Hooks, harmonies and soaring rock anthems…. Awards, accolades and a tremendously loyal live following. People think they know Athlete, four charming men from South London who sprang to prominence when their first album, Vehicles & Animals, was nominated for the 2003 Mercury Music Prize.

But there is more to this Deptford quartet than meets the eye, as the band’s first retrospective album, Singles 01-10, goes to show. Of course, the big anthems, including hits like El Salvador and Wires, are all in there. But, as befits a band who won an Ivor Novello Award for their songwriting, there is impressive breadth and diversity here, too. Spanning the past ten years, the album also features tracks such as The Outsiders (which climaxes with a long, decidedly radio-unfriendly piano outro) and Black Swan Song (a vividly poignant piece that would tug at the strings of the hardest heart).

Athlete, as singer and guitarist Joel Pott attests, are a band who have refused to be pigeonholed, despite lazy attempts to bracket them, alongside Keane and Coldplay, as kings of soft, melodic, post-Britpop rock. ‘People always want you to fit in with a scene,’ he says. ‘And maybe we’d have done better if we’d become mates with all the bands we were compared to. But we never wanted to be part of anything like that.’

As they look back over the past decade, the band – Joel plus bassist Carey Willetts, drummer Stephen Roberts and keyboardist Tim Wanstall – can be justifiably proud of a body of work that stands comparison with anything produced by their peers. Album sales of over a million are testimony to that.
See you at the front!

Catch Athlete at the Roadmender, Northampton on Friday 22nd July

Doors Open: 19.30
Advance Tickets from : £18.00 +bf
Age restrictions: Under 14′s must be accompanied by an adult over 18

Tickets on sale from Friday 27th May

Event name: Athlete: The Hits – Stripped Back

Start date: July 22, 2011 19:30
End date: July 23, 2011 00:00

Venue name: The Roadmender

Venue address: 1 Lady’s Lane, Northampton, NN1 3AH

Genre: Live Music

How Much: £18.00 Advance

Artists: Athlete

Ticket link: http://www.tickettailor.com/checkout/view-event/id/927/chk/f3d4

Summary:
Athlete – The boys return with a stripped back, unplugged show for one night only