Indie Pop Football

[humblebee]

I'm no admirer of Wolverhampton, but I deem Ace Bushy Striptease's 'Michael Kightly is Pretty Rad' worthy of a mention here for its fun title and being 42 seconds long.

[Huw]

Thought I may as well post this, cos its ace!

Its everything I love in everything. Its about a soppy kid who loves football but finds it too rough. Just like me!
Its also one long football/love metaphor. And if the lyrics do it for ya, imagine this, Johnny Marr does the music! Anyway...

The Boy Done Good, by Billy Bragg

Strange as it may seem, I once had my football
dreams
But I was always the last one, the last to get
chosen
When my classmates picked their teams

I guess that was the way it stayed in every game I
played
Life just kicked me, clattered and tripped me
Till you picked me from the parade

Now I feel like I've won the cup every time that we
make love
Forty-five minutes each way, at halftime I hear a
brass
band play

The boy done good, the girl done better,
The seasons turn and we're still together,
The sky's still blue and tomorrow is another day

You weren't that kind of a bird who likes her studs
to
be covered in mud
Taking you to the pictures was a regular fixture
For one of life's eternal subs

Though I tried hard acting tough, I just can't
stand the
taste of that stuff
Like some macho park player I got in the way of
In some grudge match against his club
Still I'm happier how I am today now I've put my
boots away
I guess I'll never get picked to play my song on
Match
of the Day

[indiansummer]

Everton fanzine 'When Skies Are Grey' has a semi-regular section called 'indie footballers'! although they mainly seem to equate indie with Shack.

i did enjoy the interview with Leighton Baines in a programme last season where he revealed the last album he bought was Hot Club de Paris' 'Drop It 'Til It Pops'...

i know Stuart Pearce is into punk, and Andy Hinchcliffe and Scot Gemmil were supposedly indie fans, but that's the extent of my knowledge, i think... oh wait, doesn't Christian Dailly have a dreadful indie band?

does anyone know anything about Slaven Bilic's band?

[tompony]

They are the best of all bands.

[James_B]

Carlos Tevez is apparently in a band, but they're very far from indie if I remember rightly.

[Dmanuel]

I've heard rumours that the swedish football player Niclas Kindvall once wore a sonic youth t-shirt on a photo. And even though it's not actually pop, it's quite alright compared to most other swedish football players i guess.

Oh, and in an interview in the swedish magazine nöjesguiden one of his ex-girlfriends told the interviewer that he was known for his good music taste. So well...maybe.

[The Rocky Nest]

Indie pop footballers....mmmm?
How do you think their team mates view them , y'know....being a bit weird and that?
What ya reckon?

[indiansummer]

Pat Nevin is/was chairman of the PFA so they can't see him as THAT weird! Besides, no-one could ever view an indiepop footballer as being weirder than, say, Yakubu. Who seems faintly aloof and VERY weird. And Thomas Gravesen is a black metal fan so i bet he gets far stranger looks from his team...

i remember one issue of the short-lived (and frankly under-rated - i think possibly down to the artwork) mid-90s version of Roy Of The Rovers* where one lank-haired team-mate was ignoring the dressing room team talk and apparently listening to Blur on his walkman. The clue came when he began singing "Aaaaall the people... so many people...." and the rest of the team seemed to roll their eyes as though he was a total weirdo. Good times!

*where it was largely centred on his son Rocky's career at Melchester...

[The Rocky Nest]

I wonder if a players musical taste is reflected in the way they play?
So a Belle and Sebastian fan is a bit scared to go in for the tackle(sorry, just the most obvious example) and a black metal fan goes around chopping players legs......what sort of player/music fan are you?

[indiansummer]

I'm largely into slacker bands like Pavement and Built To Spill = i can't be arsed to play football very often...

[The Rocky Nest]

I'm largely into slacker bands like Pavement and Built To Spill = i can't be arsed to play football very often...

Ha ha!
I quite like The Sundays but can't be arsed to play Sunday Lge.....I wonder if I should start a band called '6-a-side slightly shit and old fat 36 year old FC' to describemy own stlye of play.

