The View

Honing their skills in the back room of a Dundee pub, the schoolmates Kyle Falconer, Kieren Webster and Pete Reilly (aka the View) got their big break when Pete Doherty was so impressed by a demo tape the band had slipped him before a Babyshambles gig, that he let them open the show that night. Snapped up by James Endeacott's label 1965 Records shortly afterwards, the sweetly mumbled harmonies and breakneck, indie pop head-rushes of early singles "Wasted Little DJs" and "Superstar Tradesman" were soon causing fevered excitement in the indie world. "Same Jeans" became a huge radio hit, crashing in at Number 3 in the UK singles charts, before debut album Hats Off to the Buskers (2007) went straight to Number 1 and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. The band made notable appearances at Glastonbury, Radio 1's Big Weekend and Reading/Leeds Festival earning the crowd chant "The View, The View, The View are on fire..." But, despite getting to Number 4 in the UK charts, sales of second album Which Bitch? (2009) were poor and the lads were forced to rethink their approach. They paired with esteemed producer Youth for their third studio album Bread and Circuses, released in 2010, with their fourth album Cheeky for a Reason following in 2012. Working with the Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr. and Gus Oberg as producers, their critically acclaimed fifth album Ropewalk (2015) helped to revitalise the band's sound and image, bringing them back into the frame as leading lights of UK indie-rock. The View returned eight years later with their sixth album Exorcism of Youth, which took cues from the Killers' 2020 album Pressure Machine and rocketed to number six in the UK.

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