Royal Blood (band)

Royal Blood

Royal Blood at SXSW 2014
Background information
Origin Brighton, England
Genres
Years active 2013–present
Labels Warner Bros.
Black Mammoth[7]
Website RoyalBloodBand.com
Members Mike Kerr
Ben Thatcher

Royal Blood are an English rock duo formed in Brighton in 2013. The band's sound is reminiscent of and rooted in modern blues rock, hard rock, garage rock and psychedelic rock. Their first album Royal Blood was released in August 2014.

Background

Royal Blood is bass guitarist/singer Mike Kerr, born 19 June 1989, and drummer Ben Thatcher, born 12 February 1988. The pair are from West Sussex: Kerr grew up in Worthing, while Thatcher is from Rustington.[8] They first met around 2005 when they were teenagers, and for a brief period they were part of the same four-piece band called Flavour Country in which Kerr played keyboards and the keytar.[9]

Royal Blood formed at the beginning of 2013 after Kerr's return to England from a sabbatical in Australia.[10][11] Kerr had previously used the name Royal Blood whilst in Australia, working with a drummer called Matt Swan.[12] When Kerr returned to England, Thatcher picked him up from airport and the two decided to form a band.[9][13] Initially Royal Blood "couldn’t get a gig in Worthing for months", and according to Kerr "we ended up just playing a lot of open-mic nights with acoustic singer-songwriters."[9] The band developed their music in the studios of Brighton Electric, and it was during these months that they were signed by Warner/Chappell Music.[8] The band joined the same management company as the band Arctic Monkeys.[8] During the summer of 2013, Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders was seen wearing a shirt supporting Royal Blood (before the release of their first single) during Arctic Monkeys Glastonbury Festival concert in July 2013.[14]

Music career

2013–present

On 11 November 2013, Royal Blood released their debut single, "Out of the Black",[7] which came with a B-side called "Come On Over".[15] In November 2013, it was announced that Royal Blood would be supporting Arctic Monkeys for two Finsbury Park shows in May 2014.[16] In December 2013 Royal Blood were nominated for BBC Sound of 2014.[17]

Royal Blood released their second single, "Little Monster", on 11 February 2014. The band also released a four-track EP, featuring "Out of the Black", "Little Monster", "Come On Over" and "Hole" on 11 March 2014 in North America.[18] Their debut album, Royal Blood, was released on 25 August 2014 to commercial success & was well received by critics.[19] Royal Blood was verified by the Official Charts Company as the fastest-selling British rock debut album in three years in the UK.[20]

Royal Blood performed at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas in March 2014;[21] at Liverpool Sound City festival and at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Glasgow in May;[22] and at Download Festival and Glastonbury Festival in June.[23] They performed at T in the Park festival in July, and at Reading Festival, but got cut short at their Leeds Festival show, as well as Osheaga in August 2014.[24]

In 2013, when asked by an Australian radio station Triple M Sydney 104.9 who his main influence was, Mike Kerr answered "Steven Hamblin from the rock band Graces Collide; he's so good it hurts."

On 22 August 2014, Royal Blood released their eponymous debut studio album, it was released by Warner Bros, with cover artwork by Dan Hillier, a London-based contemporary artist, the album won 'Best Art Vinyl' award 2014.

A video clip for "Out of the Black" entered rotation as part of cable network AXN Japan's "AXN Tunes" program in October 2014; music videos aired on-the-hour as filler in between regularly scheduled, syndicated programming.[25]

In October 2014, Royal Blood announced details of their biggest European tour to date,[26] starting in Germany on 10 January, and ending in Sweden on 23 March.

On 10 November 2014, Howard Stern said on his radio show that he was a fan of the band. He had watched them on a MTV Awards Show and was impressed at the sound coming from only a two-piece band.

Also in November 2014, Led Zeppelin's guitarist, Jimmy Page said "I went to hear them in New York. They were fantastic. Absolutely riveting, they're such fine musicians. Their album has taken the genre up a serious few notches. It's so refreshing to hear, because they play with the spirit of the things that have preceded them, but you can hear they're going to take rock into a new realm – if they're not already doing that. It's music of tremendous quality."

