‘Russell Brand talks about football and football culture from a deep, humorous and philosophical perspective and concludes that it is nice…’
For some perverse reason, I listen to football podcasts more than I actually watch football nowadays. Guardian Football Weekly, The Totally Football Show, The Athletic Football Podcast, Football Cliches, Quickly Kevin – the list is endless. Well… it’s not endless, it pretty much ends there but still. The point remains. How could I possibly find room for another podcast, I hear you ask? Well, life is long and terrible with time creeping at a petty pace like an infinite void in front of us. Also, if Russell Brand is involved I’ll generally find time to investigate…
Whilst their feed has gone worryingly quiet in recent times, the Football is Nice podcast started out as a weekly dance through the minutiae of English football with Brand joined by his long time producers Gareth Roy and Jenny May Finn. Whilst it is often ostensibly a rundown of the week’s events, Brand’s dandelion mind offers a fresh take on well worn subjects and his ability to go off on mad tangents suits the frequently ludicrous world of football to a tee. Elsewhere, the contributions of Gareth and Jenny (the latter of which has sadly departed the podcast recently) are a joy and the trio share a chemistry that can only be fostered from years of working together.
Despite the subjects of the podcast being nominally topical, I went back to episode one and listened from the start. You can probably skip the predictions section at the end of each ep, but nothing else in those earlier episodes is really dated, especially the interviews with guests (Carlton Cole, Tony Adams, Tony Cottee etc).
For those of us who like to view football as the absurd circus that it clearly is, or just for fans of Brand generally, Football is Nice is, well… nice!