Catfish and the Bottlemen

Catfish and the Bottlemen came out of Llandudno, in north Wales, in 2007, and they play indie rock like a band that has never had a quiet night in its life. Van McCann sings and plays guitar, Benji Blakeway holds down the bass, Bob Hall drums, and Johnny Bond came aboard in 2014, the year guitarist Billy Bibby departed.

Everything they do is built for a sweaty room: fast, scrappy guitars, big shout-along choruses and McCann's rough-edged yelp. The Kathleen and the Other Three EP and The Balcony both arrived in 2014, the latter going to number ten on the UK Albums Chart and eventually platinum, with "Kathleen" and "Cocoon" leading the charge. They picked up the Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act in 2016, and The Ride, with "Soundcheck" and "Twice", went straight to number one in the UK that year.

The Balance, in 2019, reached number two, with "Longshot" and "2all" keeping the energy up. In between, they've toured just about everywhere, from Glastonbury and Reading and Leeds to Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Splendour in the Grass, and their live shows are what people talk about.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.