Bombay Bicycle Club life and biography

Bombay Bicycle Club are an rock band formed by Jack Steadman (lead vocals, guitar), Jamie MacColl (guitar), Ed Nash (bass) and Suren de Saram (drums).

The band were asked to play the opening performance of 2006's V Festival after winning Channel 4's "Road to V" competition. Following the release of two EPs and their debut single "Evening/Morning", the band recorded their debut album, I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose. The album was released on 6 July 2009.

They switched between various aliases until they picked Bombay Bicycle Club, named after a chain of Indian restaurants in Britain.

The band were entered into Virgin Mobile's "Road to V" competition on Channel 4 in 2006. They were announced as one of two winners of the competition on 16 August 2006, beating competition from fellow London band - and favourites to win the competition - The Holloways in the final round of fourteen bands. Previous participants include The Young Knives, who were winners of the inaugural competition one year before. They were given the opening slot of the 2006 V Festival, playing on the Channel 4 Stage in Chelmsford on 19 August, before opening the Staffordshire site the following day.

The bands second EP, How We Are, was released on 22 October 2007, again through Mmm... Records. The EP was produced by Jim Abbiss and was recorded and mixed by Richard Wilkinson at Konk Studios. The band headlined their first UK tour in support of this release and the EP debuted at #2 on the UK Indie Singles Chart 5 November 2007.

At the beginning of 2008, Bombay Bicycle Club appeared at the third annual Artrocker Festival, the Camden Crawl, and The Great Escape Festival in Brighton. The band also played the Shockwaves NME Awards Show at London's KOKO where they were main support for The Hold Steady.

In June 2008, the band officially finished higher secondary school education, which meant that the band could commit full time to music instead of having to juggle being in a band with studies. The band also headlined the first Club NME in Paris at La Fleche D'or venue, they were supported by Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya, with DJ sets coming from South Central, Shitdisco and Vicarious Bliss.

At the end of 2008 Bombay Bicycle Club signed a deal with Island Records to release future singles and albums with the record label. All releases will be published through the Mmm...Records/Island Records offprint, the first release being the single "Always Like This". The single was released in April 2009 and reached #97 on the UK Singles Chart. The band toured throughout April in support of the release.

Bombay Bicycle Club won the Best New Band award at the 2010 NME Awards on February 24, up against nominees such as The xx, The Big Pink, La Roux, The Olivers and Mumford & Sons. In June 2010 their song "How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep" was included as a bonus track on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack.

The band released their second studio album Flaws in the United Kingdom on 12 July 2010; where it debuted on the UK Albums Chart at number 8; beating the debut's peak of number 46. The album included 11 acoustically recorded tracks, including "Swansea"; a cover of the Joanna Newsom song that appears on her album The Milk-Eyed Mender and "Fairytale Lullaby"; a cover of the John Martyn song that appears on the album London Conversation. On 10 December, the album was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry for selling over 60,000 copies.

In September 2010, the band announced that they had begun working on their third studio album, once again returning to electric guitars following acoustic recordings for "Flaws". On 7 June 2011 Zane Lowe revealed on BBC Radio 1 that their new album would be called A Different Kind Of Fix. He also said that he would be playing a new song from the album titled "Shuffle" on 22 June before its release as a single the following day. The single reached #69 in the charts. The album was released on 29 August 2011 and includes 12 tracks.

Read more