It's Only Us

About

It’s Only Us was written by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers and released on 8 November 1999 as a double A-side with She’s the One. The track was recorded specifically for the EA Sports video game FIFA 2000, after Williams agreed to contribute on the condition that his hometown club, Port Vale, was included in the game. The song subsequently replaced Jesus in a Camper Van on later reissues of I’ve Been Expecting You due to copyright issues surrounding that track.

The recording is an energetic, guitar-driven anthem that blends distorted riffs and a rapid rhythm section, matching the high tempo of the football video game it accompanied. The lyrics, which include the line “We’re just after cheaper thrills since the price went up on pills from Stoke-on-Trent to Beverly Hills,” highlight Williams’s trademark mix of self-deprecating humour and working-class pride.

The video, directed by Simon Hilton, features Williams as a manic inventor surrounded by multiple digital versions of himself, reflecting the chaos and energy of computer gaming culture at the time. The song’s association with FIFA 2000 helped it reach a broad international audience and cemented Williams’s status as a defining British pop figure at the turn of the millennium.

I just thought, if I’m going to be in a football game, then Port Vale are coming with me.Robbie Williams