[jamie]

I'm a massive Helen Love fan.

I'm brilliant, gifted and exciting, but no-one has seen me play in years ;)

[Murray]

Where was it that The Hidden Cameras played on the pitch either before a game or during half time? Spain or Portugal I think.
And how did that happen? Wasn't one of the players a big fan... or something?

There used to be a Crystal Palace player who listed his favourite music in 'Shoot' as "Pistols, Damned and Clash" way before Stuart Pearce ever did.
('Shoot' now sounds like a rather dubious top-shelf mag rather than the footie fans' bible it used to be.)
There was also a player, whose name I really wish I could remember, who answered The Person You'd Most Like To Meet with "Neil Diamond. Or failing that, Adolf Hitler".

[Martijn]

Where was it that The Hidden Cameras played on the pitch either before a game or during half time? Spain or Portugal I think.
And how did that happen? Wasn't one of the players a big fan... or something?

It was in Munich, Germany, during Mehmet Scholl's final match. I didn't find that out until recently, but it is dead cool, isn't it? Not just that fact that he likes such a good band (Teenage Fanclub are his all-time favourites), but a band that is so openly associated with homosexuality. It's well worth reading the Private Live bit in his Wikipedia entry too, he's got a better sense of humour than all the Premier League players together.

[thomasintrouble]

The most flattering comparison ever ventured about my football skills was that I was like Carlton Palmer. ie. you've got long legs and you're crap. please nominate ideal musical counterpart. ta.

[Wheatabeat]

Where was it that The Hidden Cameras played on the pitch either before a game or during half time? Spain or Portugal I think.
And how did that happen? Wasn't one of the players a big fan... or something?

It was in Munich, Germany, during Mehmet Scholl's final match. I didn't find that out until recently, but it is dead cool, isn't it? Not just that fact that he likes such a good band (Teenage Fanclub are his all-time favourites), but a band that is so openly associated with homosexuality. It's well worth reading the Private Live bit in his Wikipedia entry too, he's got a better sense of humour than all the Premier League players together.

That page led me to the tracklistings of the two mix compliations he released. Oddly on the second one he includes The Lightning Seeds' Three Lions in there! Actually, I felt slightly let down now; I went there expecting to see them full of indiepop gems after knowing of his Hidden Cameras passion but it turns out they're mainly full of the likes of Oasis, Stereophonics and Coldplay.

But yeah, it's still refreshing he likes someone other than Phil Collins or speed garage.

[Huw]

There's an ace bit in Johnny Green's book about The Clash were he goes on about each band members footie skills. As I reckon, Paul was a shin-kicker, Joe a midfield-general type and Mick was a bit flash, pbviously. Can't remember what he said about Topper. I doubt that heroin and football go together very well.

[Kippers]

Um, not football, but they play "My hometown" by The Wannadies every time Skellefteå (ice hockey) score...
A bit OT, but I didn't start it! And, it's still a cracking tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d3OK6RkjTQ

It really is. Such a great band. The blog Pretending Life Is Like A Song (which, coincidentally enough, was named after a famous Wannadies lyric) currently have an mp3 of Strachan* by Irish band The Catchers available for download.

*Thankfully it's about the ex-footballer Gordon rather than the ex-Timmy Mallett sidekick Michaela.

http://pretendinglifeislikeasong.wordpr ... /football/

[Martijn]

There's a weekly local TV show (well, it's internet only, so technically a very global show) about Exeter City and every time they ask the same questions to some squad member. One of them is "what's on your iPod?" I keep hoping that someone mutters something like "erm.. you know.. this band called Belle & Sebastian" but the best we've got so far is Matt Taylor who's into the Manic Street Preachers. As predictively as disappointingly most players listen to "a bit of everything, you know, a bit of R&B, a bit of dance..."

[a layer of chips]

Match magazine, years ago, used to run little Q&As with foot players, where it would ask them what their favourite things were. Like what was their favourite food, and music. The music was invariably George Benson.

There's a cracking little book I've got at home written by Dave McVay who used to play for Notts County in the 70s. It's called "Steak... Diana Ross."