First, Pete told me when England fans first adopted this particular track

trackIt was the Croatia game, wasn't it? It kind of seemed to g- spread like a wildfire through the crowd, and what was lovely was to see just how it instantly moved the teamwork.

But I think l- it's actually a very bonding song between team and fans because it's one of those songs that really has sort of transcended the generations.

And, you know, my kids are, are now the same age as some of the players in the England team, and everyone of that gen- it's a Gen Z anthem as well as a sort of, you know, Gen X anthem.

Pete?

Yeah.

I think whatever happens, you know, there's a sort of bond between the fan and, and the teams 'cause this is a really, really great team.

You know, what a great time to be living through the English kind of football story at the moment, and that's why I think Wonderwall is a more suitable song now than Three Lions was back in the day, 'cause it reflects the experience of the emerging sort of generation of players and the fans who sort of live it through them.

Oh

... um, many years later when his, his PR got in touch.

Well, this was when I was working for The Times.

His PR got in touch with me and, uh, asked me if I'd be ...

He was coming into the country from, uh, Los Angeles, where he lived, to do some dates, which he was trying to ...

But tickets weren't selling very well, so his publicist, and I think his promoter, was trying to drum up some attention for those dates, and he said, "Could you ...

Do you think you could maybe get something into The Times?" Which I sort of said, "Uh, yeah, I think I can persuade my editor to sort of, sort of let me do something." So I arranged to meet him in an airport near Heathrow just after he sort of landed, and we didn't ...

Legacy

You've, uh, the new Wings book and the new Wings album you've been involved in, I see.

Yeah, I was ...

This is stuff I was doing about a year ago now.

I think in the world of Wings and, and MPL and Paul McCartney, things sort of take a long time to gestate.

So, um, about a year and a half ago, I was asked to, um, if I would be interested.

There's a sort of new oral history of Wings, an official oral history of Wings out as a hardback book with, for, you know, new interviews with Paul, which are augmented with, with new and existing interviews with people who were all kind of involved with Wings in some way.

And so in the event of anyone picking up the book who wants to know this story, but, you know, sees the, the words Band on the Run in front of them but doesn't actually know what Band on the Run is, then there's a section at the back y- where I explain what Band on the Run is, how it happened, why it matters, what's great about it, and then further down, and then you might see, you know, the name Denny Laine in there.

Yes.