Welcome to Bands FC, where music and football combine to make the best badges

The relationship between music and football appeared to have peaked when Serge from Kasabian scored a sensational volley on Soccer AM, but Bands FC is reigniting that partnership with some stunning art mashups.

Bands FC’s Twitter account explains it all succinctly enough. “Bands as football clubs. Football clubs as bands.”

As you can see it’s football club badges as if they were band crests, and the result is something both jarring and entirely logical.

The project was kicked off by Tim Burgess from The Charlatans along with right-hand man Nick Fraser, designer Mark Liptrott and animator Chris Walker after a conversation about how the football was about to take over everything, with the 2018 World Cup dominating the summer schedule.

And while the tournament in Russia has dominated our screens and newspapers, Bands FC has certainly succeeded in helping music stay relevant to the conversation.

That’s Rapid Vienna’s badge as Ultravox, who had a hit with Vienna in 1981.

Some efforts are a little simpler, though still elegant.

Others relate to songs, such as A Forest by The Cure.

Some bands have apparently become involved in the design process themselves too, with The Cribs referencing both Huddersfield Town (where they are from) and Portland Thorns (where one of the band members lives).

Having gained thousands of followers in just a month, Bands FC has started running polls to decide who should get the badge treatment next, with over 5,000 votes alone on this one.

Meanwhile, posts such as these give an insight into how the badges come together.

And that’s important for the more obscure badges among them. Check out how weirdly well Gorillaz goes with Serie A side Sampdoria’s badge.

Three exhibitions are now in place also at Salford Lads Club, British Music Experience Liverpool, and Pop Recs Ltd in Sunderland.

Furthermore, there are loads more mashups available to view and doubtless loads more stories to tell as well.