Football and Music

I want to nominate somebody for the England Manager job.

This bloke has had more success - football/musically that is - than the other singing bosses.
…and as you will see from the following Ian Broudie has been associated with football and music before he came to mass public notice:

In what can be described as the musical equivalent of non-league footie, Ian was playing in a local band back in Liverpool. This group were described later on as a supergroup with a difference - it’s members became super after they left.

Big In Japan included Budgie (later of Siouxsie & the Banshees), Bill Drummond (KLF), David Balfe (Teardrops Explodes) and Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) among it’s members.

They recorded a total of 7 songs during their short existence (1977-78). One single and one EP was released. Plus some other tracks emerged on some compilation albums.

- This one from them appeared on the compilation: Street to Street - A Liverpool Album. This instrumental track is named “Match Of The Day” and I am assuming that it was influenced by the telly programme… Maybe.

» Big In Japan - Match Of The Day

Next one up was actually on MoTD and brought Ian, under the guise of The Lightning Seeds, into the Championship when they played part of the track over their goal highlights.

» The Lightning Seeds - Life Of Riley

Finally his promotion into the musical Premier League with…

AH now that would be too obvious wouldn’t it. If I was lazy I would have posted that song when I started this site. But as you’ve seen with previous posts I go looking for the more undiscovered tracks.

Anyway everybody has that recording. No need to post it.
At this moment in time too, there really isn’t anything to be proud of or to be reminiscing about.

What I am going to post is some cover versions as mentioned on the Wikipedia page:

A Dutch band called “Hermes House Band” made a cover version which is called “Eagles on the shirt” or “Heroes in the shirts”

» Hermes House Band - Heroes In The Shirts
- There’s also a video.

A German comedy duo called “Mundstuhl” made a German cover version with the title “Adler auf der Brust” (The Eagle on the Chest) for the football club Eintracht Frankfurt.

» Mundstuhl - Adler auf der Brust

The final one…

A German group of musicians called themselves “Die Original Deutschmacher” made a cover version with the title “Das W auf dem Trikot” (The W on the shirt) which became the most popular song of the supporters of the football club Werder Bremen.

… I couldn’t find that one, but I did find a Ska version by a band called the Mad Monks:

» Mad Monks - Das auf dem Trikot

This one starts out as strange and then gets a whole lot weird…

Here’s a chant that Palace fans would have heard a few years back:

“He’s fat, he’s round, he’s taking Crystal Palace down…”

The Swede with a turning circle of the Titanic came to our attention when he scored the winning goal in their match against England which knocked us out of Euro ‘92.

Well come on. It was the Graham Turnip era and have a look at who was on the field for us that night:

England: Woods, Batty, Pearce, Keown, Walker, Palmer, Platt, Webb, Sinton (Merson, 79), Lineker (Smith, 64), Daley

Andy Sinton ? Andy Sinton !

(Another shameful note from that night was with it being the last match Lineker played for England. He was subbed for Alan Smith in the 64th minute thus robbing us of a chance to equalize and him of equalling Bobby Charlton’s record.)

Two years later Tomas Brolin broke his ankle and was never the same after that. He recovered from his injury but in that time he was laid up Brolin put on some weight and never got rid of it. This didn’t stop Leeds United paying £4.5m for him in what turned out to be a disastrous move. In the 18 months he was there he played 25 times and scored only 4 goals in 2 seasons. After this he was loaned out a few times before Leeds eventually put him out of his misery (they cancelled his contract).

As we’ve seen with the choices by some clubs with their managers, nobody seemed to notice or learned anything from this and 1998 he became the assistant player-manager alongside Palace’s best ever player - Attilio Lombardo.
But the bald Eagle and the rotund one couldn’t keep them in the Prem and after relegation at the end of the season, Brolin finally took the hint and retired from football.

Nowadays he is a successful businessman and owns a Swedish-Italian restaurant (no surprise there then) back in Sweden. More amusingly he became the mouthpiece for selling vacuum cleaners online.

Now comes the strange part.

In relation to football and music and Tomas Brolin I found this Swedish language song which is sung to the tune of Dolly Parton’s “Joline.”   I’ve done a search but obviously since I don’t speak the lingo I can’t find any additional info. If you do know more then drop me a line.

In the meantime have a listen to: “Brolin, Brolin, Brolin, Broliiiiinnnn….”

» Unknown Artist - Brolin

It's not over yet. Time for the weird part.

Another bit of lyrics for you: “It’s my life.” [repeat ad nauseum]

Yeah you remember Dr Alban and that fecking annoying song which got even more distasteful when they used it on a Tampax advert.

