Tonight’s a special evening for two Umbro clubs, as their latest shirts make their debuts in the Champions League. For Manchester City, it’s a really special occasion, the first time the club have appeared in Europe’s most prestigious competition. Taking on Napoli at the Etihad Stadium, City will be looking forward to showing their talents on the biggest stage, and the club’s fans in Manchester and beyond are looking forward to hearing that famous Champions League music before kick off! Of course, they’ll also get to hear this…
Tonight will be the first time the Manchester City home shirt will be seen on such a stage – you can grab it from Umbro.com now to show your support for the team as they look to advance in Europe.
French champions Lille OSC have been in the Champions League before – they’ve had some famous battles with City’s Manchester neighbours – but tonight is the first time their latest Umbro home shirt will be seen in Europe as the club takes on CSKA Moscow. We’ll be cheering on both tonight, and you never know, they might end up playing each other if they both qualify from the group stage!
Music often soundtracks special moments on the football field, so who better to talk about their favourite musical memories than some of Manchester City‘s biggest fans? Over the course of the season, we’re going to be marking the club’s home league games by asking some famous MCFC supporters to pick out a playlist featuring some of their favourite songs, and the football-related reasons why they’ve been chosen.
To kick us off, we’ve got someone from one of Manchester’s finest young bands. Sped Spedding, guitarist in Dutch Uncles, is a MCFC nut, and was only too pleased to pull together some favourite musical moments from his time supporting the club. Here’s what he picked out:
Roll With It – Oasis
“I remember this blasting out of the PA in the late 90s. Everyone shouting their heart out for our City boys!”
Don’t Stop Believing – Journey
“January 2010. We beat United 2-1 at home in the Carling Cup 1st leg. The half time whistle blew and we were winning and this came on. It was a special moment because it was also the song that was playing when we found out we had won the tickets to be there on New Years Eve!”
Singing In The Rain – Gene Kelly
“Maine Road – That’s all you need to know.”
Manchester City Medley – Frank Sidebottom
“From the 1997 album entitled Blue Moon. Amazing. Love Frank, sadly missed. ‘In 66, Joe Mercer came and we went to Rotherham. And erm, we won 1-0 actually, and then back we came back into Division 1. Since then, we’ve won the league, and we’ve won the cup, and we’ve been to Europe too. (that’s abroad!)’ Hahaha! Brilliant.”
Bitter Sweet Symphony – Ther Verve
“May 1999. I was a wee 11 year old boy. I remember listening to this band a lot at the time with learning guitar. Every time I hear this song I always put the two together. Amazing day. I have been Blue since birth, but I think my real passion for the game began that day!”
Thanks to Sped for putting together his playlist, what do you reckon? We’ll be compiling a Spotify playlist throughout the season, check out Umbro’s Sounds Of The City to give it a listen. Dutch Uncles are on tour throughout the rest of the year, check out Dutchuncles.co.uk for details.
If you’ve got any musical suggestions to add, we’d love to hear them. And check back with us ahead of City’s next home game for another playlist from the club’s biggest fans.
With a Manchester City home shirt signed by Liam Gallagher up for grabs, our latest Spot The Ball competition was bound to be popular, and sure enough we had hundreds of people trying to guess where the ball was before we made it vanish.
There can be only one winner though, despite the fact that plenty of people were close. Using our special Spot The Ball technology, we managed to pick out the person who was closest to the original picture that you can see above. Congratulations must go to Andrew Smyth from County Durham, who wins the signed City shirt.
If you were unlucky on this occasion, don’t worry. We’ll have another Spot The Ball for you very soon, with another great prize up for grabs…
While he was launching the new Manchester City home shirt recently, we asked Beady Eye singer Liam Gallagher to sign a couple of the terrific new tops for us. Feeling generous, we thought one of these shirts would be the perfect prize for the latest round of Spot The Ball. The picture above, taken from City’s pre-season tour of the States, has had a football surgically removed. If you want to be in with a chance of winning that signed shirt, all you have to do is guess where the ball was before we took it away, and enter your guess over on the Spot The Ball prize. Once the competition closes on August 10th, we’ll then see who was closest to the actual spot where the ball was and award them the prize.
As a passionate Manchester City fan, Liam Gallagher has got plenty to say about his club. After launching the club’s new home shirt last Friday alongside his band Beady Eye, Liam sat down with us to give his opinions on the club, their fans and everything else Manchester City. To celebrate the new home shirt going on sale today, we’ve got this this terrific video in which the always-opinionated singer talks passionately about the club:
Manchester is famous for football, music and the weather, and they all came together on Friday night! We’ve already shared with you the very special video that we’d created with Beady Eye to celebrate the launch of the new Manchester City home shirt, and today we’ve got some more great pictures to share with you. On Friday night, we wanted to bring Beady Eye singer Liam Gallagher and his club together even more, so we projected the iconic images of Liam in the new City shirt onto the Etihad Stadium.
As you can see from these pictures, it was a pretty special moment, despite the weather! For more on the new Manchester City home shirt, take a look at Umbro.com
Manchester: famous for football and music. So what better way to celebrate the release of the new Manchester City home shirt than by getting one of the city’s most famous musical sons to reveal it? Liam Gallagher, Beady Eye singer and lifelong Manchester City fan, was only too happy to do so.
“I’ve been a City fan since I was a kid so to be involved with the launch of a new kit is colossal,” said Liam. “Manchester City fans are known for having a lot of style and the new shirt looks mega. I love the soundwave idea and the Mod-inspired collar looks proper smart.”
The new Manchester City kit has a graphic subtly embedded in the shirt, which depicts a soundwave of City’s fans singing their anthem, ‘Blue Moon’. To celebrate this, Liam and the rest of Beady Eye have recorded their own version of ‘Blue Moon’ mixed with their latest single, ‘The Beat Goes On’. Check out the song, plus Liam taking a closer look at the new shirt, in this video:
The shirt, which will be worn by the current FA Cup holders throughout the 2011/2012 season as they aim for further success, has been tailored by Umbro to bring Manchester City‘s fans and players together. Alongside the soundwave pattern, the shirt features a classic v-neck collar with an inner chequerboard collar stand inspired by the flags that hang inside the club’s ground.
The soundwave pattern was created by Umbro after recording the club’s fans belting out their anthem. Here’s a video that tells the full story behind the shirt and that graphic:
Manchester City’s home kit for the 2011/12 season is something very special indeed, with a story of the club woven into the shirts very fabric. Here, Umbro designer and the man behind City’s shirts David Blanch gives us some insight into the idea behind the new Manchester City home shirt.
Reference to specific teams, players or organisations within this blog - or links from it to external team, Player, individual, media, community or organisational websites - does not constitute or imply endorsement or recommendation of umbro or the umbro brand. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of umbro.
