For me, football and music go hand in hand. I've always loved both equally and have always lamented the fact that I'm rubbish at both. Still, I've spent a lot of good times watching games and watching bands and occasionally boring those around me with my inane opinions on either topic.

You can imagine my excitement, then, any time I discover bands that actually like football. One of my favourites is legendary Swiss band The Vanilla Muffins. Yesterday I was listening to their classic record "Ultra Fine Day," when I remembered that I interviewed their drummer Eddie for a 'zine I used to write called Drink, Drank,Tuck.

That was back in 2004 and since then the band have unfortunately disbanded (for health reasons) and morphed in to a new band. Anyway, I've still got the interview with Eddie sitting around in my inbox and even though it's way out of date, I thought I'd share it with you fine folks here!

Do you know many Australian bands? Do The Vanilla Muffins have plans to tour Down Under some time in the future?

I really love Rose Tattoo and AC/DC and of course I know Midnight Oil and Men At Work cos they had big hits over here but I hardly know any punk or Oi band from Australia, shame on me. We would really like to play some gigs in your country but first I guess we have to find a millionaire to buy us the plane tickets .

How would you compare the Swiss punk scene to the rest of the continent? What kind of reception do you receive in the French and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland?

It's a small small scene here in Switzerland compared with the one in Germany for example. Also we haven't a big echo here in Switzerland cos nobody seem to know Vanilla Muffins over here. Maybe that's because we only played once in our country.

Do you think that more people are in to Oi! and Streetpunk in Europe than they are in the United States and possibly Australia?

I guess Germany is No. 1 in Oi and streetrock scenes worldwide, the U.S. seem to have a growning scene too but I have no idea what's happening Down Under.

If The Vanilla Muffins could share the stage with any three current bands in the world, what bands would they be and why?

I personally would like to share the stage with KISS, AC/DC and Motörhead. KISS for American Showtime and their all time hits, AC/DC for just being AC/DC and haven't changed their sound for 30 years (go for the next 30!) and Motörhead as my favourite band after the Ramones have retired.

Your latest album is "The Drug Is Football." You met at the St. Jakob-Parkstadion in Basel. And you’ve written numerous songs about your love for the red-and-blues of FC Basel. Just how important a role does football play in your music?

Football is one of the most important things in life, at least in my life (specially after those incredible 3 weeks of the EURO 2004 in Portugal, what a wonderful world it could be!), and so it plays also a very important role in our music. Of course some of our songs are about other things than football, not many but there are a few hehe.

FC Basel are the team to beat in Switzerland these days and their UEFA Champions League exploits of 2002 have given them a real European profile. Where do you think this sudden success has come from?

The team has improved much the last 3-4 years, thanx to Christian Gross the trainer, and with the (financial) participation of new persons (Gigi Oeri the new female club owner) in the club FC Basel finally could affort some players that brought more class into the team and with effort and of course a little bit of luck we could win some big games.

FC Basel will try again this summer to get into the Champions League but the teams to beat this time have names like Manchester United, Real Madrid or Juventus Turin, so all football gods have to be on our side again.

How do you rate the new St. Jakob-Parkstadion? What do you think of a standing-terrace being reintroduced in the Muttenzerkurve?

I really like the new stadium, I also think you can compare it to other international stadiums (you can't say that about many Swiss stadiums hehe). It's packed almost every match so it's really hard to get some tickets but I heard the stadion will be enlarged from now 33000 seats to around 41000 seats for the EURO 2008 (in Austria and Switzerland).

It's a much better feeling to stand during 90 minutes instead of sitting and jumping up every 10 seconds to see what has happened on the touchline but after some troubles with some idiots (throwing things) they have seated the whole Muttenzerkurve, in the same way as if every "Super League" match would be a Champions League match.

What about the current standard of Swiss football? Do you see any other clubs challenging the big three of FC Basel, Grasshoppers and Young Boys in the near future?

Before a new season starts there are always the usual "suspects" to fight for the crown, FC Basel, Grasshoppers (thought they played a really poor season and I hope the next one will be the same hehe), Young Boys (also try to get into the CL this summer) and FC Zürich. This time maybe Servette FC will be a big one too, they have found a new financier and are now buying new players like other people collect beer bottles.

