Rik Mayall’s Noble England World Cup song scores top ten chart position
The song, in which Mayall performs the iconic speech from Shakespeare's Henry V over rousing chants, was subject of a social media campaign after the actor’s death last week
Rik Mayall’s World Cup anthem, Noble England, has charted at number seven in the UK a week after the comedian died.
The song, in which Mayall performs the iconic speech from Shakespeare's Henry V over rousing chants, was originally released in 2010 for the South Africa World Cup, but failed to chart. However, this time, with help from social media campaigners the track has broken into the top ten.
Mayall, best known for his brilliant performances in BBC comedy series The Young Ones and Bottom, died last week of what his wife described as “an acute cardiac event”, aged just 56.
Jon Morter, who was behind the Rage Against the Machine Facebook “chart-hijack” in 2009 that saw the US band beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry to number one, also helped with the current campaign.
"A lot of people have fond memories of [Rik] and they’re showing it in the way they know,” Morter told RadioTimes.com earlier this week.
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“I think that the chart hijacking thing is a way of people coming together to show how they feel. With Rage Against The Machine, it was a protest, with this… It's an outpouring, but not of grief, more of a celebration. And that’s what I wanted. It’s a celebration of this crazy guy that many of us grew up watching. I think it’s what he would have wanted."
