FC Barcelona launch new kit with The Rolling Stones

19 October, 2023

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood attend the Rolling Stones "Hackney Diamonds" Launch Event at Hackney Empire on September 06, 2023

FC Barcelona has announced a new football kit, designed in collaboration with The Rolling Stones.

The Catalan team announced news of the partnership with the classic rock veterans earlier this morning (October 19) – confirming that a new kit has been designed with help of the band.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the team shared a video showcasing the special edition attire. For the most part, the design is the same as the original – bearing the signature maroon and navy stripes, and emblem in the left-hand corner – however, the new design also sees the band’s iconic Tongue and Lips logo printed in the middle.

“DONE DEAL! FC Barcelona and Rolling Stones sign deal ahead of the next El Clásico,” the caption reads, also paying a nod to Spotify in the partnership. A brief snippet of the three members – Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards – is also embedded, showing the trio holding up the new design, as is the phrase “Keep the good news rolling”.

According to the caption, the new limited-edition design is set to drop on October 28 and can be pre-ordered here.

The collaboration with The Rolling Stones comes ahead of the band’s forthcoming album ‘Hackney Diamonds’.

“We’re huge football fans and honoured that Spotify have brought our Tongue and Lips logo to grace the FC Barcelona shirt to celebrate the release of the Stones’ new Hackney Diamonds album,” the band said of the kit (via Goal).

“We’ll be cheering on the players on the pitch as well as fans around the world who will be tuning in to watch this iconic match,” they added.

The limited-edition jersey will be worn by the Barcelona team during their match against Sevilla on November 5, taking place at Estadi Johan Cruyff.

This isn’t the first time that FC Barcelona have collaborated with an artist. Last year the team also wore a special kit dedicated to Drake during their El Clásico match against Real Madrid – celebrating the rapper becoming the first artist to reach 50billion streams on Spotify. The partnership between the club and the streaming platform was struck up in March 2022.

Set for release tomorrow (October 20), ‘Hackney Diamonds’ marks The Rolling Stones’ 24th studio record, and their first collection of original music in 18 years, following 2005’s ‘A Bigger Bang’. So far, the trio have shared two singles from the project: ‘Angry’ and ‘Sweet Sounds Of Heaven’ (featuring Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder).

In a four-star review of the album, NME wrote: “As it happens, ‘Hackney Diamonds’ is very enjoyable. Fiery opener ‘Angry’ makes for a classic Stones joint boasting a bone-crunching riff.”

It continued: “As good as it is, ‘Hackney Diamonds’ does have bad spots. Country honker ‘Dreamy Skies’ would’ve sounded outdated in the ‘70s – and even a cameo from founder bassist Bill Wyman can’t save punk-y cringe-a-thon ‘Live By The Sword’, another victim of Mick’s interminable Johnny Rotten impression. Those low points are thankfully scarce, fewer and farther between than on anything this side of 1981.”

Elsewhere, guitarist Ronnie Wood recently told NME that the trio have plenty more new music already recorded and ready to become a new album.

“Stones tracks evolve but they’ve either got the essence when we first hit the song or they haven’t,” he said. “Some of the songs were a little hesitant. We need to look at them again. That’s the way you make good music – to mould it like a clay model. You know, the car out of stone like Michelangelo.”

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