Not the football again! What else is on?
A look back at the Summer of 1966
by Philip Harrison
June and July 2026 will see the USA, Mexico and Canada jointly host the 23rd FIFA World Cup. Now I appreciate many loyal readers of MusicWeb International will have no interest in the tournament and will avoid the coverage of it like the plague. There are some nonetheless who appreciate great musicmaking and enjoy the beautiful game too. The two are not mutually exclusive. A few composers who did both include:
Shostakovich, a huge fan of Zenit Saint Petersburg. His superb ballet in three acts: The Golden Age of 1930 features a Soviet football team on tour.
Martinů, a fan of Sparta Prague wrote an orchestral rondo in 1924 called Half-Time based on the excitement of an international football fixture.
Finally, our very own Edward Elgar, a regular at Molineux to watch Wolverhampton Wanderers (he was introduced to the game incidentally by Dora Penny) actually penned a football chant. It is called “He banged the leather for goal”. I feel I should manage your expectations though, as you all rush off to find a recording of this little-known work of Elgar!
Twiddling my thumbs on holiday looking at the 2026 fixture list, I thought I might take you back to the July of 1966. England hosted the tournament and on the thirtieth day of the month, as you all know – they won it! It was a smaller-scale affair than the upcoming extravaganza we are waiting for this Summer. Just sixteen teams competed and it was all condensed into a nineteen-day frenzy of excitement.
This summer I plan to watch a good number of matches, but my regular music listening will not suffer. It never does! A music-loving football fan in 1966 would have plenty of variety via the wireless too. Obviously by July most of the regular concert seasons would have ended. Many families would perhaps be enjoying a week or two off from work. I have compiled a calendar of highlights they might have enjoyed and linked it in with the tournament.
Group Stages: Monday 11th July – Wednesday 20th July
The 1966 World Cup had four groups as follows:
Group 1: England, Uruguay, Mexico, France (games played mostly at Wembley)
Group 2: West Germany, Argentina, Spain, Switzerland (games played in Sheffield (Hillsborough) and Birmingham (Aston Villa))
Group 3: Portugal, Hungary, Brazil and Bulgaria (games played in Liverpool (Goodison Park) and Manchester (Old Trafford))
Group 4: USSR, North Korea, Italy, Chile (games played in Middlesbrough and Sunderland)
It will be easy for interested readers to research the matches and see which teams prevailed and which teams were vanquished. Some less well-known tales surround the teams’ activities in between games. Here is a selection of some of the venues chosen by the visiting nations to set up camp:
Brazil: Based in Lymm, Cheshire, but travelled to Bolton for their daily training
Argentina: Stayed in Birmingham City centre (quite noisy apparently)
Mexico: Set up base in a hotel by Finsbury Park
France: Chose Welwyn Garden City as their HQ
Germany: A quiet place in Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Italy and USSR: They both stayed in university accommodation in Durham
Portugal: Wilmslow
Switzerland: Cosy at the Hallam Tower Hotel in Sheffield. Three of their young players caused a mini-scandal back home after a night out with local girls prompting the headline: “Die Nacht von Sheffield”
North Korea: A hotel on the site of Teeside airport to the East of Darlington
Apparently, the Foreign Office were a little concerned about North Korea. In 1966, the UK had not officially recognised the state. They were secretly hoping the team wouldn’t progress from the group as sending dignitaries and playing national anthems could prove diplomatically difficult. They did progress but were beaten in the quarter finals by Portugal. The game at Goodison Park was a classic. North Korea led 3-0 at one point but the brilliant Eusébio scored four and the game finished 5-3.
