo and the Bunnymen). I’m not sure what the tune was, (but) it got swamped by Three Lions anyway.”
(That would have been How Does It Feel To Be (On Top Of The World), the 1998 song credited to ‘England United’, a motley crew that included the aforementioned McCulloch, Ocean Colour Scene, Space and the Spice Girls. And yes, it was somewhat overshadowed by both Three Lions and Vindaloo by Fat Les.)
Anyway, to Gallagher’s doubtless delight, there will be more non-football people performing at the opening ceremonies – and yes you read that correctly: there are going to be three opening ceremonies, you lucky people.
There’s one tonight at the opening game in Mexico City, another at the first Canadian-hosted game on Friday and a further one on Saturday in Los Angeles. Among the artists involved will be Shakira (again), Burna Boy, Katy Perry, Tyla, Alanis Morissette, Future and Michael Buble.
