Artist · chart history
Friendly Fires
Band City of St Albans United Kingdom Formed 2006 GB | rock
Friendly Fires formed in 2006 in City of St Albans, United Kingdom. Friendly Fires has 4 chart appearances on 4 radio countdowns from 4 stations on RockLists, spanning 2009–2013. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Hawaiian Air”, which appears on 1 list with a best position of #62. The station that charted Friendly Fires most often is WFNX (Boston, MA), with 1 appearance. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2011.
Friendly Fires came together in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 2006, with Ed Macfarlane singing, Edd Gibson on guitar and Jack Savidge on drums, and they made indie rock you could actually dance to. Their self-titled debut, out on XL Recordings on 1 September 2008, is all clattering percussion, shimmering guitars and disco pulse, with "Paris" and "Skeleton Boy" the pick of the bunch. It made the shortlist of twelve for the 2009 Mercury Prize, and it is still the record they are best known for.
Pala, in 2011, went further toward the sun, lush and tropical and dreamy, with "Hawaiian Air" gliding along like a holiday you never want to end.
After two albums the band split in 2014, then reunited three years later and eventually made a third, Inflorescent, in 2019. Savidge left in 2026, and Macfarlane and Gibson have announced a fourth album, Dig Deeper, for 15 January 2027.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Friendly Fires on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaiian Air | 1 | #62 | – | 2011 | |
| 2 | Skeleton Boy | 2 | #80 | – | 2009 | |
| 3 | Paris | 1 | #95 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 95 | Paris | BBC 6 Music 100 Best Tracks Of The Last 10 Years |
| 2011 | 62 | Hawaiian Air | WFNX Top 101 Songs of 2011 |
| 2009 | 80 | Skeleton Boy | Impact 89FM Top 89 of 2009 |
| 2009 | 92 | Skeleton Boy | Triple J Hottest 100 of 2009 |
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