Latest news with #BoysTheseDays
RTÉ News
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
UK band Sports Team robbed at gunpoint in US
The singer of a British band Sports Team who robbed at gunpoint while touring in the US has said he still thinks "America is the greatest country in the world". The band's van was broken into by masked thieves, who pulled out a gun, when they had stopped for coffee at a Starbucks in Vallejo, California, late last year, with the group's singer saying tracks they recorded for their latest album, which was released last week, predicted the robbery. Indie rockers Sports Team, who released their Boys These Days album last week, had personal items stolen but they did not lose any equipment. Singer Alex Rice told PA: "It was almost like a pretty wild coincidence. "We had a track, the album was all written and recorded, submitted well before we did that tour, but we did have this track, Bang Bang Bang on it, which we ended up putting out fairly soon after, which I guess was about this weird juxtaposition you always find in the US. "It's got lines in it like `Mickey Mouse and AR 15' kind of thing, it's side by side, the kind of bars that we were drinking in the US, and people will show you where their friends were shot, the kind of gun holes on the walls. "So, I think we've always found that element of gun culture in the US kind of a slightly odd element, like, I understand it, and when we go there, I think America is the greatest country in the world still, but I think it just seems such a blind spot. "And I think some of the politicisation around it just doesn't do anyone any favours." The band initially tried to stop the burglars, after a Starbucks worker had noticed their van being broken into, in December 2024, before the gun was pointed at them. Rice said the robbery quickly became "politicised". He added: "The interview requests come in, and we did a nice one with ABC, where it's like you talk about gun crime being awful, and you talk about charities involved and stuff. "And then immediately you get a request from Fox News as well, who kind of want to politicise it, make it about (California governor) Gavin Newsom defunding the police kind of thing. "It's how quickly kind of an event can be spun, (which) was quite interesting to us. "So, we were going to do the Fox interview and they were going to send the Fox mobile to this town we were staying in at the time, and they cancelled it as soon as we posted about an anti-gun charity." Rice said he and the band have yet to hear back from the police, having been asked to fill out an online form when they called 911. He said: "We haven't heard anything back since at all, I think there was probably a bit of scrutiny on the police department in Vallejo, which I know is a kind of particularly embattled police force. "I'm sure these aren't people who are not wanting to solve gun crimes, but I think it probably speaks to problems with funding, and the kind of pressures the police force are in, in that part of the world. "I mean, what would they deal with if they won't deal with an armed robbery, you know?" The band, made up of Rice, Rob Knaggs, Henry Young, Oli Dewdney, Al Greenwood, and Ben Mack, released their debut album, Deep Down Happy, in 2020, which was nominated for the Mercury Prize and went to number two in the UK charts. Their 2022 follow-up, Gulp!, was also well received and rose to number three in the charts. The group, who performed at Glastonbury in 2022, released their third album, Boys These Days, on 23 May. Source: Press Association More music news, reviews and interviews here
Scottish Sun
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
We've always wanted to be a big band, but we stay the right side of the fine line between cool and sad, says Sports Team
One song's topic turns to the rise in platform OnlyFans GOOD SPORTS We've always wanted to be a big band, but we stay the right side of the fine line between cool and sad, says Sports Team Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THERE is always a political angle to Sports Team's songs but it is delivered with energy and humour. With their third album Boys These Days, the six-piece set out to make something that was all that — and more — delivering a satirical take on everything from social media to our obsession with nostalgia. 3 There is always a political angle to Sports Team's songs Credit: © Julianna D'Intino 2025 3 With their third album Boys These Days, the six-piece are delivering a satirical take on everything from social media to our obsession with nostalgia Credit: © Julianna D'Intino 2025 Sometimes it's a critique, at other times it feels more like an endorsement. 'It's not Modern Life Is Rubbish, it's more like modern life is OK,' says rhythm guitarist and vocalist Rob Knaggs, name-checking Blur's 1993 album. Singer Alex Rice adds: 'Three albums in, we're finally at a point where we have the confidence to make the record we want to make. It's maximalist and hedonistic — a big sound that's in your face. We've been inspired by people like Bryan Ferry, Prefab Sprout and Joe Jackson.' It's a busy morning when I meet Rice and Knaggs at their North London HQ — a hybrid of their management company and record label. Libertines frontman Carl Barat pops in for a meeting, promo plans are being thrown around for upcoming releases, and in the middle of it all Rice is proudly showing off photos of his newborn daughter, just a few weeks old. 'It's organised chaos and that's how we like it,' says Rice, settling into the sofa, ready to chat. Out of control 'We actually had more time with this album,' explains Knaggs, after the first two records by the band — which also comprises lead guitarist Henry Young, bassist Oli Dewdney, drummer Al Greenwood and keyboardist Ben Mack — were made amid non-stop touring. Knaggs jokes: 'We could have hit that old, bloated, egotistical stage and thought, 'Do you know what? Maybe I'll make Tubular Bells now'. 