Iain TwinBikeRun and I cannot be bought!

Don’t even try and send us a summer dress haul to review, a pair of Kanye Trainers to unbox, or a CBD spray to restore male baldness. Everything on TwinBikeRun is ad free and sponsor free!

(To be fair, no one has ever tried to buy us. Not even Squarespace. So our scruples have never been tested)

That means, when we recommend something you know that we are bring you our unbiased opinion unaffected by ‘The Man’. And, you can trust us when we recommend a new book: The Sound of Football – Every Club, Every Song.

Admittedly, it’s our book. We might be slightly biased, what with being the authors after all. However, you don’t have to listen to us. The New York Times said that “this is the greatest book ever written”. 

Now it may have been reviewing “The Bible” when it said that and not our book. However, the Sound of Football is also a book, and if the New York Times thought it was as good as The Bible then it would definitely be saying the same thing.

Why not judge for yourself? Over the next weeks we’ll share entries, starting this Saturday, in our new fortnightly feature – The Sound of Football.

If you want to know more, here’s the intro:

World-renowned manager Giovanni Trapattoni, one of five managers to have won league titles in four different European countries, said that listening to music makes footballers better players. 

Trapattoni said: “If you listen to Mozart, you’ll play better football, you’ll learn a lot about intervals, tempo, rhythm. You learn the logical skills you need to read a game“. 

While we don’t expect Premier League superstars to listen to Mozart’s ‘Requiem in D Minor’ as they strut off their team bus wearing designer tracksuits and oversized headphones, we do know what they’ll hear when they step on a pitch. From the moment they walk out, every tackle made, and every goal scored, they hear music from the stands: singing and chanting, screaming, and shouting. Football stadiums are alive with songs and noise as football and music arouse the same thing: passion.

Football and music don’t have a proud history: remember ‘Vindaloo’? Shudder. But it has a secret history, untold tales from terraces across the country that reflect and strengthen the links between supporters and players as voices combine to amplify the highs and the lows of what it means to be a football fan.

Yet, in March 2020, the link was broken. Stadiums lay empty after COVID-19 lockdown restrictions meant fans stayed at home. The sound of silence replaced the sound of football. For 18 months, not only could we not see our teams; we were robbed of our voice.

As fans return, it’s time to remember the songs we sing and why we sing them. It’s time to combine our voices again. And while we don’t know if listening to music makes players play better. We do know that football needs the music of the stands. And that players and fans together can rejoice again in the sound of football. 

In the following pages, we track down the stories behind the best, worst, and most off-the-wall football anthems for every club in the UK.  Each song reflects something unique about a club or fans. We have endured terrible FA cup final songs, beloved world cup singles, and some frankly obscene terrace chants to bring you club anthems, cult classics, chart-toppers, and hidden gems, and the incredible stories behind them. 

And where can I buy it?

You can buy it here: Amazon