The current noise surrounding indie buzz-band Catfish and the Bottlemen should mean they’re a name you’re quite familiar with. If the name only conjures up bumbly folk impressions and steers you clear of their music, fear not friends, I am here to unveil the band you have all been waiting for.
Catfish and the Bottlemen promise loud, explosive, and sexy rock & roll. Oh boy, do they deliver. The band smashes through its fair share of crunching riffs, sultry vocals and pounding percussion to leave anyone with a sense of hearing drooling for more. Their catchy and energetic tunes can’t fail to get you dancing and their stage presence is quite simply astounding. Consisting of members Van McCann, Billy Bibby, Benji Blakeway, and ‘Dr. Bob’ Hall, this Llandudno four piece put every ounce of their energy into their music. Oozing passion throughout every lick, riff, beat and breath.
By bugging promoters for gigs up and down the country they ended up playing over 100 shows in 18 months accumulating a dedicated fanbase. It’s refreshing to see a band that have built this from the ground up, with the simple combination of hard work, true determination and talent. Their relentless gigging evidently paid off and the band, now under the management of ATC (Radiohead, Laura Mvula, Nick Cave) signed to Communion Music, home of Half Moon Run, Ben Howard and Deap Vally. Since then the foursome have been Zaned and Lamacqed an unfathomable amount of times, with latest single ‘Kathleen’ selected as BBC Radio 1’s Hottest Record in the World and soon after jumping onto every radio station’s playlist, deservedly earning a spot on Radio 1’s B-List. The freaking B-List, people.
For a band that prides themselves on being terribly unfashionable, The Guardian calling them “defiantly uncool”, have done awfully well to get the cool kids onboard. They’ve played club nights for Carl Barat, supported The 1975 and apparently dragged the Vaccines to see them while they were hanging about backstage at an Arctic Monkeys gig.
Fresh off the road with the English indie trio, Little Comets, the Bottlemen went straight into their own UK headline tour. Due to the sold out status of this recent tour the boys have announced a second tour starting in May and it looks like this one’s going to be a sell-out too. The Bottlemen are scheduled to be gracing the summer stages of Latitude, Kendal Calling, Barn on the Farm and just about every other festival under the sun. With their debut album out in August, Catfish and the Bottlemen will be almost inescapable.
The bands bruising drums, punchy rhythms and addictive lyrics have captured the hearts of us ‘Slutz and we can only applaud McCann’s intense emotion which current rock music is imminently lacking. These four young, black-clad denizens of upcoming fame thrive in a live situation and are a band you should make every effort to see. In fact we love these boys so much, we’d be happy to follow them on tour, and we highly advise you do the same. Besides, fiery Van is bound to offer you a £69 Catfish special, what more could you want?
Fran Welch
Fran Welch
Latest posts by Fran Welch (see all)
- INTERVIEW: Jack Garratt - July 22, 2015
- LIVE: Barn On The Farm, Over Farm, Gloucester 03-06.07.15 - July 10, 2015
- Chet Faker LIVE @ The Coronet, London 20.11.14 - November 26, 2014
