From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Stornoway (band)
Stornoway (band)
Stornoway On Twitter the band is known by the title of an early
song from one of their demo EPs: @TheOldBlindMan.
Beachcomber’s Windowsill
Stornoway’s first radio play came in March 2006 with a
demo version of "I Saw You Blink" on BBC Oxford In-
troducing.[1] Radio presenter Tim Bearder was an early
champion of the band and was suspended from work af-
ter barricading himself in the studio and playing an hour
of Stornoway songs from their demo EP The Early Adven-
tures of Stornoway.[2][3]
Stornoway zorbing in Dorset, to celebrate the release of The band self-released their first single "Zorbing" in
their first single (20 July 2009) July 2009, playing at a number of UK summer festivals
Background information including 6 sets at Glastonbury festival 2009, and wrote
a series of articles about their experiences for the Daily
Origin Oxford, Oxfordshire, England Telegraph newspaper.[4] On 1 September 2009, they
Genres Indie folk, indie rock, chamber pop, brit-pop played a free concert at Tate Modern, London, supported
by Reverend and The Makers, to celebrate the launch of
Years 2006–present
the new climate change campaign 10:10.[5]
active
Second single "Unfaithful" was released on 28
Labels 4AD September 2009 on CD, 7" vinyl and download, and the
Associated The Head & The Heart, Sea Of Bees, Noah & launch concert was held at the Institute of Contemporary
acts The Whale, The Epstein, Beth Jeans Houghton, Arts in London on 21 September.[6] Their first UK tour
Ute, Mumford & Sons, Foxes!, Anton Barbeau, took place from 16 to 30 October 2009, culminating in
The Family Machine, Witches, Borderville a concert at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, accompanied
Website Official website by the Oxford Millennium Orchestra.[7] They were the
first non-classical group ever to play in the centuries-old
Members building.
Brian Briggs In November 2009 Stornoway became the first ever
Jonathan Ouin unsigned band to appear on Later... with Jools Holland, and
Oli Steadman performed alongside Sting, Norah Jones, Jay-Z, and Foo
Rob Steadman
Fighters.[8] The attention gained by this appearance led
with
Adam Briggs to tens of thousands of views of their homemade
Rahul Satija YouTube videos, and the band were playlisted on the
BBC’s national radio stations. In December 2009,
Stornoway is a British alternative indie folk band from Stornoway were announced as entrants onto the longlist
the Cowley area of Oxford. It consists of singer and gui- of the BBC’s Sound of 2010 competition, having been se-
tarist Brian Briggs; multi-instrumentalists Jon Ouin and lected by a panel of some 165 UK-based "tastemakers".[9]
Oli Steadman, and the latter’s brother Rob on drums. They toured Scotland and Ireland in March 2010 (dubbed
The band is usually joined by trumpeter Adam Briggs the Highlands, Islands and Ireland tour), and signed their
and violinist Rahul Satija. Named after the Scottish town record deal in the castle grounds at Lews in Stornoway,
of Stornoway on the Hebridean Isle of Lewis, which ap- after playing in their namesake town for the first time.
pears on all UK televised weather reports and shipping The band signed to the independent record label, 4AD
forecasts, the group incorporates string instruments and and announced their debut album, Beachcomber’s Win-
keyboards, supported by a typical pop backline of guitar, dowsill due to be released on 24 May 2010.[10] On 22 March
drums, and bass guitar. The band had never visited they released their third single, "I Saw You Blink".