'With the first records, we were constantly playing live. Nobody knew who we were, and we had to win over cold crowds. 'But with this third one, it's different, we're not the 22-year-old kids we were when we started. Iconic 70s rock band announces lineup change as frontman quits and replacement is revealed 'Our lives have changed, our music taste has changed, and you don't want to end up a parody of yourself. You want to make music you genuinely love. Otherwise, what's the point of doing this? 'We've always said we want to be a really big band, and it's a fine line between very cool and very sad, and you want to pull the right side of that.' The album is a journey through all the events, all these other things that come into your life Rice With that in mind, Knaggs says: 'At the start, because of our band name, we'd be asked to do silly sports-theme ideas. 'Hey, we've got a photoshoot idea. We are going to dress you as pins from ten-pin bowling, and we will bowl a ball at you down the lane.' No thanks!' Rice adds: 'The album is a journey through all the events, all these other things that come into your life.' Boys These Days kicks off with the catchy sexy sax song I'm In Love (Subaru). Knaggs says: 'It was fun to do songs with an '80s palette, with really corny saxophones — so yes there is a saxophone on there. 'And Subaru was the most '80s song we'd written. It was us consciously trying to write a Prefab Sprout song. And then it spiralled out of control from that point.' "Humour is a key ingredient in Sports Team's songs, and the title track Boys These Days is no exception. That one is meant to be taken ambiguously,' explains Rice. 'It's about how the generation before you always think you've lost your way. 'I've always been fascinated by nostalgia culture. There's a Facebook group called Who Remembers Proper Binmen that really got us thinking about this idea.' 'It's like boomer memes. Or nostalgic phrases like Who remembers chippy teas? Who remembers playing on bombsites? And everyone nods that they remember,' says Knaggs with a laugh. Rice adds: 'Boys These Days is a phrase that whatever the side of the political spectrum you're on with gender, you take it in a different way.' There's a line in Boys These Days about 'now it's all vaping and porn' and the topic turns to the rise in the number of students using the platform OnlyFans to fund university costs. There's a weird divide between older people who expect you to do certain things because you're in a band, like have groupies. It's weird Rice Knaggs says: 'We were actually approached by OnlyFans in the early days of the band — I think they were trying to get artists on board to give them a good image. 'I guess Kate Nash did it pretty well when she was doing bum pics to sell her tour. 'And Lily Allen makes money selling photos of her feet. I'd do hands and feet stuff on OnlyFans, if my feet weren't so grotesque!' Rice says: 'There's a weird divide between older people who expect you to do certain things because you're in a band, like have groupies. It's weird. 'We're a mixed band where there's five guys. Music is still going through that transition but music for us has always been a positive masculine space. 'Small venues are where you find a lot of community. It was for us when we were young and we are trying to create that as well.' The band — who formed while at Cambridge University — believe their privileged academic background has often been a double-edged sword. Knaggs points out other acts, including Clean Bandit and singer Rina Sawayama, went to Cambridge. He adds 'Although I was always a bit annoyed, because we'd get branded as posh, whereas Rina Sawayama would be called an academic queen.' Smiling, Rice says: 'I've always liked these fun little narratives, these beefs. Like when Liam Gallagher called Pete Doherty and Keane's Tom Chaplin 'posh lightweights' and when Kasabian joked that Tom was 'addicted to port'.' Boys These Days was made in Bergen, Norway, where Rice and Knaggs say they made the most of the different environment. Rice says: 'We loved it and worked Scandi hours, like 10am till 4pm which we'd never done before. And it was the end of January so had the heaviest of snow which was so beautiful. 'Me and Rob visited the Cold War bunkers there and walked a lot. We swam most days too. It was a great place to work.' Knaggs says: 'But the Norwegians know how to live. We saw A-ha playing at a festival. Morten Harket is still a dish. 'We were backstage and he came straight off stage, got a ski jumper on and drove straight into the mountains. He's living very well that man.' Rice says: 'We worked with [CMAT and Girl In Red] producer Matias Tellez who was experimental with the band and our way of working. 'He's so comfortable in the studio. There are no preconceptions about how music should be made. In the past we've thought everything needed to be played live, or it's not credible. After robbery ordeal, song felt very personal Sports Team 'Matias's methods were very freeing, the way he worked on the vocals and made us try things again and again. He made it spontaneous. He has a very sunny vibe and is incredibly energetic.' Knaggs adds: 'Also he doesn't come from that guitar world. We love guitar rock and are super nerds in that sense. With that comes a weird set of rules to how you record guitars, drums and bass. 'Brutal welcome' 'But Matias is happy to do whatever. He's about Scandi-Norwegian pop, which has separate rules to the UK or New York or LA music scene.' Other standout tracks on Boys These Days include Head To Space, a song about billionaires blasting off to the moon, and Moving Together, which includes a clever Coronation Street intro sample, (through copyright laws, the soap now own 20 per cent of that song). Bang Bang Bang tackles the issue of gun violence — eerily written before the band were robbed at gunpoint on the first day of their US tour in San Francisco last December. The boys had been enjoying breakfast when two masked men stormed their rental van at gunpoint, forcing tour manager Lauren Troutman to the ground and stealing thousands of pounds' worth of equipment and personal belongings. It left them shaken but determined to carry on with the tour, with Rice describing it as a 'brutal welcome to America'. He adds: 'We wrote the song months before and so the timing seemed strange. 