Blossoms are an English
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
band from
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...
, Greater Manchester, England. Formed in 2013, the band consists of Tom Ogden (lead vocals, guitar), Charlie Salt (bass guitar, backing vocals), Josh Dewhurst (lead guitar, percussion), Joe Donovan (drums) and Myles Kellock (keyboards, synthesizer, backing vocals).
They were on the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
's
Sound Of
Sound of... is an annual BBC poll of music critics and industry figures to find the most promising new music talent. It was first conducted by the BBC News website in 2003, and is now widely covered by the corporation's online, radio and TV out ...
new music list for 2016, finishing in fourth place. Blossoms' self-titled debut album was one of the twelve LPs nominated for the
Mercury Music Prize
The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...
in 2017. That same year, they were nominated for
British Breakthrough Act at the
Brit Awards.
Career
Pre-Blossoms and formation
Unknowingly at the time, all members lived within two miles of each other whilst growing up. They went to the same secondary school, though not at the same time. Two of them met at school and the others through work. Their first gig was in April 2013 at
The Night and Day Café
The Night & Day Café is a café bar and live music venue in Manchester, England.
Location
It is located in the city's Northern Quarter on Oldham Street, opposite Piccadilly Records. It is near the Afflecks palace shopping arcade and a fe ...
on
Oldham Street, Manchester.
Early work
Upon Salt joining the band, they gained a rehearsal space, his grandfather's scaffolding yard, which they could use without paying for the time. The yard is depicted on the cover of their debut album. The band take their name from The Blossoms public house at the corner of Bramhall Lane and Buxton Road in Stockport. Donovan heard both Ogden and Salt mention how apt Blossoms was as a band name on separate occasions, leading to the naming of the band as Blossoms. They have since played shows at The Blossoms.
In January 2014, the band released their first single, "You Pulled a Gun on Me", and on 14 January 2014 they released a video for the song. The video was self-produced with a small budget of £60. "You Pulled a Gun on Me" was recorded at Eve Studios in Stockport. In Spring 2014, Blossoms were signed to Skeleton Key Records (owned by James Skelly of
The Coral
The Coral are an English rock band, formed in 1996 in Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside. The band emerged during the early 2000s. Their 2002 debut album ''The Coral (album), The Coral'', from which came the single "Dreaming of You (T ...
). From March through to August 2014, Blossoms embarked upon their first UK tour to promote the Bloom EP though they only played weekend shows due to all members of the band still holding full-time jobs, other than Dewhurst who was only 16 and still in full-time education. They got their first write up on the Louder Than War music website, played their first festival (
Tramlines
The Tramlines Festival is an annual music festival held in Sheffield, UK. The festival was originally free to attend, but now requires tickets. The line-up consists of national and local artists. The festival was curated and organised by a pan ...
in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
at
Yellow Arch Studios) and opened for
James
James may refer to:
People
* James (given name)
* James (surname)
* James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician
* James, brother of Jesus
* King James (disambiguation), various kings named James
* Prince Ja ...
at Castlefield Bowl to 8,000 people, on 11 July 2014, which they described as a turning point in the band's future. Skelly produced their first official single "Blow", released 26 August 2014, the video being shot at the scaffolding yard still being used as a rehearsal space.
In autumn 2014, Blossoms quit their jobs to fully pursue the band. They subsequently went on to do another full UK tour, this time selling out the Manchester date, hosted by Sound Control, a venue made famous by The Stone Roses and New Order. They also sold out a show at the Deaf Institute, Manchester, on 1 November 2014. Over the winter, Blossoms went back into Parr Street Studios with James Skelly to record "Cut Me and I'll Bleed", for which they announced an extensive UK tour between 31 January and 28 March 2015.
Due to them having a contact in the business, the singer Liam Fray, this promoted them to tour with
The Charlatans and
The Courteeners
Courteeners are an English band formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, Middleton, Greater Manchester, in 2006 by Liam Fray (lead guitar/vocals), Michael Campbell (drums/backing vocals), Daniel "Conan" Moores (rhythm guitar) and Mark Cuppello ...
in March 2015. On 18 March 2015, Blossoms were invited by
BBC Introducing
BBC Music Introducing is BBC Radio's platform supporting unsigned, undiscovered, and under-the-radar UK music talent. The backbone of that network consists of 32 BBC local radio shows on stations across England and the Channel Islands, various ...
to play a set for the Official
SXSW
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...
Showcase at Latitude 30 in
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
. Blossoms recorded and released the Blown Rose EP between June and July, the video once again shot at the scaffolding yard, released on 31 July along with the EP itself. This was the first EP released as part of Blossoms' new record deal with Virgin EMI though they only announced the new contract on 18 August 2015. The band still work with James Skelly as their producer.
