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The members of Idlewild met while at a college party in Edinburgh in late 1995 and by early into the following year, the band were successfully packing student hangouts. Eventually they were given a residency at Edinburgh's Cas Rock Café, where each month they'd debut new songs in front of doting audiences. Armed with a newly pressed single and a handful of rave reviews about their chaotic live shows, Idlewild cemented their reputation as "ones to watch" when their record started getting airplay on Radio Scotland. Soon after, Radio One's Steve Lamacq began playing "Self Healer," and in the summer of 1997, Idlewild played their first gig in London. One-off recordings on Deceptive and Fierce Panda were followed by an avalanche of glowing press. Idlewild started 1998 on the road, which is where they spent the majority of that year. In fact, the band only stopped touring long enough to record their debut album, Hope Is Important. Released in October of 1998, Hope Is Important was supported by another U.K. tour, as well as a quick tour of the United States and Japan. With the momentum still building, the band closed out 1998 the same way they started: on the road. And when they were "toured-out," the band started writing and demoing new songs, and spent the rest of the year in the recording studio. Released in the U.K. on April 15, 2000, Idlewild's sophomore effort, 100 Broken Windows, entered the album charts at No. 15, while its first single, "Actually It's Darkness" entered the Top Forty, garnering Idlewild the first of many appearances on Top of The Pops. European festival appearances were flanked by yet more tours (is this band ever at home?), and just when the year started to wind down and thoughts were turning to the next album, Spin proclaimed 100 Broken Windows "the No. 1 album you didn't hear" in 2000. That was enough to finally get Captiol Records in America on board, and 100 Broken Windows saw the light of day Stateside in April 2001. And what came next? More tours! The band finished up their American tour with a sizzling performance of "Little Discourage" on The David Letterman Show, and headed back home to work on songs for album number three. Idlewild spent the remainder of 2001 in the Scottish highlands writing and demoing songs, which were recorded the following year. In the end, our road warriors had taken an unprecedented year-and-a-half break from touring! The Remote Part hit record store shelves in March, 2003 and was bolstered by a stunning video by acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders. Massive tours with both Coldplay and Pearl Jam exposed Idlewild to their largest live audiences to date, and ended up being excellent practice what came next: no sooner were Idlewild back in the U.K. for the summer festival season when the Rolling Stones came knocking. Idlewild opened for the Stones in Glasgow that September, capping off one of the most exciting and fruitful yea |
