Three Lions certainly doesn’t roar, according to Scotland’s football anthem maestro Andy Cameron.
The 80-year-old veteran penned Ally’s Tartan Army for the 1978 World Cup.
But he’s not a fan of England’s Three Lions, released by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds for Euro 1996.
Andy said: “All of Scotland’s football anthems, like We Have a Dream and Easy, Easy, are full of hope and enthusiasm.
“People my age still can’t believe we haven’t won the World Cup. You know we’re not good enough but because we’re Scottish, we always think we can.
“There’s a bit of arrogance in Three Lions with the lyric ‘It’s coming home’. They won it in 1966.”
For over 70 years Andy has been supporting Scotland.
His first Scotland game was at Wembley in 1949 in a British Home Championship against England. He’s been part of the Tartan Army and, of course, he’s sung our most famous football chant and the famous lyrics: “We’re representing Britain; we’ve got to do or die, For England cannae dae it ‘cause they didnae qualify.”
Ally’s Tartan Army remains hugely popular and last year Andy did a Covid version which has been viewed 123,000 times.
For 23 years Scotland has been cut adrift from football’s top table. But finally, as Euro 2020 is up and running, we are back with Yes Sir, I Can Boogie – the anthem being sung, sadly because of Covid, at TV screens rather than at grounds for most of us on this afternoon against Czech Republic at Hampden, on Friday against England at Wembley and on June 22 against Croatia at Hampden.
Andy is hopeful.
He said: “It’s become a cliche, ‘It’s the hope that kills you’, but I love the idea the whole country is getting a lift from the football team being in the tournament and hope it rubs off on the players.
“We can get out of the group but we need to win the first game. We can take a draw from the other two.
“But if we only win one game, let it be England at Wembley. That would give us all an even bigger lift.”
The last official Scotland song was the pessimistic, lily-livered Don’t Come Home Too Soon, by Del Amitri, for the 1998 World Cup in France.
It was hardly the rousing anthems of the 70s. Even Rod Stewart’s Ole Ola – released, like Andy’s, for the 1978 World Cup – had the line: “It’s not just imagination, to bring the World Cup home is Scotland’s goal.”
Rangers-daft Andy had created a football hooligan character for his comedy act around the working man’s clubs.
When Scotland qualified in 1977 for the World Cup the next year, he decided to make a record to sell around the clubs.
WH Smith and Woolworths began stocking it and it became more and more popular until he got the call to appear on Top of the Pops.
Andy said: “I just said, ‘Aye, that’ll be right’, and put the phone down.”
But nearly 40 at the time, Andy was indeed invited to Top of the Pops in London.
He said: “It was exciting and a bit special.”
Andy had been born in London during World War II. His mother disappeared during the war, leaving a then four-month-old Andy in a bombed out house with his birth certificate. With his dad tracked down and brought back from the war effort, it was decided his son should be taken back up to Rutherglen, where his dad, Hugh, was from to be brought up by his Granny Bella.
While Hugh may have been in London, it enabled Andy to become an early Tartan Army member – ever since he watched Scotland beat England 3-1 at Wembley in 1949.
He said: “In those days, we didn’t have a phone so the only way to see my father was to go to London but I couldn’t afford that and he couldn’t afford to come up.
“My uncles Joe and Jim were going to Wembley on a fan bus, so I was put in the back, went down to London and got to see my first Scotland game.”
His dad was there for him again when Andy was called to sing Ally’s Tartan Army on Top of the Pops.
Concentrating on remembering the first line of the song and dressed in a Scotland top and shorts, with a tartan tammy and a tartan banner over his shoulders, Andy certainly stood out as he waited to go on the famous TOTP stage.
Billy Idol, then in punk band Generation X, appeared towering over Andy because of his spiky hair and platform boots.
The Scot said: “I’m only 5ft 6in, so he seemed really tall to me.
“I looked at him in my usual Glasgow fashion and he went, ‘Who the f**k are you?’
“Before I could say anything, my father, who was 4ft 11in, had him up against the wall saying, ‘Who are you talkin’ to by the way? That’s my boy’.
“I was 38.”
Having sung Ally’s Tartan Army on TOTP, Andy was chuffed and happy to give a young fan an autograph after his performance.
He said: “I asked her name and she said Denise, so I wrote in her book, ‘Best wishes, Andy Cameron’.
“She then looked at me and said, ‘Who are you?’”
At least back in Glasgow he had a fan.
His daughter Jennifer, his first child in his second marriage to Norma, was on her potty waiting to go to bed and watching her dad on TOTP.
Andy said: “When I finished singing, she got up and went and looked behind the telly to see where I’d gone.
“We still wind her up about it.”
Andy’s appearance was shown again the next week as the single reached No6 and sold 360,000 copies.
It was a Scottish anthem but, despite the hope, the team in Argentina wasn’t playing ball – losing to Peru, drawing with Iran and going out despite beating the Netherlands.
Back in Scotland, the tide was turning against Andy. On the night Scotland played Iran, he was appearing at the Tartan Arms in Bannockburn. He was due to sing Ally’s Tartan Army after the game but was worried.
After the draw, dressed in his full tartan gear, he went on stage and a massive 17st guy heckled him before he could say anything, warning him, ‘Hey, wee man, you can do all the gags you want but see if you sing that song, you’re oot the f****** windae.”
The hope may have turned sour but Ally’s Tartan Army made Andy a household name.
He was given a BBC Radio Scotland show, which was meant to last 13 weeks and ran for 15 years.
And while he’d sung Scotland manager Ally MacLeod’s praises, he only spoke to him at an awards do.
He said: “It was a thrill. He was the Scotland manager. He was crushed afterwards but he was so enthusiastic before going to Argentina.”
Since he was eight, Andy has loved being part of the Tartan Army.
The 1982 World Cup in Spain sums up the Scottish supporters for him.
Scotland were playing Brazil.
He said: “We scored first and someone behind me went ‘F**k, we’ve made them angry’. And you think, ‘Jeezo’.
“Then, after the game, this big Scots boy indicated to this rather attractive young Brazilian woman to swap strips. She had her strip halfway up before it clicked with her, ‘You only want to see my boo-boos’.
“The whole place applauded them and we’d just lost 4-1.”
