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GenreRock, Alternative, Indie, Industrial
Rank4,424 (new)
Albums18
Songs63
AboutAthlete are an English indie rock band formed in Deptford, London, comprising Joel Pott (lead vocals and guitar), Carey Willetts (bass and backing vocals), Stephen Roberts (drums and backing vocals) and Tim Wanstall (keyboards and backing vocals). Recently, the quartet have recruited Jonny Pilcher of Weevil as a live guitarist.
Friends since the age of fourteen, Athlete took their wide ranging influences such as Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips and started jamming and practicing in the basement of The Bear, a pub which was converted into a church and sandwich bar, on Deptford High Street in 1999. They began recording there, before sending demos out. Signing with Regal Recordings, they released their first single in February 2002. The band came to prominence in 2003 with their debut album, Vehicles and Animals, producing popular singles such as "You Got the Style" and "El Salvador". The album earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination and went on to sell over 250,000 copies. They played their first live session on UK radio on the Dermot O'Leary Show, BBC Radio 2.
Their second album, Tourist, reached Number One in the UK Album Charts in its first week, following the huge success of single "Wires". The song was brought around when the lead singer's newborn baby was rushed to intensive care after a premature birth, and in 2006 it won them the Ivor Novello Award for "Best Contemporary Song". In the UK charts, the band has frequently been frustrated by singles just missing out on top 40 placings, due to inconsistent support by music television channels and radio stations. For instance, certain songs, such as "Wires" and "Half Light", were played up to 10 times a day on larger UK radio stations, yet other singles such as "Westside" and "Tourist" received little to no radio play whatsoever, fueling talk of radio stations deciding who becomes a major player in the pop music franchise.
On 10 June 2007, it was announced that the title of their third album would be Beyond the Neighbourhood. The album was mixed by Ben Allen and Michael Brauer, who also worked on Tourist. Released on 3 September 2007, Beyond the Neighbourhood was a self-produced collection of low-key songs, viewed as a disappointment by some, and an interesting sidestep by others. It entered at #5 on the UK album chart.
They embarked on tours of the UK in late 2007 and early 2008 in support of the album. It has also been announced that they will play during the 2008 TT motorcycle racing festival on the Isle of Man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlete_(band)
Friends since the age of fourteen, Athlete took their wide ranging influences such as Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips and started jamming and practicing in the basement of The Bear, a pub which was converted into a church and sandwich bar, on Deptford High Street in 1999. They began recording there, before sending demos out. Signing with Regal Recordings, they released their first single in February 2002. The band came to prominence in 2003 with their debut album, Vehicles and Animals, producing popular singles such as "You Got the Style" and "El Salvador". The album earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination and went on to sell over 250,000 copies. They played their first live session on UK radio on the Dermot O'Leary Show, BBC Radio 2.
Their second album, Tourist, reached Number One in the UK Album Charts in its first week, following the huge success of single "Wires". The song was brought around when the lead singer's newborn baby was rushed to intensive care after a premature birth, and in 2006 it won them the Ivor Novello Award for "Best Contemporary Song". In the UK charts, the band has frequently been frustrated by singles just missing out on top 40 placings, due to inconsistent support by music television channels and radio stations. For instance, certain songs, such as "Wires" and "Half Light", were played up to 10 times a day on larger UK radio stations, yet other singles such as "Westside" and "Tourist" received little to no radio play whatsoever, fueling talk of radio stations deciding who becomes a major player in the pop music franchise.
On 10 June 2007, it was announced that the title of their third album would be Beyond the Neighbourhood. The album was mixed by Ben Allen and Michael Brauer, who also worked on Tourist. Released on 3 September 2007, Beyond the Neighbourhood was a self-produced collection of low-key songs, viewed as a disappointment by some, and an interesting sidestep by others. It entered at #5 on the UK album chart.
They embarked on tours of the UK in late 2007 and early 2008 in support of the album. It has also been announced that they will play during the 2008 TT motorcycle racing festival on the Isle of Man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlete_(band)
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