| "Vindaloo" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Fat Les | ||||
| Released | 8 June 1998 | |||
| Format | CD | |||
| Recorded | 1998 | |||
| Genre | Comedy, Football chant | |||
| Length | 3:39 | |||
| Label | Telstar | |||
| Fat Les singles chronology | ||||
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"Vindaloo" is a song by British band Fat Les. The music was written by Blur bassist Alex James and the lyrics were written by comedian Keith Allen. It was released as a single in 1998 and recorded for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The song was originally written as a parody of football chants, but was adopted as one in its own right and became a cult classic. Much of the song consists of the phrase "nah nah nah" and the word "vindaloo" repeated over and over by a mixed group, occasionally interspersed with lines such as "And we all like vindaloo" and "We're England; we're gonna score one more than you".
The song has brief verses, spoken/sung by Keith Allen (in a voice sounding remarkably similar to that of the late Ian Dury) with a tune that owed much to Max Wall's "The Walk" routine.
The song's name comes from the vindaloo, a type of very spicy Goan curry. It is often eaten by football supporters in the United Kingdom (and other nations) accompanied by large quantities of lager, after matches or as part of a "lads' night out".[1]
The song reached number two in the UK Singles Chart in June 1998; it was beaten by "Three Lions '98" by David Baddiel and Frank Skinner and Lightning Seeds, a re-release of football anthem "Three Lions" from 1996 with slightly altered lyrics. However, there were rumours at the time that — in a re-run of the events in 1977 surrounding the Sex Pistols "God Save The Queen" — those running the chart kept "Vindaloo" off the Number 1 spot on purpose. When the song was performed on Top of the Pops, Professor Colin Pillinger played a drum in the group.[2]
The song sounded a little too much like a "hooligan's anthem" for some observers, but from the point of view of the BBC (who commission the official UK Music Chart) the band were deliberately waking the ghost of an earlier incident on the BBC TV programme The Late Show. Guest Keith Allen got into an extremely heated row with the panel over his view that comedy was now being hamstrung to appease rules of political correctness. Just before storming off the live broadcast, Allen stormed at an Asian member of the panel that "It's not a chip you've got on your shoulder, it's a fucking vindaloo!". He later explained to press reporters that a vindaloo is as faux ethnic (this piece of Goan cuisine actually originated from Portugal) as those who masquerade as self-appointed spokespeople for ethnic minority communities' rights in order to censor arts and culture according to their own pet prejudices.
The music video for the song is a parody of the video for "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve, which was itself inspired by the music video for "Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack.[3] The video is recorded in the same street, and features comedian Paul Kaye as a Richard Ashcroft lookalike forcing his way down the street. Unlike the original video, in which Ashcroft is alone, Kaye gradually gathers a large crowd which includes Fat Les members Keith Allen, Alex James, and artist Damien Hirst, further on Rowland Rivron (as the drumming Queens guard), Edward Tudor-Pole, Matt Lucas, David Walliams, a young Lily Allen, and the late Malcolm Hardee, sumo wrestlers, French maids, a French mime artist, a Max Wall lookalike (as Professor Wallofski), a priest, women dressed as girls from St Trinian's and many others who dance around him, some brandishing bags of curry. By the end, Kaye has joined in celebrating with the rest of the crowd.
The song is used as the opening music at Peter Noone's concerts as he takes the stage. It is also used as entrance music for English professional wrestlers Doug Williams and Nigel McGuinness when they team together in Pro Wrestling Noah and various independent promotions.