'It went from being this song about how jarring it feels to go into bars in the US, where people would show you their guns, or gun holes in the wall, or in shops, weaponry would be next to other things, which felt odd. Then suddenly it felt a very personal song. 'What was weird though was having the media come out and to see the massively different angles on the gun argument. We were doing all these interviews and just describing what happened rather than the (pro-gun) political line that some people wanted out of us.' Shaking his head, Knaggs says: 'It happened in a petrol station, so if we had a gun, we could have had a little shootout in the petrol station. No problem.' The band began a record- store tour last night in Edinburgh before summer shows in London and Margate and festivals. Being in Sports Team is about having fun and creating a narrative about life — we've grown up a lot since we started — but it's just given us more things to write about Rice Rice says: 'We are playing Truck, Y Not, Kendall Calling and Leeds. There's a few more to be announced, and a big autumn tour. They have also been supporting Supergrass during their ongoing I Should Coco 30th anniversary tour — and will perform at their Mexico gig in September. 'We are excited. I love Supergrass. We've played with a lot of bands now and they are the people you want to be like that. They are fantastic live and the nicest people. 'I'm just looking at how touring will work now I'm a dad. Paul McCartney took his baby on tour — it's definitely doable. 'There will be a lot of time when I'm probably around way more than with a normal job. It's the balance you strike. And this year, we've taken it a bit easier than we would do normally and my partner has been great and is a great mum. 'Being in Sports Team is about having fun and creating a narrative about life — we've grown up a lot since we started — but it's just given us more things to write about.' Boys These Days is out today. SPORTS TEAM Boys These Days ★★★★☆
The Irish Sun
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
We've always wanted to be a big band, but we stay the right side of the fine line between cool and sad, says Sports Team
THERE is always a political angle to Sports Team's songs but it is delivered with energy and humour. With their third album Boys These Days, the six-piece set out to make something that was all that — and more — delivering a satirical take on everything from social media to our obsession with nostalgia. Advertisement 3 There is always a political angle to Sports Team's songs Credit: © Julianna D'Intino 2025 3 With their third album Boys These Days, the six-piece are delivering a satirical take on everything from social media to our obsession with nostalgia Credit: © Julianna D'Intino 2025 Sometimes it's a critique, at other times it feels more like an endorsement. 'It's not Modern Life Is Rubbish, it's more like modern life is OK,' says rhythm guitarist and vocalist Rob Knaggs, name-checking Blur's 1993 album. Singer Alex Rice adds: 'Three albums in, we're finally at a point where we have the confidence to make the record we want to make. It's maximalist and hedonistic — a big sound that's in your face. We've been inspired by people like Bryan Ferry, Prefab Sprout and Joe Jackson.' It's a busy morning when I meet Rice and Knaggs at their North London HQ — a hybrid of their management company and record label. Advertisement READ MORE ON BANDS Libertines frontman Carl Barat pops in for a meeting, promo plans are being thrown around for upcoming releases, and in the middle of it all Rice is proudly showing off photos of his newborn daughter, just a few weeks old. 'It's organised chaos and that's how we like it,' says Rice, settling into the sofa, ready to chat. Out of control 'We actually had more time with this album,' explains Knaggs, after the first two records by the band — which also comprises lead guitarist Henry Young, bassist Oli Dewdney, drummer Al Greenwood and keyboardist Ben Mack — were made amid non-stop touring. Knaggs jokes: 'We could have hit that old, bloated, egotistical stage and thought, 'Do you know what? Maybe I'll make Tubular Bells now'. Advertisement Most read in Music 'With the first records, we were constantly playing live. Nobody knew who we were, and we had to win over cold crowds. 'But with this third one, it's different, we're not the 22-year-old kids we were when we started. Iconic 70s rock band announces lineup change as frontman quits and replacement is revealed 'Our lives have changed, our music taste has changed, and you don't want to end up a parody of yourself. You want to make music you genuinely love. Otherwise, what's the point of doing this? 'We've always said we want to be a really big band, and it's a fine line between very cool and very sad, and you want to pull the right side of that.' Advertisement The album is a journey through all the events, all these other things that come into your life Rice With that in mind, Knaggs says: 'At the start, because of our band name, we'd be asked to do silly sports-theme ideas. 