Stornoway biography
Stornoway is a British alternative indie folk band from the Cowley area of Oxford. It consists of singer and guitarist Brian Briggs; multi-instrumentalists Jon Ouin and Oli Steadman, and the latter's brother Rob on drums. The band is usually joined by trumpeter Adam Briggs and violinist Rahul Satija. Named after the Scottish town of Stornoway on the Hebridean Isle of Lewis, which appears on all UK televised weather reports and shipping forecasts, the group incorporates string instruments and keyboards, supported by a typical pop backline of guitar, drums, and bass guitar. The band had never visited Stornoway when they decided to name themselves after the town. The band is signed to the British independent record label, 4AD.
On Twitter the band is known by the title of an early song from one of their demo EPs: @TheOldBlindMan.
Beachcomber's Windowsill 2005 - 2011
Stornoway's first radio play came in March 2006 with a demo version of "I Saw You Blink" on BBC Oxford Introducing. Radio presenter Tim Bearder was an early champion of the band and was suspended from work after barricading himself in the studio and playing an hour of Stornoway songs from their demo EP
The Early Adventures of Stornoway.
The band self-released their first single "Zorbing" in July 2009, playing at a number of UK summer festivals including 6 sets at Glastonbury festival 2009, and wrote a series of articles about their experiences for the Daily Telegraph newspaper. On 1 September 2009, they played a free concert at Tate Modern, London, supported by Reverend and The Makers, to celebrate the launch of the new climate change campaign .
Second single "Unfaithful" was released on 28 September 2009 on CD, 7" vinyl and download, and the launch concert was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London on 21 September. Their first UK tour took place from 16 to 30 October 2009, culminating in a concert at Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre, accompanied by the Oxford Millennium Orchestra. They were the first non-classical group ever to play in the centuries-old building.
In November 2009 Stornoway became the first ever unsigned band to appear on Later... with Jools Holland, and performed alongside Sting, Norah Jones, Jay-Z, and Foo Fighters. The attention gained by this appearance led to tens of thousands of views of their homemade YouTube videos, and the band were playlisted on the BBC's national radio stations. In December 2009, Stornoway were announced as entrants onto the longlist of the BBC's Sound of 2010 competition, having been selected by a panel of some 165 UK-based "tastemakers". They toured Scotland and Ireland in March 2010 (dubbed the Highlands, Islands and Ireland tour), and signed their record deal in the castle grounds at Lews in Stornoway, after playing in their namesake town for the first time. The band signed to the independent record label, 4AD and announced their debut album, Beachcomber's Windowsill due to be released on 24 May 2010. On 22 March they released their third single, "I Saw You Blink".
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