Please and Thank You

Biography

The Broken Family Band was a British rock band from Cambridge and London. The band was formed in Cambridge, England by Steven Adams, Jay Williams, Micky Roman and Gavin Johnson in 2001, following the break-up of Adams and Williams’ indie rock band Hofman. Their musical style has variously been referred to as alt-country, country-rock, new wave, and indie-rock (the latter term being favoured by the band). The band rose from the ashes of, "several crap indie bands [[artist]Hofman etc.] and a pret...

The Broken Family Band was a British rock band from Cambridge and London. The band was formed in Cambridge, England by Steven Adams, Jay Williams, Micky Roman and Gavin Johnson in 2001, following the break-up of Adams and Williams’ indie rock band Hofman. Their musical style has variously been referred to as alt-country, country-rock, new wave, and indie-rock (the latter term being favoured by the band).

The band rose from the ashes of, "several crap indie bands [[artist]Hofman etc.] and a pretty good post-rock band [[artist]Gwei-lo]" in post-millennial Cambridge (i.e. around 2001).

“The first nice thing outside our own little world was getting a call from John Peel on a Sunday morning saying he liked our first record. It was like a pat on the back from your favourite uncle,” says frontman Steven Adams. Their first mini-album The King Will Build A Disco appeared in 2002, to general bemusement and delight that East Anglia had produced its own leftfield Americana act. The following year saw their first full-length album, the more folksy Cold Water Songs, closely followed by the inventive, adventurous Jesus Songs mini album. In 2005 they released the spiteful, dark Welcome Home Loser, clad in a particularly magnificent sleeve, and 2006’s cunningly titled Balls sealed their position as Britain’s most unlikely indie-country-rock outfit, as they turned up the fuzz and put down the acoustic guitars. By 2007 the distinctly British-sounding Hello Love was well received across the board, the swaggering single ‘Love Your Man, Love Your Woman’ becoming something of an anthem.

Eight years later, The Broken Family Band have gradually shed the accordionists, the cute girl singers, the banjo players and even the American drawl, and reduced themselves to the unchanged core of Adams, bassist Gavin Johnson, guitarist Jay Williams and drummer Micky Roman.

Mixed by veteran producer George Shilling, The Broken Family Band release their seventh album, Please and Thank You on 20/04/2009 and a single, Salivating, on 06/04/2009.

Citing wishes to "quit while we're ahead", the band announced their imminent split in August 2009. A series of shows in October will precede the final gig on October 31 at The Portland Arms in Cambridge.

Edit: 25/01/10 RIP The Broken Family Band. Gone but not forgotten. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.