'Hey, we've got a photoshoot idea. We are going to dress you as pins from ten-pin bowling, and we will bowl a ball at you down the lane.' No thanks!' Rice adds: 'The album is a journey through all the events, all these other things that come into your life.' Boys These Days kicks off with the catchy sexy sax song I'm In Love (Subaru). Knaggs says: 'It was fun to do songs with an '80s palette, with really corny saxophones — so yes there is a saxophone on there. Advertisement 'And Subaru was the most '80s song we'd written. It was us consciously trying to write a Prefab Sprout song. And then it spiralled out of control from that point.' "Humour is a key ingredient in Sports Team's songs, and the title track Boys These Days is no exception. That one is meant to be taken ambiguously,' explains Rice. 'It's about how the generation before you always think you've lost your way. 'I've always been fascinated by nostalgia culture. There's a Facebook group called Who Remembers Proper Binmen that really got us thinking about this idea.' Advertisement 'It's like boomer memes. Or nostalgic phrases like Who remembers chippy teas? Who remembers playing on bombsites? And everyone nods that they remember,' says Knaggs with a laugh. Rice adds: 'Boys These Days is a phrase that whatever the side of the political spectrum you're on with gender, you take it in a different way.' There's a line in Boys These Days about 'now it's all vaping and porn' and the topic turns to the rise in the number of students using the platform OnlyFans to fund university costs. There's a weird divide between older people who expect you to do certain things because you're in a band, like have groupies. It's weird Rice Knaggs says: 'We were actually approached by OnlyFans in the early days of the band — I think they were trying to get artists on board to give them a good image. Advertisement 'I guess 'And Lily Allen makes money selling photos of her feet. I'd do hands and feet stuff on OnlyFans, if my feet weren't so grotesque!' Rice says: 'There's a weird divide between older people who expect you to do certain things because you're in a band, like have groupies. It's weird. 'We're a mixed band where there's five guys. Music is still going through that transition but music for us has always been a positive masculine space. Advertisement 'Small venues are where you find a lot of community. It was for us when we were young and we are trying to create that as well.' The band — who formed while at Cambridge University — believe their privileged academic background has often been a double-edged sword. Knaggs points out other acts, including He adds 'Although I was always a bit annoyed, because we'd get branded as posh, whereas Rina Sawayama would be called an academic queen.' Advertisement Smiling, Rice says: 'I've always liked these fun little narratives, these beefs. Like when Boys These Days was made in Bergen, Norway, where Rice and Knaggs say they made the most of the different environment. Rice says: 'We loved it and worked Scandi hours, like 10am till 4pm which we'd never done before. And it was the end of January so had the heaviest of snow which was so beautiful. 'Me and Rob visited the Cold War bunkers there and walked a lot. We swam most days too. It was a great place to work.' Advertisement Knaggs says: 'But the Norwegians know how to live. We saw A-ha playing at a festival. Morten Harket is still a dish. 'We were backstage and he came straight off stage, got a ski jumper on and drove straight into the mountains. He's living very well that man.' Rice says: 'We worked with [CMAT and Girl In Red] producer Matias Tellez who was experimental with the band and our way of working. 'He's so comfortable in the studio. There are no preconceptions about how music should be made. In the past we've thought everything needed to be played live, or it's not credible. Advertisement After robbery ordeal, song felt very personal Sports Team 'Matias's methods were very freeing, the way he worked on the vocals and made us try things again and again. He made it spontaneous. He has a very sunny vibe and is incredibly energetic.' Knaggs adds: 'Also he doesn't come from that guitar world. We love guitar rock and are super nerds in that sense. With that comes a weird set of rules to how you record guitars, drums and bass. 'Brutal welcome' 'But Matias is happy to do whatever. He's about Scandi-Norwegian pop, which has separate rules to the UK or New York or LA music scene.' Other standout tracks on Boys These Days include Head To Space, a song about billionaires blasting off to the moon, and Moving Together, which includes a clever Coronation Street intro sample, (through copyright laws, the soap now own 20 per cent of that song). Advertisement Bang Bang Bang tackles the issue of gun violence — eerily written The boys had been enjoying breakfast when two masked men stormed their rental van at gunpoint, forcing tour manager Lauren Troutman to the ground and stealing thousands of pounds' worth of equipment and personal belongings. It left them shaken but determined to carry on with the tour, with Rice describing it as a 'brutal welcome to America'. He adds: 'We wrote the song months before and so the timing seemed strange. Advertisement 'It went from being this song about how jarring it feels to go into bars in the US, where people would show you their guns, or gun holes in the wall, or in shops, weaponry would be next to other things, which felt odd. Then suddenly it felt a very personal song. 'What was weird though was having the media come out and to see the massively different angles on the gun argument. We were doing all these interviews and just describing what happened rather than the (pro-gun) political line that some people wanted out of us.' Shaking his head, Knaggs says: 'It happened in a petrol station, so if we had a gun, we could have had a little shootout in the petrol station. No problem.' The band began a record- store tour last night in Edinburgh before summer shows in London and Margate and festivals. Advertisement Being in Sports Team is about having fun and creating a narrative about life — we've grown up a lot since we started — but it's just given us more things to write about Rice Rice says: 'We are playing Truck, Y Not, Kendall Calling and Leeds. There's a few more to be announced, and a big autumn tour. They have also been supporting Supergrass during their ongoing I Should Coco 30th anniversary tour — and will perform at their Mexico gig in September. 