Blossoms – live at BBC 6 Music Festival, Bristol – Feb. 11, 2016 – BBC 6 Music –
An extended excerpt of a concert by Blossoms during the 2016 BBC 6 Music Festival in Bristol tonight. Blossoms are an English indie pop band from Stockport, Greater Manchester. Formed in 2013, the band consists of Tom Ogden (lead vocals, guitars), Charlie Salt (bass, backing vocals), Josh Dewhurst (lead guitars, percussion), Joe Donovan (drums) and Myles Kellock (keyboards, synthesizer, backing vocals).
They were on the BBC’s Sound Of new music list for 2016 where they finished in fourth place (and of course, this appearance in Bristol in February of that year). It was commented by the band and several other people that they were one of only two guitar bands on the list, alongside Rat Boy. Blossoms’ self-titled debut album was one of the twelve albums nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2017.
Recording thier debut album begin in September 2015. On 4 October Blossoms announced that their next single would be “Charlemagne” and released the song on iTunes and Spotify on 5 October. On 30 October 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 where Charlemagne topped the Christmas vinyl chart.
On 5 January 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’s “In2”. They announced on 22 January that recording for their debut album was complete. While 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. Blossoms played a recorded set from a Royal Leamington Spa performance for the remaining tour dates in the slot that Viola Beach would have otherwise played in.
The At Most a Kiss EP was released on 23 February. On 12 April Annie Mac 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 on 15 June 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 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 albums release.
Cool Like You was their second studio album. It was released in the United Kingdom on 27 April 2018, by Virgin EMI Records. The album was produced by James Skelly and Rich Turvey. It peaked at number 4 on the UK Albums Chart, and at number 1 on the Official Vinyl Albums Chart. 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 and the O2 Brixton Academy in London. The entire tour sold out within minutes on the day tickets went on sale.
Hit the play button and travel back to 2016, cranking it up while you’re doing it.