The band, along with Iggy Pop, are due to support Foo Fighters on select dates during their 2015 UK,USA & Canada tours.

Ben Thatcher has said that Royal Blood will be writing their next album during their tour with Foo Fighters.

In February 2015 at the BRIT Awards in London, the band won the Best British Group Award presented to them by Jimmy Page.

In April 2015, they played the Coachella Festival in California and in June 2015 they played the Bunbury Music Festival in Cincinnati.

They opened for the Foo Fighters at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey on 6 and 13 July 2015, Plains of Abraham in Quebec City, Canada on 11 July, Citi Field in Queens, New York on 15 & 16 July, Fenway Park in Boston on 19 July, Fiddler's Green in Denver on 17 August, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St. Louis on 19 August, Sprint Center in Kansas City on 21 August, Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota on 22 August and DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan on 24 August.

On 29 and 30 August 2015, Royal Blood played the main stage at Reading and Leeds 2015. During both of these performances, the band had revealed a new song, titled "Hook, Line & Sinker".

In October 2015, the band had finished touring for their debut album. In an interview with the band, released in the same month, Mike Kerr had said that when they finish touring, they will have some time off and then start work on the second album.

On 16 October 2015, a video was uploaded to the band's official Instagram account showing the band in the studio. The video showed Mike Kerr playing the Robbie Williams track 'Let Me Entertain You' on piano, with Ben Thatcher recording the video and singing. The video was captioned "Day 1. Robbie Williams #royalblooddocovers". They then continued these short covers on Instagram, covering songs from Vanessa Carlton, Gloria Gaynor, Spandau Ballet, Elton John, Coldplay and Michael Jackson.

On 29 March 2016, the band released a new track, "Where Are You Now?". Inspired by HBO's Vinyl, the track will be featured in future episodes of that series.[27]

Members

Discography

Studio albums

Title Album details Peak chart positions Certifications
UK
[28]		 AUS
[29]		 CAN
[30]		 DEN
[31]		 FRA
[32]		 GER
[33]		 IRL
[34]		 NLD
[35]		 NZ
[36]		 SWI
[37]		 US
[38]
Royal Blood 1 3 9 18 48 40 1 13 6 6 17
"—" denotes a release that did not chart.

EPs

Title EP details
Out of the Black
  • Released: 11 March 2014
  • Label: Warner Bros.
  • Format: Digital download

Singles

Title Year Peak chart positions Album
UK
[41]		 UK
Rock		 US
Rock

[42]

 US
Alt.

[43]

 US
Main.

[44]

 CAN
Rock

[42]

"Out of the Black" 2013 78 1[45] 47 31 2 35 Royal Blood
"Little Monster" 2014 74 1[46] 33 18 1 4
"Come On Over" 68 — — — — —
"Figure It Out" 43 — 18 10 3 1
"Ten Tonne Skeleton"[47] — — — — — 45
"—" denotes a single that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

B-sides

Awards and nominations

Year Organisation Award Result
2014 BBC Sound of...2014 Nominated
Mercury Prize Album of the Year Nominated
2015 NME Awards Best Live Band Won
NME Awards Best New Band Won
2015 Brit Awards Best British Group Won
Kerrang! Awards Best British Newcomer Won
MTV Europe Music Awards Best Rock Nominated
MTV Europe Music Awards Best Push Act Nominated
Q Awards Best Live Act Won
Classic Rock Magazine Awards Album of the Year Nominated
GMA Awards
Global Metal Apocalypse		 Breakthrough Non-Metal band/artist Won