'We are excited. I love Supergrass. We've played with a lot of bands now and they are the people you want to be like that. They are fantastic live and the nicest people. 'I'm just looking at how touring will work now I'm a dad. 'There will be a lot of time when I'm probably around way more than with a normal job. It's the balance you strike. And this year, we've taken it a bit easier than we would do normally and my partner has been great and is a great mum. Advertisement 'Being in Sports Team is about having fun and creating a narrative about life — we've grown up a lot since we started — but it's just given us more things to write about.' Boys These Days is out today. SPORTS TEAM Boys These Days ★★★★☆ 3 Boys These Days is out today Credit: Supplied by PR
The Sun
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
We've always wanted to be a big band, but we stay the right side of the fine line between cool and sad, says Sports Team
THERE is always a political angle to Sports Team's songs but it is delivered with energy and humour. With their third album Boys These Days, the six-piece set out to make something that was all that — and more — delivering a satirical take on everything from social media to our obsession with nostalgia. 3 Sometimes it's a critique, at other times it feels more like an endorsement. 'It's not Modern Life Is Rubbish, it's more like modern life is OK,' says rhythm guitarist and vocalist Rob Knaggs, name-checking Blur's 1993 album. Singer Alex Rice adds: 'Three albums in, we're finally at a point where we have the confidence to make the record we want to make. It's maximalist and hedonistic — a big sound that's in your face. We've been inspired by people like Bryan Ferry, Prefab Sprout and Joe Jackson.' It's a busy morning when I meet Rice and Knaggs at their North London HQ — a hybrid of their management company and record label. Libertines frontman Carl Barat pops in for a meeting, promo plans are being thrown around for upcoming releases, and in the middle of it all Rice is proudly showing off photos of his newborn daughter, just a few weeks old. 'It's organised chaos and that's how we like it,' says Rice, settling into the sofa, ready to chat. Out of control 'We actually had more time with this album,' explains Knaggs, after the first two records by the band — which also comprises lead guitarist Henry Young, bassist Oli Dewdney, drummer Al Greenwood and keyboardist Ben Mack — were made amid non-stop touring. Knaggs jokes: 'We could have hit that old, bloated, egotistical stage and thought, 'Do you know what? Maybe I'll make Tubular Bells now'. 'With the first records, we were constantly playing live. Nobody knew who we were, and we had to win over cold crowds. 'But with this third one, it's different, we're not the 22-year-old kids we were when we started. Iconic 70s rock band announces lineup change as frontman quits and replacement is revealed 'Our lives have changed, our music taste has changed, and you don't want to end up a parody of yourself. You want to make music you genuinely love. Otherwise, what's the point of doing this? 'We've always said we want to be a really big band, and it's a fine line between very cool and very sad, and you want to pull the right side of that.' The album is a journey through all the events, all these other things that come into your life Rice With that in mind, Knaggs says: 'At the start, because of our band name, we'd be asked to do silly sports-theme ideas. 'Hey, we've got a photoshoot idea. We are going to dress you as pins from ten-pin bowling, and we will bowl a ball at you down the lane.' No thanks!' Rice adds: 'The album is a journey through all the events, all these other things that come into your life.' Boys These Days kicks off with the catchy sexy sax song I'm In Love (Subaru). Knaggs says: 'It was fun to do songs with an '80s palette, with really corny saxophones — so yes there is a saxophone on there. 'And Subaru was the most '80s song we'd written. It was us consciously trying to write a Prefab Sprout song. And then it spiralled out of control from that point.' "Humour is a key ingredient in Sports Team's songs, and the title track Boys These Days is no exception. That one is meant to be taken ambiguously,' explains Rice. 'It's about how the generation before you always think you've lost your way. 'I've always been fascinated by nostalgia culture. There's a Facebook group called Who Remembers Proper Binmen that really got us thinking about this idea.' 'It's like boomer memes. Or nostalgic phrases like Who remembers chippy teas? Who remembers playing on bombsites? And everyone nods that they remember,' says Knaggs with a laugh. Rice adds: 'Boys These Days is a phrase that whatever the side of the political spectrum you're on with gender, you take it in a different way.' There's a line in Boys These Days about 'now it's all vaping and porn ' and the topic turns to the rise in the number of students using the platform OnlyFans to fund university costs. There's a weird divide between older people who expect you to do certain things because you're in a band, like have groupies. It's weird Rice Knaggs says: 'We were actually approached by OnlyFans in the early days of the band — I think they were trying to get artists on board to give them a good image. 'I guess Kate Nash did it pretty well when she was doing bum pics to sell her tour. 'And Lily Allen makes money selling photos of her feet. I'd do hands and feet stuff on OnlyFans, if my feet weren't so grotesque!' Rice says: 'There's a weird divide between older people who expect you to do certain things because you're in a band, like have groupies. It's weird. 