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Introducing Bands FC: The Phenomenon Combining Football And Music

Introducing Bands FC: The Phenomenon Combining Football And Music

It's growing at a rapid rate...

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

The worlds of football and music go hand in hand and Bands FC is a project highlighting how strong the connection is.

The idea is what it says on the tin: band logos and football badges merged together and it's just wonderful stuff. It was only set up a month ago but through a series of stunning designs, it's growing at an incredible rate - with 13.4k followers on the Twitter account at the time of writing.

If you like your football and you like your music, along with cool graphics, then it's the perfect Twitter account for you.

A quick peruse through the Bands FC feed and you'll find at least 50 designs that could easily be your phone's new lock screen.

Some of the bad boys include Oasis, Wu-Tang Clan, Kasabian, Madness, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Daft Punk, The Stone Roses, Echo and The Bunnymen, Courteeners, Blossoms, Blur, Black Sabbath, Beastie Boys, Daft Punk, OMD, James, Franz Ferdinand, Foo Fighters, The Verve and Joy Division.

But there's really too many to choose from and it's only right that you spend a good hour of your time checking them out.

After catching wind of the concept, I was keen to see how it all came about and it turns out it was all fairly straightforward.

"After a Charlatans gig in May, Tim (Burgess, the singer), me (Nick Fraser - I do merch for the band) and Mark Liptrott (graphic designer) got talking and we were laughing about how the impending World Cup would mean that everything would have to be about football to get any kind of look in while it was on," Nick, one of the brains behind it all, told SPORTbible.

Image: PA
Image: PA

"Even bands would have to have football angle. That was it. Two weeks on and 150 badges later we have a bit of a phenomenon on our hands."

Several of the bands to have had their logos recreated in football crest form are onboard, with Bands FC's primary aim about the whole deal being to raise money for charity.

"Many of the bands like Mogwai, The Cribs and Franz Ferdinand got involved," Nick added.

"We wanted to make them like the cards and stickers that we remember so we're currently working on some Crypto Collectibles which are absolutely mindblowing.

"Scott from Frightened Rabbit was a big Hearts fan - his brother, Grant (Frightened Rabbit drummer) got in touch after we had done them a design. We are working on making them into enamel badges and giving all the money to a charity in Scott's memory.

"Camera Obscura lost their keyboard player, Carey, to Sarcoma. We're working with them on prints and t-shirts for the charity. We're making enamel badges for The Charlatans and Public Service Broadcasting for causes close to their heart's too.

"There is a history of solidarity and generosity in music and football and we're looking to harness that. Much of the inspiration for what we do is borrowed so we want to help out where we can if we sell wallcharts, badges or whatever."

One of the designs that has really took off is the Daft Punk PSG style badge, created by Rich Bayley. It's well and truly breathing a new life of its own - so much so that the band want a copy themselves.

"We got a cryptic direct message about our Daft Punk/ PSG design," Nick revealed.

"We have lots of people asking so we just answered their questions. They then revealed that they work with the band and rather than any kind of cease and desist, it was a request to get a print to them.

"We did get them to email us rather than just take their word for it and it was a bonafide Sony email address. We even googled the sender and they are quite a big cheese there."

There's massive potential for the brand and it all revolves around good, important causes. A free-to-attend exhibition at Salford Lads' Club on 25 November has already been announced, while more events across the country are on the way.

Be sure to keep tabs on Bands FC because it's going to be very big...

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Football News, Football