Inspirations

THE LIBERTINES 

The Libertines, started life as Carlos Barât (guitars and vocals) and Peter Doherty (guitars and vocals) way back in 1996. They were aiming to be the best band in the world. They weren't quite there.

Hailing from the East End of London, the cockney two-some were writing loads and loads of songs and playing acoustic gigs in London pubs (their own lyrics). Years passed, with friends and bassists and drummers coming and going, but it wasn't until 2001 that things started to kick off.

Carl and Pete were joined by bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell to form The Libertines that everyone knows and loves. Equipped with a manager, Banny, and record deal on one of the biggest independent labels, Rough Trade, The Libertines were hailed as one of the best new bands of 2002. Interest in the band was storming, and former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler offered to produce their first single.

After charging through some songs in a studio in North London, the outcome was their debut single, What A Waster. The single, backed with I Get Along and Mayday, was immediately awarded Single Of The Week in the NME and crashed into the top 40 sales chart.

The band won many fans with this single release, including the former Clash guitarist Mick Jones. He got in touch with the band, and became the band's new producer and super-star fan. After sessions in RAK studios with Mick, a debut album was finished. Thirty-six-and-a-half minutes of raw UK talent to top over the new wave of garage bands from overseas.

The album reached number 35 in the album charts, and was followed by another top 40 single (Up The Bracket), a tour with Supergrass, sessions at the festivals and TV appearances including Later... With Jools Holland and Born Sloppy.

It got even bigger in 2003, with Time For Heroes becoming their first Top 20 hit. The band also played a series of special gigs in London, including one in Pete and Carl's flat!

KINGS OF LEON

Kings of Leon have a backstory so steeped in rock mythology that it almost sounds made up. The Followill brothers — Nathan, Caleb and Jared — are sons of a preacher man who were raised on the road throughout the South, traveling from one Pentecostal church to the next. After being shattered by a divorce, the brothers were transformed by illicit substances and the stoner music of Led Zeppelin. Soon, they were a rough and ready band, enjoying the pleasures of the road while playing grinding, garage-y jams tinged with Southern rock and gothic lyrics. By the end of the 2000s, they were famous.

The Followills grew up watching their father Leon, a Pentecostal minister, instill the fear of God in parishioners across the South. Forbidden to listen to secular music, they spent their early childhoods being home-schooled, watching church choirs and occasionally banging on drums during services. The boys' fates as followers of fundamentalist Christianity seemed sealed until 1997, when Leon Followill resigned from the church and divorced his wife. The divorce rocked the Followills' world, and afterwards, the Nathan and Caleb moved to Nashville, hoping to break into the music business. They quickly ran into Nashville songwriter and former new waver Angelo Petraglia, who turned the brothers on to the secular music of the Rolling Stones and Johnny Cash.

Kings of Leon, named for their father, were born in 2000 when youngest brother Jared and a cousin, Matthew Followill, joined Nathan and Caleb in Nashville. Jared, who had briefly attended public school, had learned about the music of the Pixies and Velvet Underground. The boys began woodshedding, and by 2002 Kings of Leon had interest from nine labels. A bidding war ensued, and the band ultimately signed with RCA Records.

The group's debut EP, Holy Roller Novocaine, and LP, Youth and Young Manhood (Number 113), both produced by Petraglia and Ethan Johns (son of Led Zeppelin and Who producer Glyn Johns), were released in 2003. The band's retro-chic look and blend of Southern boogie and gritty garage rock inspired comparisons to both Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Strokes.

The British press hailed the Kings as the second coming of rock & roll; according to The Guardian, they were "the kind of authentic, hairy rebels the Rolling Stones longed to be." But the band failed to make much of an impact in the United States, where reviews were generally lukewarm and the modern rock audience generally disinterested. In the U.S., their debut sold only 100,000 copies, compared with the 750,000 copies it moved abroad.

The group's highly anticipated second album, Aha Shake Heartbreak (Number 55, 2005), released in November 2004 in the UK, debuted at Number Three on the British charts. Kings added more newer sounds, including an angular guitar attack that recalled British art-punk band Wire, to their raw Southern aesthetic. A tour supporting U2 upped the band's profile in the U.S., and in late 2006, just before the release of Kings' third album, the band opened for Bob Dylan at a handful of shows. Because of the Times (Number 25), released in April 2007, found the Kings moving even further away from their short songs with immediate hooks, but the general sound and substance remained the same, with lyrics about pregnant girlfriends and black Camaros. The British love affair with the band continued, and the album debuted at Number One in the UK. In 2008 Caleb Followill admitted to struggling with anorexia.

Also in 2008, the Kings released Only by the Night (Number Four). With a slicker pop sound, the album drew mixed reviews but they cracked the Top Ten in the U.S. and topped the British charts for the second time in as many years. The band also found success on the U.S. singles chart when the album's second single, "Use Somebody," a plaintive ballad that showed off Caleb Followill's increasingly ragged croon, reached Number Four. They picked up their first Grammy for Only by the Night's first single, "Sex on Fire," in 2009.

