I’ve mentioned on the about page that I (Webbie at Football and Music) had the idea for this website after I emigrated to the USA. If I was still back in the UK I would have been scouring every charity shop for those football singles.

I could of course, thanks to this world wide web, still obtain these records via ebay and Discogs but there’s something about suddenly finding a record in a shop and having it in your hand…

Luckily though Pascal, my friend in football and music, has done exactly that. His purpose for the last few years has been to track down those glorious 7 inch singles.

To date (at the time of this posting) he owns 964 singles and you can see every one of them on 45football.com

Not only that he’s also exhibited these singles in galleries in Switzerland and Germany. Why ? Because it’s not just about the songs for him, there’s also the art and design of the covers. A selection of a few of them below.

Pascal has taken this further by creating a book which will include a selection of these front covers.

It’s not just pictures of the 7″ singles though, also inside you’ll find articles from some football/music writers including me. Each article talks about the football and music in Italy, Argentina, Germany and myself with England.

Here’s the promo/bio bit about the book:

Let’s face it – most football songs aren’t very good. All the more remarkable is the job Pascal Claude has done collecting hundreds of vinyl 7” records with football songs. The sleeves to these often bizarre records tell no less than their own history of football.

Around 900 of them, produced from the 1950s through to today, were now compiled and published in FOOTBALL DISCO – for football and music lovers to enjoy, to wonder, to laugh about, as well as for art lovers and people with weird preferences.

424 pages reveal anthems to Botafogo and Boca, Norwich and Nantes, Spartak and Dinamo, as well as footballers as popstars: singing Pelé and Beckenbauer, Müller and Milla, Hoddle and Waddle, Scifo and Sanchez. Each sleeve not only a unique piece of commercial art but equally a testament to its time.

But FOOTBALL DISCO is more than a ragbag of worth seeing madness. Texts about football & music in Italy, Argentina, Germany and England put this one of a kind collection into historical, regional and cultural context. Dale, Forza, Allez, Hopp!

The book- over 400 pages of it! – will be on sale around September/October time. I’ll update this post with more info.

You can view (and eventually buy) it via Cornerhouse Publishing.
– Pascal would prefer (and it is cheaper) if you order it via Walther Koenig. It is only 19.80 Euro there.

Update: You can order the book via amazon.de and they ship worldwide.
I’ll add more info on other places when I have it.
– It’s now on amazon.co.uk and available to order. And over the pond on amazon.com for pre-order – released on 22nd October.

To complete this post I’ve randomly selected two singles from 45football.com to give you just a hint of what is on there. These were chosen because of their covers but also because of their tunes. Enjoy.

The Nits - JOS Days

» The Nits – J.O.S. Days

The Nits are a very well known (in the Netherlands at least) and longstanding band. This single, sung in English, was released in 1987 and did not get the attention it deserved. They are singing about an actual football club – JOS Watergraafsmeer but also as you’ll hear in the lyrics he sings about a war monument and his bitterness about not being accepted (as a player) at the club.

This is what I love, not just a typical football song “our club is great, our club is great…” etc, but one that tells a story. There’s a music video too:


Colin Chisholm - Hibs Heroes

» Colin Chisholm – Hibs Heroes

I’ve written about this before. The song like the above single is also done by a professional artist. This time it is Colin Chisholm, who at one time was in the band Bilbo Baggins, eventually shortened to Bilbo. A fellow band member was Brian Spence who produced the single.

The quote I posted in the previous entry, copied here:

Brian’s old partner in Bilbo Baggins and Chisholm and Spence release a single, which also appeared on the album “Hibernian FC: Glory Glory to the Hibees”, called “Hibs’ Heroes”. Brian wrote and joint produced the track with Colin. According to Fatty, of Fatty and Baldy, (fans of Hibernian Football Club) “I believe they were commissioned to write and record the song by former (disgraced – he later went to jail) chairman David Duff – indeed the original record was released on Duff Records. The original song was revised in 1990 when a proposed takeover of Hibs was mooted.

If you’ve got time go and have a look at the full story on that link. Worth a listen too.

Listen to this post:

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