Classical Music on the BBC Monday 11th July to Friday 22nd July 1966
In this fortnight Composer of the Week, still one of the best programmes on Radio 3 featured Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti (first week) and Chopin (second). In those days the show started at 9am. The Third Programme played a lot more new gramophone records to its audience in those days too. The schedule also had morning and afternoon concerts regularly broadcast from around the regions. I have selected some highlights below, mainly from the evening programmes.
| Monday 11th July | Afternoon: Haydn The Creation ECO/Britten (a live recording from the previous May) Evening: Bach Cantata 202; Mahler 2 Concertgebouw/Haitink (from the Holland Festival) |
| Tuesday 12th July | BBC Northern/Maurice Handford from the Cheltenham Festival Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to confirm the whole concert. I think Ogdon premiered Hoddinott PC3 |
| Wednesday 13th July | Lassus: Sacrae Lectiones ex propheta Job. Ch New College, Oxford (a repeat, but interesting) Home Service: BBCSO/Susskind Mozart PC26 (Susskind himself soloist) and Vaughan Williams 2 |
| Thursday 14th July | During the evening schedule on the Home Service, they went over to Cheltenham just to broadcast Delius’ Appalachia (BBC Northern/Hurst, Colin Wheatley) How adorable |
| Friday 15th July | Home Service: BBCSO/Del Mar with Erich Gruenberg (vn) |
| Saturday 16th July | Third: BBC SO/Bertini Haydn, Prokofiev, Berg Home: BBC Concert Orchestra/Tausky Opera Gala with Tinsley, Burrows and Noble singing |
| Sunday 17th July | An afternoon concert from Liverpool, RLPO/Hurst Mozart 36 and Mahler 2 (2nd time in a week) |
| Monday 18th July | Midday concert: Wagner from Hallé/Barbirolli; Bleeding chunks from Tristan and Götterdämmerung with the Siegfried Idyll as an opener. Anita Välkki sang. |
| Tuesday 19th July | All Mozart programme ECO/Schneider featuring the great Rudolf Serkin in both PCs 27 and 21 |
| Wednesday 20th July | From St Andrew Holborn: Bach’s St John Passion, ECO/Britten with Ameling, Procter, Tear, Pears, Shirley-Quirk and Krause |
| Friday 22nd July | Home Service: BBC Northern/Franz-Paul Decker; Beethoven 8, Mozart 36, Bruckner 3 |
You would recognise programmes on the Home Service like: From Our Own Correspondent, Desert Island Discs, Week in Westminster, Pick of the Week. Many of us will remember Alistair Cooke too in Letter from America. The fortnight above was full of interesting current affairs programmes too. One recurrent series called “Suez – Ten years after” looks interesting. The radio drama is mouth-watering too. I don’t have time for that here other than to cite: “Timber” – a portrait of Henry Wood by Michael Kennedy.
Knockout Phase
The quarter finals of the 1966 World Cup all took place at the same time: 3.00 pm on Saturday 23rd July. England, West Germany, USSR and Portugal went through. The first semi-final was only two days later. At Goodison Park in Liverpool, West Germany beat the Soviet Union 2-1 with goals from Helmut Haller and the young star Franz Beckenbauer. Shostakovich wanted to be at this game but heart problems made that impossible.
The following night at Wembley, a brace from the Manchester United striker Bobby Charlton sent England through against the great Portuguese side. It was all set-up now. England would face West Germany for the Jules Rimet Trophy at Wembley on Saturday afternoon.
