Catfish and the Bottlemen, formerly known as "The Prestige",[10][11] were founded in May 2007,[12] when Ryan Evan "Van" McCann and Billy Bibby began playing guitar together at Bibby's parents home, a bed and breakfast in Llandudno, Wales.[13] McCann's parents also ran a bed and breakfast in Llandudno.[14] Van was a friend of Bibby's younger brother Stephen, which is how McCann and Bibby met.[15] McCann and Bibby were joined by Benji Blakeway on bass as the third founding member of the band. Schoolmate Jon Barr followed shortly thereafter on drums.[16] Bibby, who had been playing guitar since age 10, taught both McCann and Blakeway how to play.[17] In an interview with Sound of Boston McCann noted his dislike for playing covers because of the way his music career began: "When I was a 15 year old and we first started a band, our job Monday to Friday was to play at clubs, playing Beatles covers and Oasis covers. We spent seven years writing our own songs, making our own albums, and people are like ‘play Kanye West!’ We’re like ‘no man, are you crazy?’"[18]
They promoted themselves by playing in support slots to friends' bands, such as Northwich's The Shallow Call,[19] and by playing in car parks after other artists' gigs, including bands such as Kasabian.[16]Steve Lamacq first played an early demo on BBC Radio 6 Music in March 2009.[20][21] During 2009, Catfish were runners up in the 'North Wales Battle of the Bands', run by Gareth Thomas, having been beaten to the post by another local band The Fides who later closed the Conwy River Festival.
Original drummer Jon Barr was replaced by Bob Hall in 2010. Hall was introduced to the band by North Wales-based producer Russ Hayes who was working with the band at the time.[22]
McCann met future band member Johnny Bond at Ravenstonedale festival in 2011, when the latter was a member of the band Symphonic Pictures. Bond would later joined the band in 2014.
The band derives its name from McCann's first childhood musical memory: that of an Australian street busker in Sydney, playing beer bottles strung to a wire who goes by the name Catfish the Bottleman. He was called "Catfish" because of an unusually styled spiky beard he had when he first began playing in 2000.[23][24] McCann was reunited with Catfish the Bottleman in January 2015 at the studios of Triple J radio in Sydney.
On 19 June, the band announced they were to release their debut studio album, The Balcony, in September.
Founding lead guitarist Billy Bibby suddenly and unexpectedly ceased performing with the band in the summer of 2014.[29] He was replaced by Johnny "Bondy" Bond.[30] On 25 July, the band cancelled three festival appearances due to "unforeseen personal circumstances".[31][32] On 13 August, the band posted on Facebook: "Some of you will have noticed that we have been playing with a different guitarist over the past weekend. Unfortunately, due to some personal circumstances, Billy won't be touring with the band for the foreseeable future."[33]
When asked about leaving the band, Bibby commented, "Well to be honest after Catfish I had no plans. I didn't know what I was going to do. I just started writing songs and it took off from there..."[34] and "I'm proud of what I did in Catfish and what I achieved and everything that came with it, but I'm just looking into the future now with my band and that's all I'm focused on".[35] He later founded a new band, Billy Bibby & The Wry Smiles, in 2015.
The Balcony was released on 15 September 2014. Shortly afterwards, the band also announced a UK tour. The album charted at number 10 on the UK Albums Chart in the week ending 27 September before being certified Silver in the UK on 9 January 2015, Gold on 20 March and ultimately Platinum on 30 December 2016.[36]
They won the BBC Introducing Award at the first BBC Music Awards in December and performed "Kathleen".[37]
The Balcony was released in the US on 6 January 2015. The following day, the band performed on the Late Show with David Letterman.
In an interview with WOW247, McCann said that the band have "three albums written already". He continued to say that "I'm more excited for the second album than the first, because the workload is done now".[38]
At the 2016 Brit Awards, the band won in the British Breakthrough Act category.[39] They then went on to headline Liverpool Sound City in May, their first headline slot at a festival.