Dr Alban is from Sweden and in 1998 he got some famous friends of his to appear in a video for his single, called Alla Vi (Friends in Need). These friends included Bjorn Borg…yes THE Bjorn Borg, and the Leeds United & Crystal Palace legend pie eater Brolin.

[Apart from these two] Up to now I’ve posted stuff relating to teams from Blighty.
I’m going to catch up to all the teams in the EPL and introduce a couple of foreign signings.

The first song has Ronaldinho, who some have called the “World’s Best Player” involved.
Well he’s considered the world’s best but in the matches I’ve seen him play I don’t see it. He’s currently at Barcelona and last Saturday morning he pulled out the game to be played that Saturday night because of “fatigue“. I watched - and switched over - when they were away to Getafe the other week because the match was so slow and dull. Ronaldinho was lazy and ineffective. Barca eventually lost that one 4-nil. There are rumours that the Catalans will get rid of him and unsurprisingly Chelski are interested in signing a player who sells more replica shirts and endorses more products than Derek.

But to the singing…

I found a music news item here which reports on the release of a CD in Brazil in relation to them and the 2006 World Cup.
Quoteth from the article:

“In Brazil, soccer and samba go together like love and marriage. And as World Cup fever grips the country, dedicated fans have plenty of choices of music for their game-day parties.

Record labels have issued a clutch of soccer-themed discs. Even star player Ronaldinho gets to show his singing skills….

… Also on the Universal label is “Samba Goal,” which boasts a selection of Ronaldinho’s favorite songs including one track he sings himself along with the group SambaTri.

The song, “Goleador” (Superscorer) speaks of his love for the sport. “I belong to the rhythm, either in the samba or in the game, I let my feet do the talking,” Ronaldinho croons.

» SambaTri & Ronaldinho - Goleador

More samba beats from Shakira this time. Along with Wyclef Jean and a remixed version of one of her songs, again for the 2006 World Cup. You’ll hear from the very beginning of the song that Shakira can belt it out when she wants. Powerful voice.

» Shakira - Hips Don’t Lie (World Cup Mix)

Sample lyrics: I’m a student of Pele, call me Pele player. /Eleven on the field with the heart of a gladiator…. Imma play till my knees grow low…
Everybody in the FIFA in the final state go / And my football jersey says Maradonna /And the crowd chants, sounds like spirits from Africa…

- Also have a look at the video and their live performance of the song at the end of the tournament.

With the FA Cup 2nd Round Proper taking place next weekend I was looking through the fixtures for any team that might have recorded a cup song in the past.

What mighty team, now fallen on harder times, have in their history sung about their trophy triumphs. Sadly though, none of them have.

Obviously no club goes out and records a single for the FA Cup unless they get to the final, but there are lots of teams who never get that opportunity and I am asking why not.

If you support a non or lower league team you know that you’ll never see Wembley Way (unless you do well in the Johnson’s Paint or FA Trophy). You will never get the chance to buy their single only to find it again years later and be reminded of the joy/pain from that particular season.

If you get through to the 3rd or 4th rounds for the first time in your history why not release a single. Might as well cash in whilst all the attention is on you.

Guess what - I’ve found something here which can assist you: An instant cup song which you can release under your name because no where in the lyrics does it actually name a team.

This track is sung by “Blue Army” and the song is called “We’re Gonna Win The Cup” and that’s all I know about it. Obviously this one is difficult to Google, too many results, nothing that helps with my research. Which of the Blue Army’s is it ? There are a few teams in blue who have reached “a” cup final. Who could it have been ?

Sorry… Who…? Birmingham..? Yeah right.
If you do know which club claims ownership to this one I’d like to hear.

In the meantime grab this song and get your team to release it. Bring in some extra revenue:

» Blue Army - We’re Gonna Win The Cup

Bonus Song:

Hey how about a cheap cut-price song if you win your league ?
Again this is one that is already made and can be tailored to fit your club. It comes courtesy of a well known artist this time.

Released in 2002 and as far as I can tell, wasn’t done to coincide with the World Cup that year. In fact I can’t find for what reason they recorded the song. They might have had the aim of getting somebody, some team to pick it up and use it for themselves, but nobody spotted the potential here.

Well suited for when your team clinches the title:

» Right Said Fred - Stand Up (For The Champions)

Sample lyrics: “Here we go it’s getting close/ Now it’s just who want it most/ It’s just life that’s how it is / Cause we have our strengths and weakness’s/ Oh I have vision oh can’t you see /I’m on the move make way for me.”
- and there’s a video which you’ve got to see to err.. believe…

The last word(s) about last Wednesday come courtesy of Crispin Thomas, one of the Football Poets: