Shit Hot: Scouting For Girls

17 May 2010

by Bianca O'Neill

Even though this is Scouting For Girls’ second album, you might not have heard of them before. But no matter how green they may seem, it’s been a wild ride for Roy Stride, Greg Churchouse and Peter Ellard over the last two years. The British pop band formed out of a need for escape from the ‘drudgery of their everyday lives’ (and perhaps a lack of sun) in good ol’ Blighty. And luckily for us, instead of rolling chavs for spare change, they formed Scouting For Girls.

Often touted as the UK’s happiest band, this pop-rock threesome are making dreamy boyhood look cool. This schoolboy charm is reflected in their moniker, lifted from a 1908 scout handbook, Scouting For Boys.

Like most bands worth their chops these days, they broke through with a solid following of MySpace friends and a demo of their track Heartbeat, which later translated into an EP called It’s Not About You. From these humble beginnings, It’s Not About You became the highest charting limited edition EP in history, and the first album that followed sold 900,000 copies in the UK alone.

Heartbeat, that first scuffy demo, was one of the singles that went on to be nominated in 2009 for a BRIT Award for British Single – while the band also garnered nominations for British Breakthrough Act and British Live Act that same year. Pretty impressive for a band that only formed a few years earlier.

They have now hit their stride with an album to follow that breakthrough, and it’s on this sophomore offering that they have really caught the industry’s attention. This Ain’t a Love Song went straight to #1 in the UK Singles Chart, and was added frantically to playlists in Australia. Stride (vocals, keyboard, guitar) seems to have achieved his aim of creating “the perfect pop song” in this single.

Although their tunes are similar to a lot of pop-rock kicking around these days, it’s their catchy melodies and uptempo beats that have fans keen for a glimpse at the next album. Their youth-filled lyrics are perfect fodder for an undoubtedly teen audience.

After working with producer Andy Green (Keane, KT Tunstall) on their first album, the band promptly set to work with him on their second album in 2009; a particularly smart move. Green is a perfect match for the band, and should see Scouting For Girls deliver on the charts yet again. This is Britpop at its best, cleverly cloaked under an indie umbrella.