Catfish And The Bottlemen

British indie rock outfit Catfish and the Bottlemen formed in Llandudno, Wales, with members moving to the seaside town from as far away as Sheffield and Newcastle to complete the lineup. The band started out in 2010 when Aussie-born vocalist Van McCann started playing with guitarist Bill Bibby — the elder brother of McCann's best friend — and bassist Benji Blakeway. Their initial set consisted of Beatles covers played to unimpressed local audiences, and soon after they added Bob Hall on drums. Not content with playing covers, the four-piece holed up in a soundproofed room in McCann's family B&B, where they sowed the seeds of their gritty garage rock sound. They began to attract fans through their guerilla D.I.Y. gigs in car parks prior to shows, and in 2011 they played a rain-soaked evening in Manchester prior to a sold-out Kasabian performance while friends handed out free copies of their demo. Their D.I.Y. ethic led them to play over 250 official and unofficial events in 2012 and the first half of 2013 before they eventually signed to Mumford & Sons' Ben Lovett's Communion Records. They released three singles with that label before moving to Universal in 2014. Their full-length debut album The Balcony, which included the Jim Abbiss-produced single "Kathleen," saw release in the U.K. in September 2014. It debuted at 10 on the U.K. charts.