They went on to play a summer of festivals such as The Great Escape,
Y Not
''Y Not'' is the sixteenth studio album by English singer-songwriter Ringo Starr, released on 12 January 2010 on the UMe and Hip-O Records labels. the album features several guest musicians, including Paul McCartney, who sang backing vocals o ...
and
Reading and Leeds whilst also supporting the Courteeners for their
Heaton Park
Heaton Park is a public park in Prestwich, Manchester, England, covering an area of over . The park includes the grounds of a Grade I listed, neoclassical 18th century country house, Heaton Hall. The hall, remodelled by James Wyatt in 1772, i ...
show. Blossoms headlined their first festival stage on 5 September 2015 at Tim Peak's Diner as part of
Festival No. 6.
This was released as a 10" vinyl disc for Record Store Day 2017.
''Blossoms''
Recording for the debut album began in September 2015. On 4 October 2015, Blossoms announced that their next single would be "
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
". It was released on iTunes and Spotify on 5 October 2015. On 30 October 2015, the ''Charlemagne'' EP was released featuring three other songs ("Across the Moor", "For Evelyn" and "Polka Dot Bones"). "Charlemagne" went on to commercial success and became BBC Radio 1's track of the day and featured on Spotify's 'Spotlight on 2016' list. The commercial success extended through to December, when ''Charlemagne'' topped the Christmas vinyl chart.
On 5 January 2016, Blossoms announced their ''At Most a Kiss'' EP and released the song, with the video following. Whilst doing promotion for the EP Blossoms played the Radio 1 Live Lounge, covering
WSTRN
WSTRN (a disemvoweling of the word Western, which is also pronounced) are a British hip hop/ R&B group from West London consisting of Akelle Charles, Haile (born Ras Haile Alexander), and Louis Rei (born Louis-Rae Beadle). Their debut single, " ...
's "
In2". They announced on 22 January 2016 that recording for their debut album was complete. Whilst on their third headline tour Blossoms had support from
Viola Beach, who were killed mid-tour in a car crash with their manager on 13 February 2016. Blossoms played a recorded set from a
Royal Leamington Spa
Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply LeamingtonEven more colloquially, also referred to as Lem or Leam (). (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Pri ...
performance for the remaining tour dates in the slot Viola Beach would have otherwise played in.
The ''At Most a Kiss'' EP was released on 23 February 2016. They were nominated for Best Breakthrough Act at the
37th Brit Awards but lost to
Rag'n'Bone Man
Rory Charles Graham (born 29 January 1985), known professionally as Rag'n'Bone Man, is an English singer. He is known for his deep baritone voice. His first hit single, "Human", was released in 2016, and his first album ''Human'' was released ...
. On 12 April 2016,
Annie Mac
Annie Macmanus (born 18 July 1978), known professionally as Annie Mac, is an Irish DJ, broadcaster and writer. She hosted a variety of shows on BBC Radio 1, including BBC Switch and ''Future Sounds''. She also DJed in various locations, includ ...
played their song "Getaway" for the first time on BBC Radio 1 before a midnight release of the single on iTunes and Spotify. In May it was announced that Blossoms would play their biggest show to date and support the Stone Roses at
Etihad Stadium
The City of Manchester Stadium, currently known as Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, and commonly shortened as The Etihad, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City, with a domestic football capacity of 53,600, making it the 7t ...
on 15 June 2016, after Ian Brown became a fan of the band. Once again Blossoms are playing a summer of festivals, being clocked up to 41 festivals by Dewhurst. Blossoms'
eponymous debut album was released on 5 August with "My Favourite Room" and "Honey Sweet" being released to pre-orders early as singles. It was met with mostly favourable reviews and peaked at the top of the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
in its first week, giving Blossoms their first number-one album.
Blossoms featured on the August cover of ''NME'' magazine. An autumn tour to support the album release also sold out including a performance at Stockport's Plaza Theatre at midnight on the day of the album's release.
On 9 September 2017, Blossoms performed at
Manchester Arena
Manchester Arena (currently known as AO Arena for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the Manchester city centre, city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights space. Pr ...
as part of We Are Manchester, an event to mark reopening of the venue following a terrorist attack there three months prior.
''Cool Like You''
''Cool Like You'' was their second studio album. It was released in the United Kingdom on 27 April 2018, by
Virgin EMI Records
Virgin EMI Records was a British record label owned by the Universal Music Group that was formed in 2013. In June 2020, the label was rebranded as EMI Records, and operates Virgin Records as an imprint of the new EMI Records.
History
Virgin ...
. The album was produced by
James Skelly
James Alexander Skelly (born 16 August 1980) is an English musician who is the frontman of The Coral. He embarked on a solo career when the band went on indefinite hiatus in 2012. The band regrouped in 2015. Skelly is the cousin of fellow music ...
and Rich Turvey. It peaked at number 4 on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
,
and at number 1 on the
Official Vinyl Albums Chart
The Official Vinyl Albums Chart is a weekly record chart in the United Kingdom. It is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the music industry. It lists the top 40 most popular albums in the vinyl format each week. The chart, a ...
