The Futureheads | |
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 The Futureheads perform at the 2005Glastonbury Festival | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Sunderland, England |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 2000–2013, 2019–present |
| Labels | |
| Members |
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| Past members | Peter Brewis
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| Website | Official website |
The Futureheads are an Englishpost-punk band fromSunderland, formed in 2000.[1] The band consists ofRoss Millard (vocals and guitar), David "Jaff" Craig (vocals and bass guitar) and brothers Barry Hyde (vocals and guitar) and Dave Hyde (drums). Their name comes from the title ofthe Flaming Lips albumHit to Death in the Future Head.[2] The band's influences includenew wave andpost-punk bands such asGang of Four,Devo,XTC,Wire andFugazi.[2][3]
The band met atCity of Sunderland College as a quartet consisting of Barry Hyde (vocals and guitar), David "Jaff" Craig (vocals and bass guitar), Peter Brewis (drums), andRoss Millard (vocals and guitar). Millard and Craig had been in another local band together previously. They used the Sunderland City Detached Youth Project building (where Brewis and Hyde worked) as a free practice space, fitting since the project was intended to get young people off the streets by using music. They first performed in 2000, and through word-of-mouth their reputation in the local area grew. Hyde's younger brother Dave replaced Brewis (who went on to formField Music).[1]
In an interview withChannel 4's4Music, Barry Hyde revealed that Dave Hyde was given a golden guitar by his parents when he was young. But Barry had taken it off him to learn to strum his firstchords. Dave was left with nothing, forcing him to take up the drums.[4]
The Futureheads played their first gig at Ashbrooke Cricket and Rugby Club in December 2000. They debuted with their 2002Nul Book Standard and 20031-2-3-Nul! EPs, and later that year released their first single, "First Day", on 4 August.[1] "First Day" peaked at No. 58 on theUK Singles Chart in August 2003.[5]
The Futureheads released theirself-titled debut album in September 2004 on679 Recordings.[6] Five of the tracks were produced byAndy Gill ofGang of Four.[7] The rest of the album was produced byPaul Epworth.[6] The song "Decent Days and Nights" from the album was featured in the video game soundtrack toBurnout 3 onPlayStation 2 andXbox[8] as well as EA'sRugby 2005.[9]
On 21 February 2005, "Hounds of Love", a cover of theKate Bush song, was released as a single.[10] It reached number eight on theUK Singles Chart in its first week,[5] and was namedSingle of the Year byNME.[11] The band toured the United States withFranz Ferdinand and later supported thePixies,Foo Fighters andSnow Patrol.[12]
They performed atBBC Radio One'sOne Big Weekend, held in their home town ofSunderland over the weekend of 7–8 May 2005. On 8 May 2005,Sunderland A.F.C. picked up theChampionship trophy. In tribute, the Futureheads performed a set live at theStadium of Light as pre-match entertainment.[13]
The stand-alone EP,Area was released in November 2005 while the band was working on their second albumNews and Tributes (name inspired by theMunich air disaster in 1958), which, according toNME in February 2006, took only five weeks to produce. The first single from the album was "Skip to the End" released on 15 May. The albumNews and Tributes was first released on 29 May 2006.[14]
The band became disillusioned with major label music business and being under contract, and were released by 679 Recordings. Hyde said: "we were desperate to get out of the record deal, they could easily have kept us and made us try and make more records but we didn't want that'.[citation needed]
Throughout the rest of 2006, The Futureheads started their own independent record label,Nul Records, and started working on songs for their next album.[15]
In June 2007, they reportedly completed work on their third album,This Is Not the World, which was released in May 2008. Millard said that he expected the new album to be punkier than the last album. He also revealed that the band was close to splitting during the time after the second album was released.
The band made a freedownload called "Broke Up the Time" available from their website on 9 November 2007. They also announced three gigs in the UK followed by a full UK tour and set up their own label, Nul Records exclusively to distribute Futureheads material. In December 2007, the band released a video of them walking aroundCarnaby Street, London to the single "The Beginning of the Twist". It was also accompanied by a free download of a song called "Crash".
The second single from their album, "Radio Heart" was released on 19 May 2008[16] from their albumThis Is Not The World followed by the release of the music video for the single on 16 April. A third single from the album, "Walking Backwards", was released on 4 August 2008.[17]
The single "I Wouldn't Be Like This If You Were Here" was released on 8 December 2008.[18] In 2009, the band played at the biggest open-air festival in Europe –Przystanek Woodstock[19] in Poland. In November 2009, the band allowed fans to download a new free track, "Struck Dumb", for a period of two weeks. The band released their fourth album entitledThe Chaos, on 26 April 2010 in the UK.The Chaos was released in the US on 1 June 2010 onDovecote Records.
In 2011, the Futureheads performed in an event organised by theSunderland A.F.C. foundation calledFoundation of Light.[20]
The Futureheads released their fifth full-length album,Rant, on 2 April 2012. In a change from their usual style, this album is entirelya cappella.[21] The album contains re-recordings of Futureheads songs, their own renditions of severaltraditional folk songs plus several covers of pop and dance songs.Rant was nominated for theArtrocker Album of the Year award in 2012.[22]
In a 2015 interview onBBC Radio 6 Music, Dave Hyde said that the Futureheads are no longer a working band, with both his brother Barry and Jaff teaching; Barry Hyde was also working on a "piano-based" solo album.[23] However, the band got together to record ahealth awareness video using their song "Heartbeat Song" forBUPA which was released in April 2016.
In January 2019, the band announced on social media they had reformed,[24][25] had written and recorded new material during 2018, and their first tour dates since 2013.[26] On 5 June, they released "Jekyll", the lead single from their first album in seven years,Powers, which was later released on 30 August.[27]
Ross Millard is a member ofFrankie & the Heartstrings, contributing to their third albumDecency in 2015. Dave Hyde is one-half of the duo Hyde & Beast with Neil Bassett, formerly ofthe Golden Virgins. Jaff occasionally performs withSchool of Language.
In June 2016, Barry Hyde released his debut solo album,Malody, on Sirenspire Records. The previous year he releasedIvory Cutlery online - an EP containingIvor Cutler covers. The debut album was recorded at First Avenue Studios inHeaton, Newcastle with Dave Curle in late 2014 and early 2015.Malody (a cross between the words "melody" and "malady") features 11 songs, including two cover versions: "Sometimes It Snows in April" byPrince and "Lonely" byTom Waits. The album, especially in the first five tracks (under-titled "The Malody Suite"), chronicles Hyde's personal experiences with chronic mental illness, a subject which he has spoken openly about in interviews and performances.[28][29][30]
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