Music/Rock Bands named after Football Teams
So what happens when two of the most popular things in modern culture, football and music, meet ?
Well, apart from rock stars wanting to play football (Robbie Williams) and footballers wanting to make music (Chris Waddle, Glenn Hoddle), we also get proper musicians taking inspiration from the beautiful game and naming their bands after some of it.
Boca 45
AKA Scott Hendy - an English DJ from Bristol who derived the name from Boca Juniors and 45 (the old common name for a 7" single). Decent name to be fair.
Bocca Juniors
Another musical project named after the Argentinian team, although note that for some reason they spelt the name slightly differently, Bocca meaning "mouth" in Italian. Anyway, they released two singles in the early 1990's - "Raise (63 Steps To Heaven)" and "Substance".
Danny Wilson
The 80's Scottish pop band (famous for their UK number 3 hit single, "Mary's Prayer") may have claimed that they took their name from the 1952 Frank Sinatra film Meet Danny Wilson, but we know that they were really named after the tenacious Sheffield Wednesday and Northen Ireland midfielder. Probably.
Dario G
English group from Crewe (unsurprisingly) who were originally called Dario, but had to change their name as it clashed with that of another musician. So they plumped for Dario G instead, in honour of the great Crewe Alexandra manager, Dario Gradi.
The band were best known for their late 1990's hits "Sunchyme" and "Carnaval de Paris", which related to the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France.
Kaiser Chiefs
Leeds Utd fan Ricky Wilson and his fellow band members were originally named Parva for a few years in the early 2000s, before dropping the name and changing it to Kaiser Chiefs. The name was taken from the South African football club, from which Leeds Utd legend Lucas Radebe had been signed in the mid 1990's.
Pele
Indie band from Cheshire who had a few minor hits with singles lifted from their albums Fireworks and Sport of Kings in the early 1990s. Named after some Brazilian footballer apparently. Think we've heard of him.
Saint Etienne
Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs make up the English indie band Saint Etienne, named after the French football team AS Saint-Étienne.
Actually, one of our favourite internet-forum lines involves them, where some wag was answering a question on them and stated... "They're actually named after a famous French football team. I think it's Racing Club de Lens". Simple, but classic.