Stornoway when they decided to name themselves after The band organised three small shows to 300 home-
the town. The band is signed to the British independent town fans at the A1 Pool Hall in Oxford in Summer 2010,
record label, 4AD. just prior to the launch of their album. On 30 May 2010,
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Stornoway (band)
Year Album details Peak Chart Positions Certifications
UK IRE UK IND
2010 Beachcomber’s Windowsill 14 43 3 • UK: Silver[16]
• Released: 24 May 2010
• Label: 4AD
• Formats: CD, Digital Download, Vinyl
Year Single Peak Chart Positions Album
UK UK BEL
IND
2009 "Zorbing" — — — Beachcomber’s Windowsill
"Unfaithful" — — — TBD
2010 "I Saw You Blink" 119[17] 12 — Beachcomber’s Windowsill
"Zorbing" (re-release) 74[18] 4 11
Year Title Director
2009 "Zorbing" Hilary O’Hare
"Unfaithful" Gina Hood
2010 "I Saw You Blink" Hilary O’Hare
"Watching Birds" James Caddick
Beachcomber’s Windowsill entered the UK Albums Chart at Control).[14] A secret Somerset House warm-up show
number 14, spending five weeks in the UK Top 100.[11] (with support from Dry The River) was announced exclu-
An "unplugged" session of four songs was recorded for sively to fans in April.[15] The band’s first concert in Ox-
4AD at the Rotunda, an abandoned doll’s house museum ford since November 2010 was held at the Regal, Cowley
in Iffley Village, Oxford in August 2010.[12] They played Road, on September 3rd alongside fellow Oxford bands,
at Glastonbury Festival 2010 and Womad Charlton Park The Epstein and Dreaming Spires. Proceeds from the
in July 2010, along with main-stage slots at a great num- evening went to the Sumatran Orangutan Society, the
ber of UK and European festivals. The rest of the year Earth Trust, and the RSPB.
saw the band tour England, North America and, in Fe- Stornoway are currently recording their second al-
bruary 2011, Australia as part of the St Jerome’s Laneway bum, which will come out in mid 2012.
Festival. Their last performance in their home country
for 2010 was in London at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire,
to a sold out crowd of 2,000, their biggest headline audi-
Discography
ence to date. The band performed the music from Beach-
comber’s Windowsill with extensions and additions to Studio albums
the instrumentation for many songs; in addition one old-
er song and two new ones were performed, including two Singles
unplugged performances with acoustic instruments.[13]
Following a second successful German tour and their Music videos
first performances in Italy, Luxembourg and Switzerland,
Stornoway spent several weeks in early 2011 at home in
Oxford writing towards their second album. In April it References
was announced that the band would be returning to Glas- [1] Stornoway on BBC Music http://www.bbc.co.uk/
tonbury for the third year in a row to open the Pyra- music/artists/04073f0b-
mid Stage on Saturday 25 June, one of their many festival a1e5-4cef-9b36-c1978e5d7d23
billings for the summer. Returning to America in May [2] Stornoway interview in Nightshift
2011, they will then spend the rest of the year performing http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/2008/sep.pdf
at home in the UK and recording in Oxford. Their home- [3] BBC Oxford Introducing interview in Nightshift
coming concert for summer 2011 was at London’s Som- http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/2010/mar.pdf
erset House on Saturday 9 July (with support from Cloud
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Stornoway (band)
[4] Stornoway’s Festival Diary [12] 4AD session filmed at the Rotunda http://4ad.com/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/ sessions/004/
music-festivals/5933626/Stornoways-festival- [13] Stornoway are in for the long run
diary-part-4-Truck-Festival-Oxfordshire.html http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/
[5] 10:10 campaign Twitter feed http://twitter.com/ review-23899036-stornoway-are-in-for-the-long-
tentenuk run.do
[6] Stornoway at the ICA [14] Stornoway on the Somerset House Summer Series
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ June–July 2011 http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/
arts_and_entertainment/music/live_reviews/ music/summer-series-2011/stornoway
article6846147.ece [15] Stornoway announce exclusive warm-up show at
[7] Stornoway at the Sheldonian Theatre The Point, July 2011
http://rhcblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/stornoway- http://www.thepointeastleigh.co.uk/whats-on/
sheldonian-theatre-oxford.html music/stornoway--guests.aspx
[8] bbc.co.uk http://www.bbc.co.uk/later/artists/ [16] http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/
stornoway/ Search.aspx
[9] BBC Sound of 2010 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ [17] "Official Singles Chart for the week ending 3 April
entertainment/8395789.stm 2010". ChartsPlus (Liverpool: UKChartsPlus) (449):
[10] 4AD.com http://www.4ad.com/news/reveal- 1–4.
signing-t/ [18] "Official Singles Chart for the week ending 12 June
[11] http://www.chartstats.com/ 2010". ChartsPlus (Liverpool: UKChartsPlus) (458):
albuminfo.php?id=14790 1–4.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stornoway_(band)&oldid=461980248"
Categories:
• English folk musical groups
• Musical groups established in 2006
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