Titus writes:
I first saw Blossoms on television in 2022, when
they were performing at the Isle of Wight Festival, deeming them pretty
darned good, and I haven’t changed my opinion of them since. They
named the band after the pub ‘The Blossoms’ in their home town of
Stockport, Greater Manchester – the same town that our new Deputy Prime
Minister Angela Rayner hails from - still, we won’t hold that against
them. They have curiously therefore, played as Blossoms at ‘The
Blossoms’. They were formed in 2013, and their first self titled LP was
one of 12 nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2017, plus they
were nominated for British Breakthrough Act at the Brit Awards that same
year.
In my
well read series “Not a lot of people know that”, I must inform you
dear reader, that all of the original members lived within two miles of
each other whilst growing up. When at secondary school, they became
admirers of Manchester bands like Oasis and the Stone Roses. After
secondary school, members Joe Donovan & Tom Ogden gained employment
at the Alma Lodge Hotel, and this handily acted as the venue for the
early Blossoms. You will see on the front cover of their debut album, a
picture of a scaffolding yard. When Charlie Salt joined the band, his
grandfather owned the yard, and they used this for rehearsals free of
charge.
In the
Spring of 2014, they signed to Skeleton Key Records, and in July of
that year, opened for James at Castlefield Bowl to 8,000 people. They
went on to play more festivals in 2015, and recording for their debut
album took place that same year, announcing in January 2016 that all
recording was complete. While on a third headline tour, Blossoms were
rocked to the core when all members from support band Viola Beach and
their manager died in a car crash. The debut album was finally
released in August 2016, and surprisingly gained top spot in the UK
Albums Chart. As part of “We are Manchester”, the band performed at
The Manchester Arena in September 2017, to mark the re-opening of this
venue following the infamous terror attack, three months previous. The
band have gained more and more popularity, and played a homecoming
tour gig at Edgeley Park, Stockport, home of Stockport County Football
Club, having sold out every ticket in under an hour. Ian Brown of The
Stone Roses became a fan of Blossoms, and the two bands performed at The
Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
Following
the covid pandemic, Blossoms shocked everyone by teaming up with
eighties legend Rick Astley in 2021, whereby they performed Smiths’
songs and in 2023 went on to play Glastonbury with him. The band have
released four albums – ‘Blossoms’, ‘Cool like You’, ‘Foolish Loving
Spaces’ and ‘Ribbon around the Bomb’ and a fifth album ‘Gary’(dedicated
to an 8 foot model of a gorilla at a nearby Garden Centre) again
featuring Rick Astley, is due for release in September this year. The
band’s personnel are Tom Ogden, Charlie Salt, Josh Dewhurst, Joe
Donovan and Myles Kellock. To my mind, they have that outstanding
quality of being able to brilliantly perform material from studio
albums live. Whether they have any future plans to play music with
Rick Astley is anybody’s guess, but you have to admit, it was an
interesting concept. I like most of Blossoms’ work and am requesting
lex to play ‘Ode to NYC’ from the ‘Ribbon around the Bomb’ LP which
can be found here.