Future Kings of Spain

Future Kings of Spain
Left to right: Bryan McMahon, Anton Hegarty, Karl Hussey, Joey Wilson
Background information
Origin	Dublin, Ireland
Genres	RockAlternative
Years active	2000–2009
Labels	Red Flag Records GMT Records What's The Kim? Recordings
Associated acts	A Lazarus Soul BadSelf
Past members	Joey Wilson Bryan McMahon Anton Hegarty Karl Hussey

Future Kings of Spain were an Irish rock band formed in Dublin 2000 by Joey Wilson, Anton Hegarty and Bryan McMahon. The three had played together with ex-Spudgun guitarist Dave Layde in Mediumwave between 1996 and 1999. The band released two studio LPs Future Kings of Spain (2003) and Nervousystem (2007) and one EP Les Debemos (2004). In September 2009 after some considerable silence, many music media outlets reported on the statement on the band's website announcing how the band had "brought things to a close", though not giving a reason for this apparent break-up.

The idea to call the band Future Kings Of Spain came about when Wilson, "was reading two unrelated articles at once and lined up the words Future Kings on one side and of Spain on the other." McMahon confirmed this in a radio interview with the Irish state broadcaster RTÉ in August 2003.

In 2009 the band broke up with no reason given. Golden Plec wrote how it was "one of the great mysteries from the Irish music scene in the early noughties how Future Kings Of Spain failed to turn one of the best Irish rock records of the decade into chart success". On 4 September 2009, the State.ie website described how the band left a short history of themselves in a blog entitled ‘Future Kings Of Spain 2000-2009’ saying that they had in fact disbanded in June 2009.

Future Kings Of Spain started out in February 2000 as Joey Wilson, Anton Hegarty and Bryan McMahon. They rehearsed for 5 months until they had a set of songs long enough to play in front of people. Finally and with no name, in July 2000 they played to some friends in a nightclub in Dublin.

In December 2000, introduced as Future Kings Of Spain, they played their first real show. They were joined by Karl Hussey in late 2003 and remained a 4-piece until they brought things to a close in June 2009. The band recorded 2 LPs and 1 EP. The first LP and the EP for Red Flag Records; the second and last LP for their own label, What’s The Kim? Recordings.

From Dublin, Ireland FKOS toured, recorded and made friends in North America, Europe, the UK, Japan, Australia and Ireland.

In 2004 the band scooped Best New Band at the Meteor Music Awards, After signing with Japanese label GMT Records the band performed to 27,800 people at SONICMANIA 2004 in Osaka and Tokyo. They also toured and performed with many international acts including Biffy Clyro, Muse,Idlewild (band) and The Strokes. Hanging Around featured in the opening titles of the 2005 zombie comedy Boy Eats Girl. At the 2008 Meteor Music Awards, the band were the most nominated act, nominated in 3 categories - Best Irish Band, Best Irish Album and Best Live Act. On this occasion the band would come away empty-handed. The band continued to perform into 2008, though not as often as in previous years. During this time Anton married longtime girlfriend Alison Curtis. One of the band's final performances was at Oxegen 2008.