Music of the Week
In London the Proms began on Saturday 23rd July. In the week prior to this opera lovers could have enjoyed the following productions
| Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | The Magic Flute in a new production by the RSC’s Peter Hall and c. Solti Sylvia Geszty, Joan Carlyle, John Wakefield, Geraint Evans and David Ward in the principal roles |
| ROH, CG | A revival of Schoenberg’s Moses and Aaron – another Hall/Solti show but quite different to the Mozart. Forbes Robinson was Moses I think |
| Glyndebourne | Jephtha c. Leopold Ludwig with the famous Idomeneo Richard Lewis in the title role and also featuring Heather Harper and Patricia Johnson |
| Glyndebourne | Die Zauberflöte (auf Deutsch) with Rae Woodland, Arlene Saunders, George Shirley, Peter-Christoph Runge and Victor de Narké |
| Southwark Cathedral | English Opera Group presented the new The Burning Fiery Furnace with Bryan Drake as the Abbot and Pears as Nebuchadnezzar. They did Curlew River too |
| Sadler’s Wells | Handel Opera Society put on Orlando with Janet Baker c. Anthony Lewis There was also a production of Theodora with Jenifer Eddy |
There must have been plenty going on in the regions too. Here is what radio listeners could pick from:
| Saturday 23rd July | First Night of the Proms: BBCSO/Sargent with Moura Lympany |
| Sunday 24th July | Bellini Beatrice di Tenda – An RAI production c. Gui with Gencer and Oncina (Now on CD) |
| Monday 25th July | The annual visit of Glyndebourne to the Proms with their Die Zauberflöte |
| Tuesday 26th July | Proms: BBCSO/Sargent; Daniel Wayenberg played the Brahms PC2. Some Byrd motets too! |
| Wednesday 27th July | Proms on the Home Service: The Dream of Gerontius (Sargent) whilst on the Third Johnny Scott’s “A Symposium for Jazz Orchestra” was given its first performance |
| Thursday 28th July | Beethoven at the Proms with Sargent. The twist was a couple of pieces by Varèse performed at the end of the concert. |
| Friday 29th July | Hallé/Barbirolli at the Proms. Beethoven’s Emperor is played by Daniel Barenboim before Bruckner’s Ninth |
Composer of the week for that week was Stravinsky. Most of the Proms were actually live on the Home Service. I noticed a talk on the Third entitled: “Where has all the fuel gone?” by Mr. F. Fraser Ross of the Central Electricity Generating Board. Was this really sixty years ago?
The Day of the Final: Decisions. Decisions
The final of the World Cup took place at 3.00pm on Saturday 30th July. The game has passed into legend. A minute before the 90 minutes were up, with the score at 2-1 to England, the Germans equalised. The game went into extra-time. Geoff Hurst scored his second on the 101 minutes mark. As the game approached the end the crowd sensed that England had sneaked it. Kenneth Wolstenholme commentating for the BBC described the excitement at the very end as the emotion began to come to a peak: “Some people are on the pitch. They think it’s all over … (Hurst then scored again making it a hat-trick for him) … It is now!”
At the Royal Albert Hall that evening Sir John Barbirolli made an announcement to let the audience know, although I cannot believe that by that time the news hadn’t filtered through to South Kensington. His beloved Hallé was giving one of their fabled “Viennese Nights”:
Mozart: ov. Le nozze di Figaro
Mozart: PC15 (Nichola Gebolys)
Mozart: Symphony No. 34
J Strauss II: ov. Die Zigeunerbaron
J Strauss II: Tales from the Vienna Woods
J Strauss II: Pizzicato Polka
J Strauss II: Thunder and Lightning Polka
J Strauss II: Emperor Waltz
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier – Suite
encore – Lehar: Gold and Silver Waltz
encore – J Strauss II: Radetzky March
On the radio the first half was carried by the Home Service whilst the Light Programme broadcast the second half. The concert was also televised I understand.
The World Cup final was watched by a staggering 32.3 million people on TV. I think it remains the most-watched TV broadcast in UK history. At Wembley itself almost 100,000 saw it in person. A standing-place ticket could have been had at the time for around 10 shillings which equates to around £8 today. The World Cup of 2026 is using a dynamic pricing strategy for tickets. At the time of writing the cheapest-tier ticket for the final at the MetLife stadium, New Jersey can be had for $5785. That is predicted to rise.
I pondered what I would have done on that night in 1966 had I been alive and in London. It is a tough one. I never saw Barbirolli conduct, as he died in 1970, the year I was born. Cards down on the table, I would have to go with Wembley and experienced the thrill of seeing England in those iconic red shirts lifting the World Cup. After all, Barbirolli and the Hallé would be back to do more Viennese nights. It would be a long wait for another World Cup triumph! Who knows, maybe 2026 will be the year!
Philip Harrison
