Athlete

Athlete is an English band playing indie-rock that was formed in 1999 in a London suburb. The lineup of this ensemble is comprised by vocalist/guitarist Joel Pott, bassist/vocalist Carey Willets, keyboardist Tim Wanstall and drummer Steve Roberts. Friends since their school years, these lads shared the same musical interests, which eventually pushed them to make up their own band. Later, they began taking along themselves Johnny Pilcher who played the second guitar during the group’s live performances. Although the Athlete music is closest to the definition of indie-rock, one may easily discover the traces of electronic sound here. The young men would give their first gigs in the same place where they held their practices. It was a pub called The Bear. Having found the simplest and cheapest equipment, the members of Athlete used the same space to record their first demo tapes. After sending them out as widely as possible, they received a note from Regal Recordings whose management was interested in working with the young band. The contract was signed early in 2002 shortly before the release of the Athlete first single in February.

Athlete reached the masses in 2003 soon after the arrival of their debut long player Vehicles and Animals. The audience was especially happy with the songs You Got The Style, El Salvador, Beautiful, and Westside. The latter had already been featured as Rockscene on the earlier record, Athlete EP. All these compositions were spotted in the UK charts where they failed to fly high, yet managed to stay long. Moreover, El Salvador found many supporters across the Atlantic. This song appeared a long-time favorite of the American alternative and college radio stations. In the United States of America, many people know Athlete only as the makers of this song. In 2005, Athlete presented their second studio work, Tourist (2005). It took the new record a week to climb over the top of the UK Albums Charts while one of its tracks, the single Wires, occupied the fourth position in the UK Singles Charts.

Working according to the established procedure and schedule, the Athlete musicians prepared their third long playing record by the autumn of 2007. Called Beyond The Neighbourhood, it reached the fifth place in the UK Albums Charts. After that, the band stepped into a period of hardships. Due to financial difficulties, the musicians parted their ways with their label. Besides, Steve was not able to go with the rest of the members to the United States to play a planned five-week tour. As a result, Athlete performed live in front of five thousand without their drummer. These negative aspects did not keep the band from the timely start of the subsequent album’s making. An interesting point is that the producer of the new record was the celebrated Tom Rothrock who cooperated with the musicians mainly via Internet. The mixing of the fresh material was executed on-line as Athlete were in England while Tom was in Hollywood. This circumstance did not affect the quality of the product. The musicians prepared a very impressive album called Black Swan that was released in the autumn of 2009. A year later Athlete pleased their fans with the incredible compilation album Singles 01-10 (2010). That record included the band’s best compositions so much loved by the listeners, such as You Got The Style, Black Swan Song, With You I Never Lose and many others. There is no doubt that Singles 01-10 will be enjoyed not only by Athlete’s old fans, but also by all the lovers of high quality music.