'We're a mixed band where there's five guys. Music is still going through that transition but music for us has always been a positive masculine space. 'Small venues are where you find a lot of community. It was for us when we were young and we are trying to create that as well.' The band — who formed while at Cambridge University — believe their privileged academic background has often been a double-edged sword. Knaggs points out other acts, including Clean Bandit and singer Rina Sawayama, went to Cambridge. He adds 'Although I was always a bit annoyed, because we'd get branded as posh, whereas Rina Sawayama would be called an academic queen.' Smiling, Rice says: 'I've always liked these fun little narratives, these beefs. Like when Liam Gallagher called Pete Doherty and Keane's Tom Chaplin 'posh lightweights' and when Kasabian joked that Tom was 'addicted to port'.' Boys These Days was made in Bergen, Norway, where Rice and Knaggs say they made the most of the different environment. Rice says: 'We loved it and worked Scandi hours, like 10am till 4pm which we'd never done before. And it was the end of January so had the heaviest of snow which was so beautiful. 'Me and Rob visited the Cold War bunkers there and walked a lot. We swam most days too. It was a great place to work.' Knaggs says: 'But the Norwegians know how to live. We saw A-ha playing at a festival. Morten Harket is still a dish. 'We were backstage and he came straight off stage, got a ski jumper on and drove straight into the mountains. He's living very well that man.' Rice says: 'We worked with [CMAT and Girl In Red] producer Matias Tellez who was experimental with the band and our way of working. 'He's so comfortable in the studio. There are no preconceptions about how music should be made. In the past we've thought everything needed to be played live, or it's not credible. 'Matias's methods were very freeing, the way he worked on the vocals and made us try things again and again. He made it spontaneous. He has a very sunny vibe and is incredibly energetic.' Knaggs adds: 'Also he doesn't come from that guitar world. We love guitar rock and are super nerds in that sense. With that comes a weird set of rules to how you record guitars, drums and bass. 'Brutal welcome' 'But Matias is happy to do whatever. He's about Scandi-Norwegian pop, which has separate rules to the UK or New York or LA music scene.' Other standout tracks on Boys These Days include Head To Space, a song about billionaires blasting off to the moon, and Moving Together, which includes a clever Coronation Street intro sample, (through copyright laws, the soap now own 20 per cent of that song). Bang Bang Bang tackles the issue of gun violence — eerily written before the band were robbed at gunpoint on the first day of their US tour in San Francisco last December. The boys had been enjoying breakfast when two masked men stormed their rental van at gunpoint, forcing tour manager Lauren Troutman to the ground and stealing thousands of pounds' worth of equipment and personal belongings. It left them shaken but determined to carry on with the tour, with Rice describing it as a 'brutal welcome to America'. He adds: 'We wrote the song months before and so the timing seemed strange. 'It went from being this song about how jarring it feels to go into bars in the US, where people would show you their guns, or gun holes in the wall, or in shops, weaponry would be next to other things, which felt odd. Then suddenly it felt a very personal song. 'What was weird though was having the media come out and to see the massively different angles on the gun argument. We were doing all these interviews and just describing what happened rather than the (pro-gun) political line that some people wanted out of us.' Shaking his head, Knaggs says: 'It happened in a petrol station, so if we had a gun, we could have had a little shootout in the petrol station. No problem.' The band began a record- store tour last night in Edinburgh before summer shows in London and Margate and festivals. Being in Sports Team is about having fun and creating a narrative about life — we've grown up a lot since we started — but it's just given us more things to write about Rice Rice says: 'We are playing Truck, Y Not, Kendall Calling and Leeds. There's a few more to be announced, and a big autumn tour. They have also been supporting Supergrass during their ongoing I Should Coco 30th anniversary tour — and will perform at their Mexico gig in September. 'We are excited. I love Supergrass. We've played with a lot of bands now and they are the people you want to be like that. They are fantastic live and the nicest people. 'I'm just looking at how touring will work now I'm a dad. Paul McCartney took his baby on tour — it's definitely doable. 'There will be a lot of time when I'm probably around way more than with a normal job. It's the balance you strike. And this year, we've taken it a bit easier than we would do normally and my partner has been great and is a great mum. 'Being in Sports Team is about having fun and creating a narrative about life — we've grown up a lot since we started — but it's just given us more things to write about.' Boys These Days is out today. SPORTS TEAM Boys These Days ★★★★☆ 3
The Independent
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Sports Team: ‘They pointed the gun at our tour manager... we took cover'
