31 May 1990
The first of those ’90s monsters: the event single that stays at number one for months on end. ‘Put ‘Em Under Pressure’ topped the Irish charts for a then-record 13 weeks. As is the way, the longer ‘Put ‘Em Under Pressure’ stayed at number one the more people grew to hate it. However, it wasn’t as much hatred of the track itself (though there was that) as that its refrain of “Olé olé olé!” had become the signifier of Ireland’s Italia ’90 mania-slash-eejitry: the newbie fans singing it with gusto from the bandwagon; the old-school football aficionados sneering in retort; the die-hard Gaelic football and hurling administrators hoping it would all go away. Think of the one Christmas song you hate the most (‘Fairytale Of New York’, obviously) but which seems to be inescapable for the entire holiday season plus now you’re starting to get fed up with all the hullaballoo of Christmas too: that was ‘Put ‘Em Under Pressure’ in the summer of Italia ’90.
Its constituent parts are well known: the trad Irish guitar riff copying the one used by Horslips in ‘Dearg Doom’; the “Olé olé olé!” and “We all follow… / we’re all off to…” chants already used by other football songs and supporters; even the Jack Charlton lines from a widely-seen TV documentary called Que Sera Sera that also provides most of the clips in the video below. ‘Put ‘Em Under Pressure’ also had the heft of star power. As the official song, it had the imprimatur of the Ireland team; no doubt the Boys in Green themselves were singing it on the team bus, in the dressing room, and down the back of the Vatican while the Pope wasn’t looking. Larry Mullen was the producer, and Moya Brennan adds a Clannad-y intro for some wild Atlantic mysticism. Also credited is fiddle player Helen O’Hara of Dexys Midnight Runners and ‘Come On Eileen’, a record whose later ubiquity with the forced jollity of wedding discos is also a similar experience to that of ‘Put ‘Em Under Pressure’ in 1990.
So, how does ‘Put ‘Em Under Pressure’ sound now? Well, certainly it’s no ‘Come On Eileen’ (one of the best pop singles ever made) but at least it’s no ‘Fairytale Of New York’ (one of the worst): I find it still surprisingly tolerable. There’s that humungous ‘Dearg Doom’ riff front and centre. As with ‘World In Motion’ by England and New Order, it’s better than nearly all previous football squad anthems ever by the simple expedient of keeping the football squad involvement (real or notional) to a minimum; using those Jack clips for verses is an inspired idea. Also, if you’ll forgive the anachronism, Larry, Moya and the rest are at a Champions League level of competence compared to their Irish Italia ’90 Sunday league rivals. For all that, though, it’s still pretty dumb and naff.
In truth, I was probably too young at the time to have appreciated the full madness of Italia ’90; I wasn’t in heaving pubs, on last-minute flights to Rome or at the matches in Genoa or Cagliari. By USA ’94 we were all a little more streetwise and cosmopolitan, relatively speaking: I was old enough to be in pubs for it but apart from the opening win over Italy the rest of Ireland’s tournament was disappointing. Our next genuine World Cup-related collective mania, twelve years hence and which we’ll see here too, won’t be positive for anyone. Other national obsessions and controversies come and go. For a variety of reasons Italia ’90 will always be a once-off, and maybe my youthful, provincial taste of it was just enough: glad it happened, glad it’ll never happen again.
Irish Number Ones 