This spot was to highlight the challenges of the England players and the expectations of the

nation for them to deliver against a backdrop of strong and very poor previous performances. With unique access given to the current England team we set out to deliver the thoughts of the nation and the thoughts of each individual player.

We composed a song and invited the vocal recording of Tom Smith, a huge England fan himself and front man of the popular indie music group Editors. This is to showcase the key players from the England National Team against a black backdrop presenting them in a unique and initially vulnerable situation.

James Doherty wrote and produced this song specifically with this advert, and the singer Tom Smith of Editors in mind. The ‘Editors’ are a band that are very culturally relevant and resonate with both football fans and fans of music alike. The lead singer Tom Smith’s voice is very distinctive and his style and range meant he was able to hit the all the notes and ensure the track was emotionally evocative. This was important as we wished to reflect the strong emotion always evoked at England games.

Getting the music and lyrics to marry was vital in the production process. The challenge presented was to compose something that was both inspiring and reflective in such a short song duration. James wrote key lines to specifically reflect certain players from the England Football team. The lyrics also needed to resonate with the audience.

Each version of the track was specifically adapted. This included re-recording all of the instrumentation and remixing every version for the 40, 30 and 20 second versions. This was essential as each version had slightly different lyrics and also progressed differently to ensure the emotional message of the song was still communicated.