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Euro 2020: The Alarm release Wales' official Euro 2020 song

BBC Mike Peters from the band The AlarmBBC
Mike Peters from The Alarm wrote the song and said it was a "story of real people coming together"

Wales' official song for the European championships has had its first play, celebrating the spirit of Wales.

'The Red Wall of Cymru' written and performed by The Alarm focuses on the fans and Wales, with reference to Welsh legends and fan's voices on the track.

The delayed 2020 European Championship begins on 11 June after being postponed last year due to Covid.

The Alarm frontman Mike Peters said the song was "a story of real people coming together".

This year's tournament will be the second successive Euro finals that Wales have qualified for after reaching the semi-finals at Euro 2016 in France.

Wales' group games are against Switzerland and Turkey in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku before facing Italy in Rome.

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The Alarm, a rock band formed more than 40 years ago in north Wales, have had numerous top 20 UK singles including 68 Guns and Rain in the Summertime.

They have played major festivals, toured the world and supported some of the world's biggest acts like U2 and Bob Dylan.

Manic Street Preachers performed Wales' Euro 2016 song while The Alarm's song offering The Red Wall of Cymru, which features fans recorded in football grounds all across Wales, had its first official play on BBC Radio Wales on Friday.

Getty Images Welsh football fansGetty Images
Welsh football fans played a part in singing this year's Euros song with The Alarm

Peters, a lifelong Welsh football fan, said "It's been quite a journey".

"I think I have waited all my life for this moment, as a fan of Welsh football and following the team," he said.

"As a musician I have always wanted to write a song that translated into the terraces so hopefully this is going to be the one."

He said that Wales' performance in 2016 "put ourselves on the map globally as a nation and as a community," and that "fans were the stars as well as the players".

"This is a story of real people coming together.

"When I sat down to think about how I am going to write a song for Wales, I always thought one of the great things about our country is our national anthem is the greatest pop song that has never been released.

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"So I started there. I thought lets take some of the melody and spirit of the national anthem and put it into the rock environment.

"I got into music by going to see Wales and hearing Slade playing out the tannoy and thinking what's this music and then that took me outside of football into music."

He added that is is a "shame" that because of Covid fans can not gather or travel to games but he said: "Through this record, through the legends that are mentioned, and through the spirit we give out as a nation we will be there with our team".

"I stood with them outside grounds they have gone to all their lives and took that passion to follow Wales and said to them 'just sing your hearts out'."

Proceeds of the record go to a cancer charity set up by the band after Peters himself had cancer.