Tears for Fears frontman aims to make Bath football as big as the rugby club
Tears for Fears frontman aims to make Bath football as big as the rugby club
Chris BascombeFri, August 14, 2026 at 9:00 AM UTC
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Curt Smith, the Tears for Fears frontman, is part of a consortium that took over Bath City for £6.3m - Luke Brennan/Getty Images
As one of the frontmen for the critically acclaimed band Tears for Fears, Curt Smith once performed to a global TV audience of two billion at Live Aid.
And yet as he explains why he has joined the consortium buying his boyhood football club, Bath City, he is brimming with enthusiasm discussing more modest spectator figures.
“I’ve been at the Bath stadium [Twerton Park] when there were only 600 people,” Smith says.
“After our bid was announced, there were 1,300 at the next match, despite us just being relegated. To have that sort of effect already is very exciting. The dream is to climb the ladder and get into the Football League in the next five or six years, and have a stadium which can get somewhere close to 8,000 fans again.
“We want Bath to be known as a football city as much as a rugby city. It’s a lofty ambition, but one that should be doable. There is no reason why the clubs cannot thrive side by side.”
With that, the romantic allure of football is writ large. Smith speaks to Telegraph Sport having just jetted in from the glitz and glamour of his Los Angeles home to reassure fans and shareholders at their Twerton base that the £6.3m “Hollywood” takeover, led by Andrew Stalbow, a businessman, is the real deal.
In normal circumstances, Smith would be using his season ticket at the $250m BMO Stadium this weekend, home of Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles FC. Instead, he will be watching Bath City host Hanworth Villa in the Southern Premier Division South, English football’s seventh tier.
When the takeover is ratified, Smith will be the club’s ambassador. His hope, to steal one of his band’s best-known songs, is to finally give the city’s football supporters something to shout about.
“When I was growing up, there was a class divide between rugby and football,” Smith says.
“As a working class boy, I always played football, not rugby, even though rugby is obviously a bigger game in the city.
Bath Rugby’s Recreation Ground attracts more supporters than the city’s football counterpart ...for now - David Rogers/Getty Images
“That divide is nothing like what it was – and I would love both clubs to be built up to the point where Bath is renowned for both sports. The working class people of Bath who love their football have lacked that outlet because we’ve not had a great football team. When I was younger, you had to go to Bristol City or Bristol Rovers to see a higher level of football, and neither of them has ever been Premier League standard.”
Smith’s involvement can be seen as following a trend of celebrity moves into football, the Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny transformation of Wrexham among the most prominent.
“I’m no Ryan Reynolds. His level of fame is a lot higher than mine,” Smith interjects, modestly, given Tears for Fears have sold more than 30 million records.
Smith and Roland Orzabal founded Tears for Fears in Bath in 1981 - Peter Noble
“But I know my reputation is on the line. If it goes wrong I won’t be able to walk around in my home city again.
“The idea began with Andrew [Stalbow]. A mutual friend put us in touch. We both live in LA and after speaking with him it was obvious he is a huge football fan who wanted to do this the right way for the right reasons.”
That leads to the obvious question: why? Especially when a renowned name with an esteemed reputation in his own field attaches himself to the plans.
The answer speaks as much to a social conscience as sporting passion, and Smith is relishing the embrace of a philanthropic business enterprise.
“There have been a lot of people wanting to invest in Bath City because they were more focused on the value of land rather than all aspects of building a football club,” Smith says.
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“I don’t know how well you know Bath, but beyond how gorgeous it is in the centre there are areas which are – I don’t like to use the word ‘depressed’ – but let’s say that they have been overlooked and not been taken care of as much as they ought to have been. The community element of our bid is fundamental to it.
Bath City, who have been in the National League South since 2012, play at the 8,840-capacity Twerton Park - Naomi Baker/Getty Images
“I feel like being involved means I can give something back to my city in a tangible way.
“Without question that’s a big part of this. I was brought up on a council estate in Bath, so although I live in America now, it feels important to be able to get involved in this way.
“We’re not foreign owners coming here to see it purely as something that will give us a return on our investment while we take on tons of debt. This is not why we’re doing it. We’re taking away debt [understood to be £1m] and investing in the team.
“The conversations have been ongoing for a year, even though our identities have only recently been made public. The club has been relegated while the talks were ongoing and we are still as passionate. That shows how committed we are that it did not stop us.”
The initial objectives are modest.
“We want to become a professional club, first. That would be a huge jump for us,” says Smith, one of 50 investors led by Stalbow, who made his fortune in the mobile-gaming industry.
“Having players who can give up the day job to concentrate solely on their football would be a great start. The more they can train, the better they’re going to be on the pitch.”
From there, the aims get higher.
Smith wants to raise attendances at Twerton Park - Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
“Legally, we can’t have more than 4,500 fans inside the stadium. Some repairs have to be made before you can get it back up. The first thing we can do is get the stadium back to standard so we can be an 8,000-capacity stadium again. And then I believe we can make it bigger. We’ll do it bit by bit. We can’t do everything at once when we’re in the seventh tier. It’s a question of spending the substantial investment wisely over the years. Each year we can go further.”
Once the takeover is complete, Smith will be taken back to the 8-year-old who once played at Twerton Park.
“I’ve always been a huge football fan. I played for Percy Boys’ Club in the city and we played in a final at Bath City.
“I have three football loves in my life; Bath City, Manchester United and, most recently, Los Angeles FC.
“My first memories watching football were going to Old Trafford to see George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law. That was my first era growing up.
“What’s happened with Los Angeles FC is a guide for us. I’m a season ticket holder there. You have the LA Galaxy, of course, where I used to go to watch David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and Robbie Keane.
“But they don’t actually play in LA, unlike LAFC who play near the Coliseum [Olympic stadium] in downtown LA. LAFC involves the community brilliantly well and I began watching them on day one when they formed quite recently. You feel the camaraderie. I’d like that replicated here on a smaller level. We’ll be having dinner with the president of LAFC next week and taking advice from someone who has done it the right way.”
So is the ultimate dream of United visiting a redeveloped Twerton Park?
“I was joking with a friend of mine, Rob Stringer, the CEO of Sony Music who is a director at Luton Town. I told him, ‘we’ll be playing you in the league soon!’ You never know.
“For now, it would be a dream to play Luton in the Football League. We’ll start with that!”
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
