Scouting for Girls

This article is about the band. For the general topic, see Girlguiding.
Scouting for Girls

Playing the "Other Stage" at Glastonbury Festival in June 2008
Background information
Origin London
Genres Indie pop, pop rock, piano rock
Years active 2005–present
Labels East West / Epic Records
Website www.scoutingforgirls.com
Members Roy Stride
Greg Churchouse
Pete Ellard

Scouting for Girls are an English pop rock band. Their name is a play on the title of the 1908 Scouting handbook Scouting for Boys. The band consists of childhood friends from London, Roy Stride on piano and lead guitar/vocals, Greg Churchouse on bass guitar and Peter Ellard on percussion. Having formed in 2005, they signed to Epic Records in 2007. They released their self-titled debut album that September and it reached number one on the UK Album Chart and went triple Platinum in terms of total sales.

A second album Everybody Wants to Be on TV was released in April 2010 and peaked at number two in the charts. This was preceded by the single "This Ain't a Love Song", which went to number one on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks. To date, Scouting for Girls have sold over 2 million records and have been nominated for four Brit Awards and one Ivor Novello Award. In September 2012, they released their third studio album, The Light Between Us, which debuted at number 10 on the UK charts. Their fourth album Greatest Hits was released in July 2013, and reached number eight on the UK charts.

History

Formation

The founding members had known each other since childhood. Stride and Ellard met in the Cub Scouts and Churchouse met Stride on their first day at school at Queensmead School in South Ruislip in west London. They attended the school until year 13 then moved on towards a music career. At the age of 15 Roy and Greg were playing together at small gigs in west London.

It has been noted that the band was looking for a spirited way of removing themselves from the drudgery of their everyday lives, looking to the whimsy of childhood fantasy through playing a moog organ. Churchouse has observed on several occasions that playing bass is something he wanted to pursue as the bass has "two less strings".

Unsigned and early music: pre-2007

Whilst in University Stride and Churchouse were in a band called Cape. With Stride swapping from guitar to piano, Scouting for Girls began to do concerts in a room above a pub in Harrow. By the time they were signed they had built up a fanbase - on MySpace and Pulse Rated, a website for unsigned bands. They had also already written a demo of "Heartbeat" and produced a video for "The Aeroplane Song".

Debut album and early singles: 2007-2008

At the beginning of 2007 Epic Records A&R Nick Raphael received the band's demo CD. So enthusiastic was his response that he immediately phoned up colleague Jo Charrington and said: "These are hits, let's go see the band in rehearsals!" According to Charrington every other record label had passed on them.[1]

On 14 February 2007, Scouting for Girls were signed to Epic UK (a division of Sony BMG).[2] As the band were signed almost fully formed, with all their songs already written, they headed out to Helioscentric Studios in Rye, East Sussex to begin work on their debut album almost immediately.[1] Produced by Andy Green (Keane, KT Tunstall, The Feeling), the band's first release was the It's Not About You EP, released on 25 June 2007. It sold-out, and became the highest charting limited edition EP in chart history.[3] The album was released in September 2007, and has sold in excess of 900,000 copies in the UK alone. It spawned a host of hit singles; "She's So Lovely", "Heartbeat", and "Elvis Ain't Dead".

Scouting for Girls' self-titled album went to #1 in the UK on 20 January 2008, where it remained for two weeks.

The band toured the UK heavily throughout 2007 and 2008, upgrading and selling out venues in every city they performed. During their first tour of 2008, Roy Stride lost his voice en route to a gig in Birmingham and was diagnosed with laryngitis, forcing the band to reschedule a series of dates on the tour. The rescheduled dates included an extra night in London, with the band selling out a record four consecutive nights at the Shepherds Bush Empire. The band's final tour of the year concluded with two sold-out nights at London's Hammersmith Apollo, and one at London's Brixton Academy.

Scouting for Girls also made a series of appearances in Europe, Japan, Australia and America in 2008, including performances at 2008's SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas and CMJ in New York City.

Everybody Wants to Be on TV: 2009-2012

Scouting for Girls returned to Helioscentric Studios (East Sussex, UK) in 2009 to commence work on their second album with producer Andy Green (who produced the band's eponymous debut album). The album, Everybody Wants To Be On TV, was released in the UK on 12 April 2010. The first single to be taken from the record was "This Ain't a Love Song" which went straight to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart on 4 April 2010, giving the band 2010's Easter Number 1.[4] The track has been added to radio playlists in Australia, including Sydney Radio Station: Nova 969 FM as at May 2010.[5]

In the lead up to the album's release, Scouting for Girls performed in the Woolpack Pub on the set of long-running British soap, Emmerdale for a Radio Aire session.[6]

Scouting for Girls toured their new album throughout 2010, commencing with a full UK tour throughout late April and May 2010. The band also took part in a sponsored Chopper bicycle ride from London to Brighton for the charity WellChild raising over £20,000.[7]

The band released the second single, "Famous", from the album on 12 July 2010. The single peaked at number 37 on the UK Singles Chart, giving the band their sixth Top 40 single overall. In September 2010 the band confirmed "Don't Want To Leave You" would be released as the third single from the album on 10 October 2010. The single is under the name "Silly Song" on the album, but was changed so that it could be found more easily on the internet.