THE KILLERS 

BAND: 

Brandon Flowers – Vocals, Keyboards

David Keuning – Guitars

Mark Stoermer – Bass

Ronnie Vannucci – Drums

They took the fashionista pop world by storm in summer 2004 with "Somebody Told Me." The perfectly stylish song pulls from the band's influences -- the Smiths, New Order, Oasis, and the Cure -- and it was just enough to get them on MTV. Part new wave and part new-millennium post-punk, this Las Vegas foursome originally got together in 2002.

Formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2002, word soon spread further a field about The Killers.

The American rock band originated in 2001 when lead singer Brandon Flowers was dumped by his first band synthpop trio 'Blush Response' as he refused to move to Los Angeles. After being inspired to start a rock band after seeing Oasis perform live, Flowers responded to a newspaper ad posted by guitarist Dave Keuning and the pair started writing songs, including early versions of 'Mr Brightside, and touring Las Vegas.

Joined by drummer Ronnie Vanucci JR in August 2002 and bass player Mark Stoermer the same year, the line-up as we know it today was formed and 'The Killers', who are named after a fictional band featured on the drums in the music video 'Crystal' by New Order, started touring Las Vegas clubs

The band came to the attention of London-based independent label Lizard King Records, and they made their way over to the UK for their first ever gigs outside of Las Vegas.

They then won Best International Band at the NME awards. Big things were expected from their debut album 'Hot Fuss' featuring the singles 'Somebody Told Me', 'Mr Brightside’' and 'All These Things That I've Done'.

'Hot Fuss' didn't disappoint, the album has topped the charts in the UK where it has already sold over one million copies and it has already sold 2.2 million in the US. As of 2011, 'Hot Fuss' has sold over seven million units worldwide and was the 26th best-selling album of the decade.

Their successful debut was followed by 'Sam's Town' in October 2006, which sold over 706,000 in its first week of release. It spawned hit singles 'When You Were Young', 'Bones', 'Read My Mind' and 'For Reasons Unknown'. The album won two Brit awards in 2007. As of 2011, the album had sold 4.5 million copies worldwide becoming four times platinum in the UK.

The Killers also released a compilation album called 'Sawdust' in November 2007, consisting of B-sides, rarities and previously unreleased material.

In 2008, the band released third album 'Day and Age' before going on tour. This was cancelled in February 2010 after Flowers' mother died after a two-year battle with brain cancer.

Between January 2010 and May 2011, the band were on hiatus after six years of touring, with each member pursuing solo projects. In May 2011, they started work on their fourth album 'Battle Born', which is intended for release in summer 2012.

Scouting for Girls are a three piece English pop group. 

Their name is a play on the title of the 1908 Scouting handbook Scouting for Boys. The trio consists of childhood friends from London, Roy Stride on keyboards and lead guitar/vocals, Greg Churchouse on bass guitar and Peter Ellard on percussion. Having formed in 2005, they were signed to their first record label in 2007. 

• They released their self titled debut album that September, which reached Number 1 on the UK Album Chart and went Platinum in terms of total sales. A second album Everybody Wants To Be On TV was released in April 2010 and peaked at number 2 in the charts.

How they were formed: 

The founding members had known each other since childhood. Stride and Ellard met in the Cub Scouts and Churchouse met Stride on their first day at school at Queensmead School in South Ruislip, West London. They attended the school until year 13 then moved on towards a music career. At the age of 15 Roy and Greg were playing together at small gigs in west London.

It has been noted that the band was looking for a spirited way of removing themselves from the drudgery of their everyday lives, looking to the whimsy of childhood fantasy through playing a moog organ. Churchouse has observed on several occasions that playing bass is something he wanted to pursue as the bass has "two less strings".

Unsigned and early music: pre-2007

Whilst in University Stride and Churchouse were in a band called 'Cape'. With Stride swapping from guitar to piano, Scouting for Girls began to do concerts in a room above a pub in Harrow. By the time they were signed they had built up a fanbase - on MySpace and Pulse Rated, a website for unsigned bands. They had also already written a demo of "Heartbeat" and produced a video for "The Aeroplane Song".

Debut album and early singles: 2007-2008

At the beginning of 2007 Epic Records A&R Nick Raphael received the band's demo CD. So enthusiastic was his response that he immediately phoned up colleague Jo Charrington and said: "These are hits, let's go see the band in rehearsals!" According to Charrington every other record label had passed on them.

On 14 February 2007, Scouting for Girls were signed to Epic UK (a division of Sony BMG). The album was released in September 2007, and has sold in excess of 900,000 copies in the UK alone. It spawned a host of hit singles; "She's So Lovely", "Heartbeat", and "Elvis Ain't Dead".

Scouting for Girls' self-titled album went to #1 in the UK on 20 January 2008, where it remained for two weeks.

The band toured the UK heavily throughout 2007 and 2008, upgrading and selling-out venues in every city they performed. During their first tour of 2008, Roy Stride lost his voice en route to a gig in Birmingham and was diagnosed with laryngitis, forcing the band to reschedule a series of dates on the tour. The rescheduled dates included an extra night in London, with the band-selling out a record four consecutive nights at the Shepherds Bush Empire. The band's final tour of the year concluded with two sold-out nights at London's Hammersmith Apollo, and one at London's Brixton Academy.