Football and Music Part One: Trampolene’s Jack Jones on the Important Role the Two Have Played in His Life
There is a reason why Andrea Bocelli sang at the King Power stadium prior to Leicester’s final home game of their title winning season.
The same reason explains why the trailer for the Manchester City documentary All or Nothing was centred around the players chanting the Oasis anthem Wonderwall.
It’s quite simple really. Music and football just have a connection. It’s a synergy, they go hand in hand. And why not? After all, both are expression and performance: art, you could say.
More than anything, both just hope to make the fans sing along in full voice.
One musician well aware of this is Jack Jones: “If you can’t play, you may as well shout your team along. And if they’re not playing, you may as well watch a gig and shout along with that.”
He half-jokes: “People love shouting, and it’s the only time they’re allowed to.”
Although best known for his music – with Trampolene, and Peter Doherty & the Puta Madres – the Welshman very nearly had a career in football.
Jones played for Swansea City right up until the age of 16. As a dedicated fan of the club, he was devastated when the Swans let him go, but soon found a silver lining in music.
At his next club, League of Wales outfit Llanelli, he met Wayne Thomas. The pair went on to form Trampolene, with Jones as the frontman and Thomas on bass.
#Trampolene will be living the dream with a performance, chat and silky skills session for @SoccerAM this Saturday…set your Alarms…put your feet up…and watch the boys on the tele..classic…xXx pic.twitter.com/syhCMYPsuW
— TRAMPOLENE (@Trampolene_Band) January 9, 2019
It didn’t take long before Jones’ passion for football translated into music.
“I grew up wanting nothing more than to be a footballer, that was my dream. Then I started playing music when I was 16 and all of a sudden I became obsessed with that,” the 27-year-old explains.
“I quit playing football and I got so obsessed with music. That was my only choice in life, I couldn’t really see another avenue for me.
“I started smoking and as soon as I did, I realised my football career was done. I couldn’t get past the halfway line without coughing up my lungs.”
Having experienced life both on the pitch and on the stage, Jones is in a unique position to understand the connection between football and music.
“The mentality between football and music can be quite similar,” he says.
“It’s something about the passion in it. I’m quite a competitive guy, and I wanna win. I would cry if I lost a friendly match, I was one of those over the top competitive people.
“I definitely take that into the music world. I like to stay up longer than anyone, practice harder than anyone.”
The talented poet and lyricist introduces an analogy to connect the subjects: “If you become part of a football club, and you love them forever, it’s almost like becoming part of a musician’s life as well.
“You join the ‘club’ of Trampolene. There’s a loyalty element in rock and roll, and rock music. The fans seem very loyal, like they do with a good football club.
“That’s why I’ve always been drawn to playing the kind of music I do. Because of the loyalty from the people who go and watch it. They’re with you for life, not just for a couple of ‘seasons’.”
Despite Jones’ stronger involvement with music, his love of Swansea remains unchanged. His father is a season ticket holder and Jones makes sure he never misses the bigger moments.
“I was there when we got promoted to the Premiership, when we beat Reading on that fateful day.” He was also at Wembley when the Swans put five past Bradford City in the League Cup final back in 2013.
However, there have been some pitfalls when his interest in football has tried to share the stage with his music.
Jones confesses one of his most difficult moments as a musician was having to perform to a sell-out crowd only minutes after Swansea were relegated from the Premier League in 2018.
“We had to go on stage and pretend everything was alright.”
He also references a gig played in earshot of Queens Park Rangers’ Loftus Road. The home team were up three nil against Swansea by half-time: “Every time we started a song I could hear another QPR goal go in. It was like my soul kept sinking.”
It didn’t help that he was sharing the stage with QPR fan Peter Doherty.
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In part two of Football and Music, we will take a deeper look into the social and cultural impact each can have. As well as hearing more from Jack Jones on the matter, the Sports Gazette also spoke to Bands F.C.