On 23 March 2016, the band announced via Twitter and Instagram that their second studio album would be entitled The Ride, which was released on 27 May. On 3 June, The Ride reached number one on the UK Albums Chart with unit sales of 38,000.[40]
On 8 July, Catfish and the Bottlemen played their largest headlining show to date at Castlefield Bowl in Manchester with Vant, Broken Hands, and Little Comets as support.[41]
On 1 July 2017, they headlined the first Community Festival in Finsbury Park, London.[42]
2019–2023: The Balance
On 8 January 2019, the band released their new single "Longshot", the lead single off their third studio album, The Balance.[43] The album, along with artwork and tracklist, was officially announced on 25 January.
On 13 February, "Fluctuate", the second single from the album, was released. The third and fourth singles from the album, “2all” and “Conversation”, were released on 19 March and 18 April, respectively. The album was ultimately released on 26 April.[44]
A music video for "Conversation" was released on 16 July, after the release of a Snapchat lens, which featured visuals from the music video.[45]
Headlining Reading and Leeds, Neighbourhood Weekender and supporting the Stereophonics
The following month, in September, the band played Swansea's Singleton Park,[48] whilst also playing another headliner slot at the Neighbourhood Weekender festival in Warrington.[49]
It was also announced in September that the band would be supporting Stereophonics at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, alongside Tom Jones, later in the year on 18 December. Due to 'phenomenal' demand for tickets, an additional date was added for 17 December. Just over a week until the first date, it was announced the gigs would be rescheduled for 17-18 June 2022, due to COVID-19 restrictions in Wales.[50] Weeks before the rescheduled dates, on 3 June 2022, it was announced Catfish and the Bottlemen had pulled out of the gig due to "unforeseen practical issues".[51]
Departure of Bond and Hall
On 29 September 2021, drummer Bob Hall announced via his Instagram that he would be leaving the band.[52]
On 5 June 2022, also via Instagram, Johnny Bond confirmed he had stepped down as a member of the band in March 2021. Despite his departure, he had agreed to stand in as a session musician for the band’s scheduled shows later that year. In addition to stating he believed the band would later confirm his exit, which they had not, he stated some of his reasons for departing the band had been due to reoccurring behaviour that he considered "intolerable", and that this had left him with "no choice" but to leave Catfish and the Bottlemen.[53][54]
2023–present: Upcoming fourth studio album
On 23 November 2023, Catfish and the Bottlemen signalled that the band’s hiatus had ended, announcing they would be headlining the Reading and Leeds Festival in August 2024.[55][56]
On 16 February 2024, the band teased fans new music for the first time in five years, uploading a short six second clip to their Instagram account.[57] It came just days after fans, signed up to its mailing list, received an email with the subject ‘Thursday 22nd February’ on 12 February.[58] The body of the email included an image of paper with the text ‘Doors: 5pm’ and ‘Showtime: 6pm’, with posters displaying the same text appearing in locations around Manchester that same day.[59]
"Showtime", the lead single of the band's upcoming fourth album, written by McCann and produced by multiple Grammy Awards recipient Dave Sardy, was released on 22 February.[60][61] The release of the single coincided with news that they would play two new shows in the summer: Cardiff Castle on 19 July and Edinburgh Summer Sessions on 24 August.[62]
Musical style
When reviewing The Balcony, Scott Kerr of AllMusic likened the band's sound to that of Johnny Marr, The Cribs, Feeder and Mystery Jets.[63] According to Ben Homewood of NME, McCann's vocal style is similar to The Kooks' frontman Luke Pritchard.[14] With respect to the musical approach to The Ride, McCann has stated, "I feel like everybody started thinking too outside the box trying to be arty and different. We wanted to stay inside the box."[64]
Following the release of The Balance, Catfish and the Bottlemen came under some criticism for having a "formulaic" approach to songwriting.[65]
Ryan Evan "Van" McCann was born in Australia.[66][15] McCann, Benji Blakeway, guitar tech Josh “Larry” Lau, and former members Bob Hall and Billy Bibby grew up in Llandudno, North Wales.