The fourth single from the album is "Take A Chance On Us" and is the official soundtrack of the Dutch movie Loft. It was released on 10 December.

On 10 July 2011, Scouting for Girls released new single, "Love How It Hurts", as a digital download.

The band have announced they are releasing a bonus track edition of Everybody Wants To Be On TV, featuring new tracks "Love How It Hurts", "Naked" and "Somebody New". The album will also feature bonus tracks "New Day", "Famous" – Pete Phantom Club Remix, "She's So Lovely", "Elvis Ain’t Dead" – Live, "Famous" - Cahill Club Remix. It was originally due for release 18 July 2011, however it was later postponed till later in the year but a new date still has not been announced.

The group performed a set at a musical festival in Hertfordshire named Cazfest on 7 July 2012. However, they were cut short stating on stage this was the fault of the local police. It was later stated by the organisers of Cazfest that it had been a "miscommunication" and thanked police for continued support of the charity event.

The Light Between Us: 2012

On 5 March 2012, Scouting for Girls announced via Twitter that they had begun the process of recording their third studio album, The Light Between Us, which includes the tracks 'Snakes and Ladders' and their new single "Summertime in the City". The album will also features the songs "Rains in LA" "Without you" "The Light Between Us" and "Snakes and ladders"

The first single from the album to be released was "Summertime In The City". It was released on 27 August 2012.[8] It had its first radio airplay on the Fearne Cotton show 10 July 2012, BBC Radio 1. The accompanying video is directed by Remy Cayuela. The single peaked at number 73 on the UK Official Chart.

The second single "Without You" from the album failed to enter the top 100.

The Light Between Us debuted at number 10 in the official 100 on 9 September 2012, one week after the release of "Summertime In The City".

Greatest Hits: 2013-2014

Due to the performance of The Light Between Us and its singles, the band pushed forward with their Greatest Hits album, releasing it on 29 July 2013 - less than one year after their previous effort.

To date Greatest Hits has outperformed The Light Between Us, peaking at number 8 in the UK album chart.

In addition to their Greatest Hits, the album also features new material. The song "Millionaire" was released on 22 July 2013 and peaked at 52 in the UK singles chart.

The release of an old but new song Every time you go was released on soundcloud as a free download for fans on 1 August 2014, and later in the year it was announced that they would be headlining the LeeStock Music Festival in 2015.

Still Thinking About You: 2015

On 20 August 2015, Scouting For Girls announced via Facebook that their fourth album would be titled Still Thinking About You and would be available to preorder the following day before an October 2015 release.

Awards

Scouting for Girls are yet to win any awards, but have been nominated on several occasions for:

The Wolfcubs fan club

Before the band were signed to Epic Records, they ran their own fanclub, The Wolfcub Club through their Myspace site. The name was a wordplay similar to the band's name, being based on the Dennis the Menace fan club.[2]

Members of the fanclub were called Wolfcubs, and received a welcome pack put together by the band which include a CD of recent demos, a membership card which allowed discounted entry to their gigs, a regular SFG newsletter (similar to the famous Scouting For Boys guide book), and badges. When the band signed their record deal, they carried on producing the membership packs for new fans on the road, until the demand became too high to deal with. However, the Wolfcubs still exist in reference to the band's fans.

Scouting for Girls used to regularly remark on the Wolfcubs as the "fourth member" of the band. As of 2010 current touring member Jamie O'Gorman is referred to as the fourth member and the Wolfcubs are now known as the fifth member of the band.

Charity work

Scouting for Girls are official ambassadors for the children's charity, Wellchild,[9] and also support the Help for Heroes charity. They fundraise for both charities.

Their most notable fundraiser to date was cycling from London to Brighton on children's chopper bikes for WellChild.[10]

Band members

Current members
Touring members
Session
Personnel

Discography

References

  1. 1 2 "Interview with Jo Charrington". HitQuarters. 29 Nov 2010. Retrieved 2 Dec 2010.
  2. 1 2 Dadds, Kimberley (15 September 2007). "Interviews – Scouting for Girls". Digital Spy. Retrieved 23 October 2007.
  3. ↑ Artist Profile – Scouting for Girls
  4. ↑ "Scouting for Girls score Easter Number One | News". Nme.Com. 4 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  5. ↑ "Sydney 96.9". NovaFM. Retrieved 2013-08-07.
  6. ↑ Published: 8:00AM GMT 13 Mar 2010 (13 March 2010). "Emmerdale's Woolpack pub gets a visit from Scouting for Girls". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  7. ↑ "Scouting For Girls raise over £20,000 for Wellchild on first ever London to Brighton bike ride on choppers". Scouting for Girls. scoutingforgirls.com. 31 August 2010. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
  8. ↑ "Scouting for Girls spill the beans on new single Summertime In The City". Official Charts Company.
  9. ↑ "Helping sick children and their families across the UK". WellChild. 18 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  10. ↑ Scouting For Girls - Charity Bike Ride 2010!
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