The Hoosiers
We are delighted to announce Nibley 2024's headliner are The Hoosiers.
Their debut album, The Trick To Life, released in October 2007, was an instant success, shooting to No.1 in the UK charts, and spawning four singles, including Top 5 hits, Worried About Ray, and Goodbye Mr A. The latter in particular – reminiscent, in part, of Electric Light Orchestra’s Mr Blue Sky - became a fans’ favourite: in the video for the single, the Hoosiers kidnap Mr A, a comic-book character and the world's greatest superhero, before taking his place fighting crime as incompetent anti-heroes, and Hoosiers fans would often dress as superheroes to attend their gigs. Two further singles, Worst Case Scenario – about the perfect pessimist – and Cops And Robbers – often compared to The Lovecats by The Cure - both surfaced in 2008, and propelled the album back into the Top 5.
The enormous success of The Trick To Life – since its release, it’s sold well over a million copies worldwide - ensured The Hoosiers could embark on a sell-out tour, a mammoth excursion that took in appearances at Glastonbury and Isle Of Wight Festivals, as well as Radio 1’s Big Weekend.
How many bands can you name who make you laugh with them when you hear them? And how many of those bands are taken seriously for having the affrontery to make you laugh? We’ll give you Pulp, and maybe The Divine Comedy, but what about They Might be Giants, Fountains Of Wayne, Weezer and OK Go? Enter your new favourite old band, The Hoosiers. “Satire is a good way to get your point across,” says frontman, Irwin Sparkes. “You just have to have more of a Trojan Horse in pop.” Their sets are full of this exuberance and joy.
Their second album The Illusion Of Safety, was released in 2010, making the Top Ten, whilst electropop-clad, lead single, Choices reached the No.11 spot. In 2014, the Hoosiers released their third album, The News From Nowhere, a Crab Race release which encouraged the band’s fans to pre-order the album so “we can pay for the recording, manufacturing, adverts, videos, touring and promotion – all the stuff a label usually does.” A fourth album, The Secret Service, followed in 2015, then two more live albums in quick succession.
Fast forward to 2023, and the Hoosiers released arguably their best ever album. Confidence really is a revelation. Produced by Sam Miller, who mixed the first album, and recorded at Angelic Recording Studios – the line-up in the studio is completed by Leighton Allen on bass, and Paul Frith on keyboards. Over the past two decades, The Hoosiers have been compared to everyone from Supertramp to Sparks, but whatever your pronouncements on the matter, one thing’s for sure: Confidence bears up to repeat listening, revealing layer upon layer of quiet reflections from the soul. It’s also an album that has no right to be as good as it is – and yet here we are!
Performing on Saturday
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