My football the lightning seeds singer has chosen at last to embrace his three lions legacy

What was the first football match you ever attended?

A midweek game between Liverpool and Leeds in September 1964. I’d been asking my dad to take me for some time. He and my uncle took me to that game, and it had a massive influence on my life. I remember going up into the stand, seeing the floodlights shine on the grass to make it look so green; and the Leeds kit looked so white; the Liverpool kit looked so red. The Kop were singing all sorts of pop songs – I’d never seen my dad or uncle sing, ever, but they were singing You’ll Never Walk Alone. The whole experience floored me – the coming together of football, music and emotion. I loved it.

How has watching football changed for you since you were a kid?

Massively. Me and a mate lived near a dairy – we’d climb over the wall, nick two crates, get the bus to Anfield, get there three hours before kick-off, then pay to get in. We’d run to the front of the Kop. We weren’t tall enough to see over the wall behind the goal, so we’d put the crates down and lean against the wall. As the Kop filled up, you’d be penned in and couldn’t move, but we were at the front and could watch the game. I don’t think you could get into Anfield with a milk crate now.

Did you meet your childhood hero?

Where I’m from, Bill Shankly [below] was the big hero – even bigger than the players. I never met him, but everyone knew where he lived and heard stories about how he would go out into the park when kids were playing, join in and organise them.

What’s been your own finest moment as a player?

A festival in the Midlands had a football tournament for all the bands playing. I teamed up with The Farm and Terry Hall, and scored the winning penalty.

Name the best goal you saw live.

It’s not so much because it was a great goal, but a great moment:

we played Manchester United in 1994 and were 3-0 down after 20 minutes. We had bought Nigel Clough and he hadn’t quite done it for Liverpool up to that point – then he scored two goals. The equaliser was like a fairytale.

Having co-created Three Lions, what was it like filming the video with the England players prior to Euro 96?

One of the things we did was recreate famous England goals with myself, Frank Skinner and David Baddiel. For Gary Lineker’s goal against West Germany, Robbie Fowler played the role of Lineker and I was supposed to be playing the David Platt role in the celebrations, grabbing him around the neck and ruffling his hair. I was terrified I was going to injure him – I knew Liverpool had a game coming up! – so David did that bit in the end