Catfish and the Bottlemen
| Catfish and the Bottlemen | |
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Catfish and the Bottlemen at Lollapalooza 2015
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Llandudno, North Wales, United Kingdom |
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| Years active | 2007–present |
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Catfish and the Bottlemen are a British rock band, formed in Llandudno, Wales in 2007. Their debut album, The Balcony, reached number 10 in the UK Albums Chart and achieved Platinum status on 30 December 2016. The band have toured in the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia and have featured in a number of festivals including Lollapalooza ,Glastonbury, Latitude, Reading and Leeds, T in the Park, Governors Ball, and Bonnaroo. They won their first Brit Award for British Breakthrough act on 24 February 2016. On 27 May 2016, they released their second album, The Ride.
Catfish and the Bottlemen, formerly known as "The Prestige", were founded in April 2007, when Ryan Evan "Van" McCann and Billy Bibby began playing guitar together at Billy's parents home, a bed & breakfast in Llandudno, Wales. Van's parents also ran a bed and breakfast in town and Van was friends with Billy's younger brother, which is how Van and Billy met. Van and Billy were joined by Benjamin Blakeway on bass as the third founding member of the band. Schoolmate Jon Barr followed shortly thereafter on drums.Billy Bibby, who had been playing guitar since age 10, taught both Van McCann and Benji Blakeway how to play. They promoted themselves by playing in car parks after other artist's gigs, including bands such as Kasabian.Steve Lamacq first played an early demo on BBC Radio 6 Music in March 2009. During 2009, Catfish came runners up in the 'North Wales Battle of the Bands' having been beaten to the post by another local band The Fides who later closed the Conwy River Festival. Original drummer Jon Barr was replaced by Robert "Bob" Hall in 2010. Bob Hall was introduced to the band by a North Wales-based producer who was working with the band at the time.
The band derives its name from McCann's first childhood musical memory: that of an Australian street busker in Sydney, playing beer bottles strung to a wire who goes by the name Catfish the Bottleman. He was called "Catfish" because of an unusually styled spiky beard he had when he first began playing in 2000. McCann was reunited with Catfish the Bottleman in January 2015 at the studios of Triple J radio in Sydney.
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