Many UK bands have broken America; few have seen its civilised facade so quickly shattered. No sooner had Sports Team landed in the US last December to start a tour prepping their third album Boys These Days than their first breakfast at a Californian gas station was interrupted by a concerned citizen rushing in to tell them their van was being broken into. Intrepid drummer Al Greenwood was halfway across the forecourt, filming the robber as evidence, before she realised she'd brought an iPhone to a Glock fight. 'Our tour manager [Lauren Troutman] was ahead of me, running towards them and shouting, asking them to stop,' she recalls, clearly shaken at the memory. 'I saw quite immediately that they were carrying something that Lauren hadn't seen.' Like the more crossfire-savvy Americans on the scene, Greenwood took cover behind a car, hysterically screaming for her tour manager to get down. 'Eventually they pointed the gun at her,' she says. 'She backed away, and we took cover in Starbucks, and they proceeded to load out all of our personal belongings, which was very upsetting to watch.' For fans back home watching one of rock's most dramatic ever TikToks – an acoustic album showcase in an unkempt kitchenette this was not – Greenwood's post provided hard-hitting evidence that US gun crime could affect anybody. This was a devil-may-care art rock six-piece from London and Margate (via Cambridge University), famed for performing lighthearted tunes referencing Ashton Kutcher and the M5 motorway while dressed in toreador outfits, Eighties pop garb or psychedelic tank tops. Over seven years as one of indie rock's great rising hopes, in songs slathered in literate wit and comedic metaphor, they've wryly dissected the modern British malaise on two Top 3 albums – the Mercury-shortlisted Deep Down Happy (pipped to No 1 by Lady Gaga in 2020) and Gulp! (2022). Now here they were, this most harmless, middle-class and English of bands, dropped slap bang in the middle of NCIS: Los Angeles. For the band itself, though, the experience rammed home the vast gulf in attitude towards guns at home and abroad. 'You could just be in a hold-up and the Starbucks staff were so chill about it,' Greenwood says. An emergency call to the police resulted not in a screaming cavalcade of squad cars to the rescue but a referral to an online report form; within days their ordeal was being commandeered by the right-wing US media to attack California governor Gavin Newsom, an early proponent of defunding the police. 'Fox News were going to send a Foxmobile to pick me up and take me to LA to do the Martha MacCallum show [ The Story with Martha MacCallum ],' says singer Alex Rice, now safely ensconced with his jovial bandmates in a pub in the relatively crime-free utopia of Clapton, east London. But when the band posted their video to US gun-control website Everytown, creating a risk of them espousing some anti-gun sense and decency on-air, the interview was pulled, even as the Foxmobile was on its way. The robbers took personal belongings, passports and laptops but the band's instruments were secure in the back of the van, so Sports Team were able to complete the tour as planned. But as their story spread, the illogic of the USA's gun religion bewildered them. 'People, in all seriousness, would be like, 'if only someone else in that petrol station had another gun. We could have solved this issue',' says guitarist Rob Knaggs. 'You're like, 'that would not have solved anything! A gunfight in a petrol station?'' 'It would have been amazing to pull an assault rifle,' says Rice, a bass-voiced man who lives permanently on the tipping point between informed contemplation and uproarious laughter. 'We should have an armoury in the splitter van, A Team sort of stuff.' With supernatural serendipity, Sports Team were held up while preparing the release of their latest single 'Bang Bang Bang'. Drilling down into US gun culture, it casts a withering eye over the nation's racially motivated killings, incel acts of revenge, gun shows, assault weapon open-carriers and crazed mall shooters. Although Rice argues that the song captures the intricacies and juxtapositions of the issue, rather than engaging in knee-jerk European condemnation. 'You can't judge it the same way you would here,' he says, '[it's so] embroiled in the culture.' Knaggs agrees. 'It's almost seen as like the printing press there in a bizarre way, this accessory of freedom, free speech and democracy … With the assault weapon stuff, though, you are an idiot if you think there's any real need for domestic [use]. An AR-15 isn't a hunting rifle – you're a moron. It's a weapon designed for Vietnam conflict, it's designed to basically stop loads of people at the same time.' Boys These Days was recorded a world away from America's hot mess, in the 'insanely beautiful' coastal city of Bergen in Norway, a town surrounded by Cold War nuclear bunkers which the band duly broke into during downtime. 'They used to paint the walls fluorescent but it's all radium paint, I guess,' says Knaggs. 'Our producer was like, 'Did you touch the wall? It's covered in highly radioactive stuff, very dangerous'.' Yet Boys These Days is a record steeped in the culture and politics of America. 'It's the most relevant thing in the world at the moment,' Rice argues, likening the US to a new, all-pervasive Roman empire. '[Britain is] a pretty middling power now, I don't think there's much cultural potency in the UK any more. You've got to engage with [American issues] if you want to try and make culturally important music.' Where once they might have satirised the boy racers skirting Aldershot on 'M5', here they ridicule the anti-woke boomer/Maga mindset on the title track, and Elon Musk directly on 'Head for Space'. 'It's not really a surprise that Elon Musk has become this person,' says Knaggs. 'I don't think it's shocking. The Mars thing throughout history has been a slightly far-right utopian thing. It's like Star Wars. The space colonisers are always slightly sus.' He believes Musk's ultimate aim is techno feudalism. 'That idea that you essentially get people on board with your vision, and then you slowly take away their rights and things, but it's all towards these big goals like going to Mars. That control is probably what's most appealing to him. That's why they're all against regulations. They want to strip away all that stuff because it gives you pure power.' What would life be like on Musk's Marstopia X? 'It'd be awful,' Knaggs grimaces. 