Athlete_(band)

Athlete
Athlete at the Academy, 2007
Background information
Origin	Deptford, London, England
Genre(s)	Indie rock Britpop
Years active	1999–present
Label(s)	Parlophone (UK) Astralwerks (USA)
Website	http://www.athlete.mu/
Members
Joel Pott Carey Willets Steve Roberts Tim Wanstall

Athlete are an English indie rock band formed in Deptford, London, comprising Joel Pott (lead vocals and guitar), Carey Willetts (bass and backing vocals), Stephen Roberts (drums and backing vocals) and Tim Wanstall (keyboards and backing vocals). Recently, the quartet have recruited Jonny Pilcher of Weevil as a live guitarist.

History

Friends since the age of fourteen, Athlete took their wide ranging influences such as Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips and started jamming and practicing in the basement of The Bear, a pub which was converted into a church and sandwich bar, on Deptford High Street in 1999. They began recording there, before sending demos out. Signing with Regal Recordings, they released their first single in February 2002. The band came to prominence in 2003 with their debut album, Vehicles and Animals, producing popular singles such as "You Got the Style" and "El Salvador". The album earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination and went on to sell over 250,000 copies.

Their second album, Tourist, reached Number One in the UK Album Charts in its first week, following the huge success of single "Wires", the song was brought around when the lead singer\'s newborn baby was rushed to intensive care after a premature birth, which in 2006, won them the Ivor Novello Award for "Best Contemporary Song". In the UK charts, the band has frequently been frustrated by singles just missing out on top 40 placings, due to inconsistent support by music television channels and radio stations. For instance, certain songs, such as "Wires" and "Half Light", were played up to 10 times a day on larger UK radio stations, yet other singles such as "Westside" and "Tourist" received little to no radio play whatsoever, fueling talk of radio stations deciding who becomes a major player in the pop music franchise.

On 10 June 2007, it was announced that the title of their third album would be Beyond the Neighbourhood.Athlete.mu. The album was mixed by Ben Allen and Michael Brauer, who also worked on Tourist. Released on 3 September 2007, Beyond the Neighbourhood was a self-produced collection of low-key songs, viewed as a disappointment by someBeyond The Neighbourhood album review from Guardian Unlimited, and an interesting sidestep by othersBeyond The Neighbourhood album review from stv.tv/music. It entered at #5 on the UK album chart.

Discography

Albums

1. Vehicles and Animals &dnash; (April 7, 2003) #19 UK
2. Tourist &dnash; (January 31, 2005) #1 UK
3. Beyond the Neighbourhood &dnash; (September 3, 2007) #5 UK

Singles

Compilations

Athlete tracks have appeared on the following compilation CDs:

In popular culture

• "Chances" from Tourist was used in the 2006 Russell Crowe film A Good Year
• "Wires" is the theme song for The Learning Channel\'s show Diagnosis X
• "El Salvador" is in the movie "The Last Kiss" with Zach Braff
• "El Salvador appears on the 2 CD set "Top Gear: Seriously Cool Driving Music"; inspired from the BBC 2 TV show.
• "Tourist" is used in the Adidas commercial Impossible is 0 featuring Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas.Gilbert’s Story - Impossible is 0 | Gilbertology.net
• "Street Map" is heard in the first episode of the third season of CW\'s "One Tree Hill"

See also

• Joel Pott
• Live from London (iTunes)

References

External links

• Official website
• TheMusicZine live review
• TheMusicZine interview
• Myspace site
• Hurricane Review
• Athlete, Beyond the Neighbourhood Review
• Beyond The Neighbourhood Review
• Athlete gig gallery on BBC Norfolk
• Tokyo Review
• Interview with Caught In The Crossfire
• Soundfires.com review of Tokyo

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia