Bombay Bicycle club

 

  BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB

Bombay Bicycle Club are a British indie rock and folk band from Crouch End, London. The band comprises: 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.

 Beginnings
Steadman, MacColl, Roberts and de Saram were 15 when they started playing under the name The Canals and switched between various aliases until they picked Bombay Bicycle Club, named after a chain of Indian restaurants in London. The line-up changed regularly until summer 2006, when Nash joined the band. They played gigs at school and at small London venues such as The Old Blue Last, Lark in the Park and Jacksons Lane.
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.

Progression

On 16 May 2007, NME published an article naming Bombay Bicycle Club "...the hottest band to come from North London for quite some time".Bombay Bicycle Club released their debut EP, The Boy I Used to Be, on 12 February 2007. The band released it on their own independent record label, Mmm... Records. The EP was produced by Jim Abbiss at his own personal request, and was recorded and mixed by Ewan Davies at Lincolnshire's Chapel Studios. To support the release of the EP they played a headline show at the Dingwalls in Camden as well as supporting fellow "Road to V" winners The Young Knives across some of their UK Tour.The band also played the Carling Stage at Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2007.
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.