| Scouting for Girls | |
|---|---|
Playing the "Other Stage" at Glastonbury Festival, June 2008 |
|
| Background information | |
| Genres | Pop rock, pop, Indie Rock |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Labels | Epic |
| Website | scoutingforgirls.co.uk |
| Members | |
| Roy Stride (vocals, keyboards, guitar) Greg Churchouse (bass guitar) Peter Ellard (percussion) |
|
Scouting for Girls are a Brit and Ivor Novello nominated band from London, formed in 2005 by Roy Stride, Greg Churchouse and Peter Ellard. Stride and Ellard met in the Cub Scouts and Churchouse met Stride on their first day at school. They have sold over 1.2 million albums and over 1.5 million singles worldwide. Their biggest hit to date is "This Ain't a Love Song" which hit number one in the UK in Easter 2010.
Contents |
The name Scouting for Girls is a play on the words of Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys handbook first published in 1908 for the Scouts, which provides boys instructions on good citizenship. Similarly, the Scouting for Girls fan club is known as the "Wolfcubs" and is based on the Dennis the Menace fan club.[1] It has been noted that the band was looking for a spirited way of removing themselves from the drudgery of their everyday lives, looking to the whimsy of childhood fantasy through playing a moog organ. Churchouse has observed on several occasions that playing bass is something he wanted to pursue as the bass has "two less strings".
Roy and Greg attended Queensmead School in South Ruislip, West London. They attended the school until year 13 then moved on towards a music career. At the age of 15 Roy and Greg were playing together at small gigs in west London.
Whilst in University Stride and Churchouse were in a band called Cape. With Stride swapping from guitar to piano, Scouting for Girls began to do concerts in a room above a pub in Harrow. By the time they were signed they had built up a fanbase - on MySpace and Pulse Rated, a website for unsigned bands. They had also already written a demo of "Heartbeat" and produced a video for "The Aeroplane Song".
At the beginning of 2007 Epic Records A&R Nick Raphael received the band's demo CD. So enthusiastic was his response that he immediately phoned up colleague Jo Charrington and said: "These are hits, let's go see the band in rehearsals!" According to Charrington every other record label had passed on them.[2]
On 14 February 2007, Scouting for Girls were signed to Epic UK (a division of Sony BMG).[1] As the band were signed almost fully formed, with all their songs already written, they headed out to Helioscentric Studios in Rye, East Sussex to begin work on their debut album almost immediately.[2] Produced by Andy Green (Keane, KT Tunstall, The Feeling), the band's first release was the It's Not About You EP, released on 25 June 2007. It sold-out, and became the highest charting limited edition EP in chart history.[3] The album was released in September 2007, and has sold in excess of 900,000 copies in the UK alone. It spawned a host of hit singles; "She's So Lovely", "Heartbeat", and "Elvis Ain't Dead".
Scouting for Girls' self-titled album went to #1 in the UK on 20 January 2008, where it remained for two weeks.
The band toured the UK heavily throughout 2007 and 2008, upgrading and selling-out venues in every city they performed. During their first tour of 2008, Roy Stride lost his voice en route to a gig in Birmingham and was diagnosed with laryngitis, forcing the band to reschedule a series of dates on the tour. The rescheduled dates included an extra night in London, with the band-selling out a record four consecutive nights at the Shepherds Bush Empire. The band's final tour of the year concluded with two sold-out nights at London's Hammersmith Apollo, and one at London's Brixton Academy.
Scouting for Girls also made a series of appearances in Europe, Japan, Australia and America in 2008, including performances at 2008's SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas and CMJ in New York City.
Scouting for Girls returned to Helioscentric Studios (East Sussex, UK) in 2009 to commence work on their second album with producer Andy Green (who produced the band's eponymous debut album). The album, Everybody Wants To Be On TV, was released in the UK on 12 April 2010. The first single to be taken from the record was "This Ain't a Love Song" which went straight to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart on 4 April 2010, giving the band 2010's Easter Number 1.[4] The track has been added to radio playlists in Australia, including Sydney Radio Station: Nova 969 FM as at May 2010. [1]
Roy has commented on how hard they worked to make this record the best it could possibly be, scrapping early recording sessions and re-writing many of the songs in his quest for the "perfect pop song".
In the lead up to the album's release, Scouting for Girls performed in the Woolpack Pub on the set of long-running British soap, Emmerdale for a Radio Aire session[5]
Scouting for Girls toured their new album throughout 2010, commencing with a full UK tour throughout late April and May 2010. The band also took part in a sponsored Chopper bicycle ride from London to Brighton for the charity WellChild raising over £20000.[6]
The band released the second single, "Famous", from the album on 12 July 2010. The single peaked at number 37 on the UK Singles Chart, giving the band their sixth Top 40 single overall. In September 2010 the band confirmed "Don't Want To Leave You" would be released as the third single from the album on 10 October 2010. The single is under the name "Silly Song" on the album, but was changed so that it could be found more easily on the internet.
The fourth single from the album is Take A Chance On Us and is the official soundtrack of the Dutch movie Loft. It was released on 10 December.
On 10 July 2011 Scouting For Girls released new single Love How It Hurts as a digital download. The band are hoping to obtain the Saint Swithuns Day number 1 of 2011.
The band have announced they are releasing a bonus track edition of "Everybody Wants To Be On TV", featuring new tracks Love How It Hurts & Naked & Somebody New. The album will also feature bonus tracks New Day, Famous – Pete Phantom Club Remix, She’s So Lovely, Elvis Ain’t Dead – Live, Famous - Cahill Club Remix. Originally due for release 18 July 2011, the album has been postponed until later in the year.
Scouting for Girls were nominated for three BRIT Awards in 2009[7] for British Breakthrough Act, British Live Act and British Single ("Heartbeat"). They were nominated again in 2011 for Best British Single with 'This Ain't A Love Song'.
Scouting for Girls were also nominated in the Best New Act category in the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008[8]
Scouting for Girls have been nominated for the Ivor Novello 2011 PRS FOR MUSIC MOST PERFORMED WORK award for:
This Ain't A Love Song Writer: Roy Stride Performed By: Scouting for Girls UK Publisher: EMI Music Publishing
Before the band were signed to Epic Records, they ran their own fanclub, The Wolfcub Club through their MySpace site. Members of the fanclub were called Wolfcubs, and received a welcome pack put together by the band which include a CD of recent demos, a membership card which allowed discounted entry to their gigs, a regular SFG newsletter (similar to the famous Scouting For Boys guide book), and badges. When the band signed their record deal, they carried on producing the membership packs for new fans on the road, until the demand became too high to deal with. However, the Wolfcubs still exist in reference to the band's fans.
Scouting for Girls used regularly remark on the Wolfcubs as the "fourth member" of the band. As of 2010 current touring member Jamie O'Gorman is referred to as the fourth member and the Wolfcubs are now known as the fifth member of the band.
Scouting for Girls are official ambassadors for the children's charity, Wellchild,[9] and also support the Help For Heroes charity. They fundraise for both charities.
Their most notable fundraiser to date was cycling from London to Brighton on children's chopper bikes for WellChild.[10]
Scouting For Girls are playing Midlands Music Festival 2010 alongside acts like The Saturdays, Chipmunk (rapper), Westlife, Olly Murs and Everybody Looks Famous in Tamworth, England.
Roy Stride endorsed the Liberal Democrats[11] in the 2010 UK General Election.
Current members
Current touring members
Session
Personnel
| Book: Scouting for Girls | |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
|
|||||||||||||||||