Willie John McBride the Glengarth Sevens with a lion cub from Longleat, helping to raise money for the charity and adding to the atmosphere and help upkeep the reputation of sevens rugby at Stockport. Willie John McBride William James McBride, MBE, better known as Willie John McBride (born 6 June 1940) is a former rugby union footballer who played as a lock for Ireland and the British and Irish Lions. He played 63 Tests for Ireland including eleven as captain, and toured with the Lions five times — a record that gave him 17 Lions Test caps. He also captained the most successful
Little Willie John vocal quartette backing Ray Charles. His son Keith John is a backing vocalist for Stevie Wonder. James Brown, who early in his career had opened shows for John, recorded a tribute album, "Thinking About Little Willie John and a Few Nice Things". The guitarist and songwriter Robbie Robertson, formerly of The Band, mentioned John in the song "Somewhere Down the Crazy River", on his 1987 self-titled album. John was also mentioned in Tom Russell's "Blue Wing" and Mark Lanegan's "Like Little Willie John", from his 2004 album "Bubblegum". The Swedish artist Peter LeMarc recorded a song entitled "Little Willie John"