References

  1. ↑ Hann, Michael (25 February 2015). "Royal Blood win best British group at BRIT awards 2015". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Kerr, Scott. "Royal Blood – Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Zuel, Bernard (28 February 2015). "When two and the blues is more than enough for Royal Blood". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  4. ↑ Houle, Zachary (23 September 2014). "Royal Blood: Royal Blood". PopMatters. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  5. ↑ Martin, Daniel. "Royal Blood - In the Belly of the Beast". Junkee Media.
  6. ↑ "Royal Blood Relentless at Coachella". Gretsch.
  7. 1 2 "Royal Blood Share 'Out Of The Black' Track". This Is Fake DIY. 23 September 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 "Royal Blood: Everything You Need To Know About The Brighton Duo". NME. September 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 "Royal Blood interview". The Telegraph. 20 February 2015.
  10. ↑ "Royal Blood start a band after living on the Gold Coast...". Triple J. 24 March 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  11. ↑ "Royal Blood Interview". Triple J. 24 March 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  12. ↑ "Royal Blood at Oh Hello!". Brisbanemusicandculture.wordpress.com. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  13. ↑ "Brighton's Royal Blood shortlisted for BBC's Sound of 2014". The Argus. 2 December 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  14. ↑ "Royal Blood – Figure It Out". Mojo. 5 July 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  15. ↑ "Royal Blood (New band of the day)". The Guardian. 2 December 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  16. ↑ "XFM's Great X-Pectations #1: Royal Blood". XFM. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  17. ↑ "BBC Sound of 2014 longlist revealed". BBC News. 2 December 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  18. ↑ "iTunes Store". itunes.apple.com. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  19. ↑ "Royal Blood reveal debut album details with studio video". NME. 2014-06-23. Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  20. ↑ Moss, Liv. "Royal Blood score fastest-selling rock debut in three years". OfficialCharts.com. Official Charts Company. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  21. ↑ "UK duo Royal Blood heard above the noise at SXSW". thestar.com. 15 March 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  22. ↑ "Liverpool Sound City 2015". Liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  23. ↑ "BBC - Glastonbury 2014 - Line up". thestar.com. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  24. ↑ "Arctic Monkeys to headline". Reading Festival 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  25. ↑ AXN Japan; Sony Pictures Entertainment |Royal Blood "Out of the Black" |Warner Music Japan |"AXN TUNES" video clip rotation, 9 October 2014~
  26. ↑ "Royal Blood announce a major 2015 European tour". Fit4Talent. 17 October 2014.
  27. ↑ "Royal Blood's New Track Has The Makings Of A Modern Rock Hit". Howl & Echoes. 1 April 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  28. ↑ "Royal Blood" (select "Albums" tab). Official Charts Company. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  29. ↑ "Discography Royal Blood". australian-charts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  30. ↑ "Royal Blood – Chart History: Canadian Albums". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media.
  31. ↑ "Discography Royal Blood". danishcharts.com. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  32. ↑ "Discography Royal Blood". Lescharts.com. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  33. ↑ "Discography Royal Blood". danishcharts.com. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  34. ↑ "Discography Royal Blood". irish-charts.com. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  35. ↑ "Discografie Royal Blood" (in Dutch). dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  36. ↑ Hung, Steffen. "Discography Royal Blood". New Zealand Charts Portal. Hung Medien (Steffen Hung).
  37. ↑ Hung, Steffen. "Discographie Royal Blood". Swiss Charts Portal. Hung Medien (Steffen Hung).
  38. ↑ "Royal Blood Album & Song Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  39. ↑ "BPI Certified Awards > Search". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 2014-09-01.
  40. ↑ "Canadian digital download certifications – Royal Blood – Royal Blood". Music Canada. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  41. ↑ "Royal Blood" (select "Singles" tab). Official Charts Company. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  42. 1 2 "Chart Search - Billboard". Billboard.com. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  43. ↑ "Royal Blood". Billboard.com. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  44. ↑ "Royal Blood". Billboard.com. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  45. ↑ "Top 40 Rock & Metal Singles Archive, Week ending 19th July 2014". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  46. ↑ "Top 40 Rock & Metal Singles Archive, Week ending 22nd February 2014". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  47. ↑ "Royal Blood (6) - Ten Tonne Skeleton (Vinyl) at Discogs".
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