All in all the standard of Swiss football, compared with the international leagues, is more or less poor.

How would you compare the Swiss national team that has qualified for the 2004 European Football Championships, with the team from Euro ‘96?

Before the EURO 2004 got started I hoped for some goals and for reaching maybe the quarter finals, now I'm a wiser man hehe. Switzerland exactly shot one goal, like in '96, so they kept their poor standard. At least it was a goal out of the game and not a penalty like in '96, that's the positive thing about Switzerland at the EURO 04.

Switzerland is co-hosting Euro 2008 with alpine neighbours Austria. Will The Vanilla Muffins be doing shows that summer or will it be strictly a time for football?

That's a long time to go now so i can't say anything but as usually it will be strictly a time for football like most of the time of every year.

The Vanilla Muffins

WHOAH!

So I'm missing Japan's Kirin Cup clash with Montengro at Ecopa Stadium on June 1 because I'm going to Tokyo to see New York Hardcore legends Sick Of It All instead. I'll have to tune into the match with a bunch of rowdy FC Tokyo fans at Footnik Pub in Shibuya, and I bet they won't be the only ones annoyed with Japan coach Ivica Osim's team selection.

In the past Osim has claimed that selecting European-based players "disrupts the squad." Perhaps he has a point, but when those players include the likes of Shunsuke Nakamura from Celtic and Eintracht Frankfurt striker Naohiro Takahara, could he really afford not to call those players up? When Japan beat Saudi Arabia in their final Asian Cup qualifier last November, Nakamura was holidaying in Japan anyway!

As it is, Nakamura, Takahara and FC Basel midfielder Koji Nakata have all been given call-ups for the Kirin Cup, but new Frankfurt signing Junichi Inamoto and wantaway Le Mans winger Daisuke Matsui have been overlooked. Those exclusions are not necessarily that surprising - especially since so many Japanese players have demonstrated that simply playing in Europe doesn't necessarily make one a good player, but it seems strange not to have called up Inamoto in particular, with the combative midfielder having been a virtual ever-present for Galatasaray this season.

Still, that won't be what has put a bee in Japan fans' bonnets. No, instead it is the fact that Ivica Osim has selected five JEF United players in his squad that has Japan fans scratching their heads. Or not scratching their heads - depending on how cynical those fans are. You see, JEF United are coached by none other than Ivica Osim's son! More importantly, the Chiba club are currently stuck in the relegation zone. How a team scrapping it out with the likes of Yokohama FC and Omiya Ardija at the foot of the J-League can have five international call-up's is anyone's guess.

Yet there are still fishier things afoot with Osim's squad. Although JEF United striker Seiichiro Maki has scored just one league goal this season - and that was an own goal according to everybody but the J-League, he still gets the nod up front alongside Takahara. This is despite the fact that Kawasaki Frontale striker Kazuki Ganaha scored three goals during the Asian Cup qualifying campaign. Yet Ganaha has been overlooked! What the? Meanwhile Gamba Osaka striker Ryuji Bando has lost his place in the Gamba line-up to ex-Ventforet Kofu striker Bare, yet Bando has still been named in Japan's Kirin Cup squad.

Another player overlooked is Yokohama F. Marinos' talismanic midfielder Koji Yamase. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but if there's one thing that Japan could use more of it is midfield creativity, if for no other reason than to take some of the pressure of Shunsuke Nakamura. Instead the squad is full of midfield grafters like Hideo Hashimoto and Yasuhito Endo, or players that aren't even first choice starting midfielders at their clubs, like Akihiro Ienaga, Yasuyuki Konno and Yuki Abe. Sure Japan have some promising youngsters - and JEF United's Koki Mizuno is one United player who deserves to be there, along with the likes of Shimizu's Jungo Fujimoto and Kawasaki's Kengo Nakamura, but Osim's team seems to smack of a man who has hardly seen any Japanese players in action.

It will be interesting to see if the likes of Hiroshima's Yuichi Komano and Nagoya's Keisuke Honda receive some game time during this Kirin Cup, or if the starting eleven will indeed by comprised of players from the axis of evil - Urawa, Gamba Osaka and...JEF United. Still, I won't be there to see it. Sick Of It All on the Thursday, pub food on the Friday and Magma Fest on the Saturday. It's a tough life, but somebody's gotta live it!