. Subsequently, after this, the band followed up the album's release with a UK tour which was completely sold out, including a night at the O2 Apollo in Manchester and three shows at Stockport Plaza. After playing some festivals in the summer, Blossoms announced another UK tour for December, including two nights at Manchester's
O2 Victoria Warehouse
The O2 Victoria Warehouse is a live music venue in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The venue is made up of two storage warehouses used during the early to mid-20th century. It was redeveloped as a music venue in 2 ...
and the
O2 Brixton Academy
Brixton Academy (originally known as the Astoria Variety Cinema, previously known as Carling Academy Brixton, currently named O2 Academy Brixton as part of a sponsorship deal with the O2 brand) is a mid-sized concert venue located in South Lon ...
in London. The entire tour sold out within minutes on the day tickets went on sale.
In June 2019 Blossoms played a homecoming show at
Edgeley Park
Edgeley Park is a association football, football stadium in Edgeley, Stockport, England. Built for Stockport RFC, a rugby league club, in 1891, by 1903 the rugby club was defunct and Stockport County F.C., Stockport County Football Club moved i ...
Stadium, selling out every ticket in under an hour.
''Foolish Loving Spaces''
The band released their third album, ''
Foolish Loving Spaces
''Foolish Loving Spaces'' is the third studio album by English indie pop band Blossoms. It was released on 31 January 2020 by Virgin EMI Records, and again produced by James Skelly and Rich Turvey. The album was supported by the singles " Your ...
'', on 31 January 2020. Preceded by the singles "
Your Girlfriend", "The Keeper" and "If You Think This Is Real Life", it went to number 1 on the UK album charts.
In November 2020, they premiered a 90-minute long
documentary
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
entitled "Blossoms: Back to Stockport" on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
and
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime (styled as prime) is a paid subscription service of Amazon which is available in many countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services inclu ...
.
In April 2021 they made national headlines when they were announced as headlining a one-day "trial"
festival
A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...
at
Sefton Park
Sefton Park is a public park in south Liverpool, England. The park is in a conservation district of the same name, It is the largest public park in Liverpool and the Liverpool City Region. Suburbs neighbouring the park include Toxteth, Aigb ...
on 2 May that year. The festival was notable as the first major festival in the UK for 14 months with no
social distancing
In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...
or face masks, following the
worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2021, they teamed up with
Rick Astley
Richard Paul Astley (born 6 February 1966) is an English singer, radio DJ and podcaster. He gained fame through his association with the production trio Stock Aitken Waterman, releasing the 1987 album ''Whenever You Need Somebody'', which sol ...
, performing covers of
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...
songs. The band announced further performances with Astley on 8 and 9 October 2021 and went on to play with him at the
2023 Glastonbury Festival.
''Ribbon Around The Bomb''
The band released their fourth album, ''
Ribbon Around The Bomb'', on 29 April 2022. It reached number 1 on the UK album charts, their third time achieving this.
''Gary''
The band's fifth album, ''
Gary'', was released on 20 September 2024 and was No 1 on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
a week later. Produced by J Lloyd and
James Skelly
James Alexander Skelly (born 16 August 1980) is an English musician who is the frontman of The Coral. He embarked on a solo career when the band went on indefinite hiatus in 2012. The band regrouped in 2015. Skelly is the cousin of fellow music ...
, the album is named after an
fibreglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...
gorilla that was stolen from a
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...
garden centre in early 2023.
Members
* Tom Ogden – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, harmonica
* Charlie Salt – bass, guitar, backing vocals
* Josh Dewhurst – lead guitar, percussion
* Joe Donovan – drums
* Myles Kellock – keyboards, synthesizer, piano, backing vocals
Discography
* ''
Blossoms
In botany, blossoms are the flowers of stone fruit trees (genus ''Prunus'') and of some other plants with a similar appearance that flower profusely for a period of time in spring.
Colloquially, flowers of orange are referred to as such as we ...
'' (2016)
* ''
Cool Like You'' (2018)
* ''
Foolish Loving Spaces
''Foolish Loving Spaces'' is the third studio album by English indie pop band Blossoms. It was released on 31 January 2020 by Virgin EMI Records, and again produced by James Skelly and Rich Turvey. The album was supported by the singles " Your ...
'' (2020)
* ''
Ribbon Around the Bomb'' (2022)
* ''
Gary'' (2024)
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
2013 establishments in the United Kingdom
English indie pop groups
English musical quintets
English indie rock groups
Music in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
Rock music groups from Greater Manchester
Musical groups established in 2013