Ballboy is a four-piece

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Independent media, media free of influence by government or corporate interests *Indie art, fine arts made by artists independent of commer ...

band from

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Formed in the late 1990s, the band released five

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

s between 2001 and 2008.

Biography

Originally comprising Viv Strachan (vocals), Gordon McIntyre (guitar), Nick Reynolds (bass) and Alexis Beattie (drums), Ballboy played gigs around Edinburgh for a few years, and recorded tracks for the Edinburgh indie compilation ''it's a life sentence...'', released by the newly formed SL Records label in 1997. By 1999 Gordon McIntyre, the band's main songwriter, had taken over vocal duties. Katie Griffiths had joined on keyboards, and Gary Morgan had taken over the drums. The band signed to SL Records that year, and released a series of EPs. The tracks from these EPs were collected on 2001's '' Club Anthems.'' The band toured the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in September / October 2002 and McIntyre's journal of the tour was published in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' newspaper. Their "proper" debut album, '' A Guide for the Daylight Hours'', was released in November 2002, featuring artwork by Glasgow-based artist

David Shrigley David John Shrigley (born 17 September 1968) is a British visual artist. He lived and worked in Glasgow, Scotland for 27 years before moving to Brighton, England in 2015. Shrigley first came to prominence in the 1990s for his distinct line drawi ...

. This album was followed in 2003 by the acoustic, and often melancholy, '' The Sash My Father Wore and Other Stories'', virtually a solo record by McIntyre. In 2004 Ballboy returned to full band mode, with a new keyboard player, Alexa Morrison, and their third album. The band continue to play live occasionally and released their fourth studio album '' I Worked on the Ships'' in August 2008. Gordon McIntyre has begun work on a side project, ++Money Can't Buy Music. From their early releases, the band were popular with the DJ

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

, and had several tracks featured in the

Festive Fifty The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's 50 (though the exact figure varied above and below this number) best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. It was usually do ...

charts. They recorded several sessions for his

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

show, including a Christmas special live from Peel Acres, where McIntyre recorded a duet with American country singer

Laura Cantrell Laura Rose Cantrell (born July 16, 1967) is a country singer-songwriter and DJ from Nashville, Tennessee. Biography Cantrell moved to New York City from her native Nashville to study English at Columbia University. She briefly recorded songs w ...

. In Autumn 2008 McIntyre composed the soundtrack for the Traverse Theatre Company production of ''Midsummer play with songs' by David Greig. ''Midsummer'' performed at the

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded as The Traverse Theatre Club in 1962 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes, Richard Demarco, Terry Lane, Andrew Muir, John Martin and Sheila Colvin. The Traverse Th ...

, Edinburgh, from 24 October to 15 November 2008.

Discography

Studio albums

* '' A Guide for the Daylight Hours'' (2002) * '' The Sash My Father Wore and Other Stories'' (2003) * '' The Royal Theatre'' (2004) * '' I Worked on the Ships'' (2008)
''Merry Christmas to the Drunks, Merry Christmas to the Lovers''
(mini-album, 2013)

Compilation albums

* '' Club Anthems'' (2001
vinyl reissue
2023)

Singles / EPs

* "Silver Suits for Astronauts" (1999) * "I Hate Scotland" (2000) * "Girls Are Better Than Boys" (2001) * "All the Records on the Radio are Shite" (2002) * "Where Do the Nights of Sleep Go to When They do not Come To Me" (2002) * "A Europewide Search for Love" (2003) * "Past Lovers" / "I Lost You But I Found Country Music" (2004) * "I Died for Love" (2005)

Contributions

* "Shallow Footprints in the Snow" -

Avalanche Records Alternative Christmas ''Avalanche Records Alternative Christmas'' is a Christmas album, in CD-R format, made up of contributions from Scottish bands and musicians. Released by Avalanche Records in Edinburgh, it raised money for charities Street Invest and the Royal Ho ...

(2009)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballboy Scottish indie rock groups Scottish post-punk music groups Rock music groups from Edinburgh