'They talk about it like, 'we can probably have a few pods with, like, 50 people on this barren planet', and that's much better than just coming up with some solutions to the catastrophic global situations that they're developing.' On Trump, Rice is 'obviously anti' but isn't prepared to give up hope amid the global lurch to the far right. 'Hopefully, it's a rallying call for the left to get their act together a bit more, talk to themselves a bit less, try and come up with a proper counternarrative that feels emotionally appealing to people.' In song, Rice prefers to flay open and expose the rotting heart of the beast rather than throw blunt sticks at its impenetrable hide. 'Boys these days look like girls,' moans the decrepit blue-tick wokephobe of the title track, for instance, 'Maybe what they need is a war…/ Now it's all f***ing on drugs/ Whatever happened to not making love?' 'You can make them seem like ridiculous people,' Rice says. 'That's your power, if you use the language rather than just saying you don't like it. If you're in Idles, you do like, 'F*** Trump', which seems less effective to us … Us saying we disagree with him isn't powerful in any sense, [but] someone's who's making him look ridiculous, that can catch on, that can spread like a fire.' The album's other running theme is that of ageing into premature, planned obsolescence. Rice calls it 'a journey into jadedness', rushing from 'I'm in Love (Subaru)' – a slab of sax-laden Eighties soft rock hymning the band's teenage obsessions with fast cars, movie starlets and Prefab Sprout – towards the gym, supplements and 'sensibly numb' lifestyle portrayed on the barnstorming Dexys-like cracker 'Sensible'. It closes with new single 'Maybe When We're Thirty', a song that sounds culled from some unreleased Kraftwerk Play Pulp album, which has Rice dreaming about settling down to bland, homeowning family conformity: the 'happy days on Facebook' reading about David Beckham's children, and the one night out a year when 'we'll watch The War on Drugs'. That trope of the sell-out life is now the absolute aspirational dream Sports Team guitarist Rob Knaggs 'It's definitely us,' says Rice, currently expecting his first child at the age of 31. 'For our generation, the social contract is broken. If you live in London and you do get yourself a decent job, go to university, you're probably not gonna be able to buy yourself a house by the time you're 30. You're not gonna be able to start a family or whatever. And I think that's led to a group of people in their thirties who feel a bit like they've drifted, like they've lost a stage.' Knaggs describes it as an enforced ultra-teenage period. 'It's like, 'OK, well, I guess drinking is my thing now'. All you want is that terraced house, stable office job, a mortgage would be amazing. That trope of the sell-out life is now the absolute aspirational dream.' Hang on… Kraftwerk? Dexys? Prefab Sprout? That's barely the half of it. Like recent, fantastic genre-hopping exploits from Fontaines DC and Wolf Alice, Boys These Days is a gloriously eclectic record. There are moments of junky Stones groove, ELO's symphonic funk, Talking Heads art pop, fuzz folk and, on 'Bang Bang Bang', what sounds like Ennio Morricone soundtracking a gunfight between Morrissey and Marr. One track, 'Moving Together', opens with an acid dub take on the Coronation Street theme and closes with an operatic jazz flute solo. Genre, they say, is dead; the new alternative has no stylistic rules. 'Those categorisations have kind of disappeared from how you would discover music,' says Knaggs. 'So maybe there's less pressure to be a 'rock band' purist. You watch the Bob Dylan film [ A Complete Unknown ], it's hilarious when they have those scenes where someone's shouting 'Judas' because he's going electric.' 'Indie', it seems, is now short for 'individualism', and Sports Team led the charge. Rice recently declared himself the inspiration for alt-rock's new embrace of onstage character and flamboyance, as well as for some mainstream pop acts. 'I know I was on Louis Tomlinson's styling board. Someone sent me that who was in his team. I was part of the PowerPoint.' Sports Team's zeitgeist appeal, he argues, is that of the rock gang that looks fun to be in. 'We didn't want to be the band that's, like, sunglasses inside, 'I'm miserable about being in a band and I'm a poet',' he says. 'That would seem like the least appealing thing in the world to us. People like that sentiment that a live gig isn't a recital, it's a show, it's carnival. On TikTok and stuff, you have to be out there and engaging. You can't be a reserved figure in the music industry these days, or an introvert. It doesn't work.' You can't be a reserved figure in the music industry these days, or an introvert. It doesn't work Alex Rice Excitable and intelligent company, Sports Team are certainly a riot to be around. As the pints stack up, they hold forth on their oddest onstage attire (one festival provided Rice 'literally a Burger King outfit'). The heroism of Kate Nash, James Blake and Chappell Roan calling out today's rigged and exploitative music industry: 'They sign up loads of hungry young kids for ten grand for the rest of their lives,' Rice says, fresh from ditching the band's major label Island over its unviable advance for a six-piece band, 'you couldn't do that in any company.' And their love of the lost art of the rock'n'roll beef. 'The 1975, we'd take pops at them and it was so clear that Matty [Healy] is so into that stuff,' says Knaggs. 'He'd absolutely love it. We'd get into these really personal attacks going back and forth. Then you'd meet him at an award show and he'd be really into it, big hugs. He understands the joy of that kind of thing.' Friendly fire in the name of rock culture, then, is much more their kind of stand-off. Such good Sports. 'Maybe When We're Thirty' is out on 28 February; the album 'Boys These Days' is out on 23 May
