The LaFontaines are a rock band from Motherwell, Scotland. Their line up consists of Kerr Okan (vocals), Jamie Keenan (drums, vocals) and Darren McCaughey (guitars, production). The band was formed in 2008 and have released three studio albums: ''Class'', ''Common Problem'', and ''

Junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

''.

History

Formation (2008–2012)

The band played their first concert at

King Tut's Wah Wah Hut King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, also known as King Tut's, is a live music venue and bar on St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, Scotland. It is owned and managed by Glasgow-based gig promoters DF Concerts. The Glasgow live music venue takes its name from a ...

on 26 June 2008 opening for American rap duo

The Cool Kids The Cool Kids are an American hip hop duo composed of rappers Sir Michael Rocks and Chuck Inglish. The Cool Kids' music had been released primarily to the independent Chocolate Industries via their own label C.A.K.E. Recordings. Reed and Inger ...

. They then went on to build a local following with shows supporting

Beardyman Darren Alexander Foreman (born 14 May 1982), better known as Beardyman, is a British multivocalist, musician and comedian from London known for his beatboxing skills and use of live looping. Early life After studying at Queen Elizabeth's Gra ...

N-Dubz N-Dubz are an English hip hop trio from Camden Town, London, consisting of cousins Dappy and Tulisa, and Fazer. After winning a MOBO Award for Best Newcomer in 2007, N-Dubz briefly signed to Polydor Records before joining All Around the Wor ...

Chiddy Bang Chidera Anamege, now known by his stage name Chiddy Bang, is an American rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to its breakup, Chiddy Bang was an American hip hop duo consisting of Anamege, under the stage name Chiddy, and Noah Beresin, ...

Mongrel A mongrel, mutt or mixed-breed dog is a dog that does not belong to one officially recognized breed and including those that are the result of intentional breeding. Although the term ''mixed-breed dog'' is sometimes preferred, many mongre ...

and Example and Festival appearances at RockNess and

Live at Loch Lomond Live at Loch Lomond was a concert festival that took place at Balloch Country Park in 2007 and 2008. The inaugural festival took place from August 4 to August 5, 2007. Nearly 30,000 people attended over the two days. Main bands performing were D ...

. In 2011, John Gerard replaced bassist Anna Smith and the band embarked on their first tour of the UK supporting

Twin Atlantic Twin Atlantic are a Scottish alternative rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. The group currently consists of Sam McTrusty (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Ross McNae (bass) and Joe Lazarus (drums). Lead guitarist Barry McKenna departed from the b ...

. They released their first music video for "Paper Chase" and were selected to perform on the T Break stage at

T in the Park T in the Park festival was a major Scottish music festival that was held annually from 1994 to 2016. It was named after its main sponsor, Tennents. The event was held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire, until 1996. It then moved to the disused B ...

. The band's performance was in front of a capacity audience, a first for the T Break stage. A headline Scottish Tour followed this with a sold out date at Stereo in Glasgow. The following year they continued to tour the UK supporting

3OH!3 3OH!3 (pronounced "three oh three") is an American electronic music duo from Boulder, Colorado, made up of Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte. They are best known for their single "DONTTRUSTME" from their album ''Want'', which reached number seve ...

and The Blackout and self-released their first single "Light Up the Background".

Early releases (2013–2014)

On 6 April 2013 the band hosted Club Fontaine, a sold out, formal, '50s-inspired show Glasgow's Classic Grand and that summer headlined the

BBC Introducing BBC Music ''Introducing'' is BBC Radio's platform supporting unsigned, undiscovered, and under-the-radar UK music talent. It gives artists the opportunity to be played on Local BBC Radio and nationally on BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 3, ...

Stage at T in the Park as well as performing at

Wickerman Festival The Wickerman Festival was an annual music festival held near Auchencairn in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Dubbed "Scotland's Alternative Music festival", its motto was "The Wickerman Festival – it's better than it needs to be!" It bega ...

and

Belladrum Festival The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival is a music and arts festival, held on the Belladrum Estate in Kiltarlity near Inverness, in Scotland. It is normally held at the start of August. Founded in 2004, the festival has rapidly grown in popularit ...

. The single "All She Knows" was released via

LAB Records LAB Records (pronounced lab) is an independent record label operating from Manchester, England, and founded by Mark Orr and Nathen McVittie in 2007. The company also has a creative and distribution division, LAB Exposure, as well as a New York-b ...

on 27 October 2013 and saw the band head out on tour with

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

to promote this. The track was played on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

and playlisted by

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scotland, Scottish radio station, radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same na ...

. April 2014 saw the band play their first shows in the United States with shows at both The

Mercury Lounge The Mercury Lounge is a live music venue in the Lower East Side of New York City. Like its brother venue The Bowery Ballroom, The Mercury Lounge is celebrated as an iconic indie venue due to its acoustics, its fostering and even launching of up ...

and

Bowery Ballroom The Bowery Ballroom is a New York City live-music venue located at 6 Delancey Street in the neighborhood of Bowery in Manhattan. The Bowery Ballroom holds something of a cult status among musicians as well as audiences. ''Rolling Stone'' magaz ...

in New York. Returning from the States they headed out on tour with

Bad Rabbits Bad Rabbits is an American band from Boston, Massachusetts, founded in September 2007. The band consists of Fredua Boakye (vocals), Sheel Davé (drums), Salim Akram (guitar), Graham Masser (bass), and Santiago Araujo (guitar). All five members o ...

to promote their single "Under the Storm", which was released via

on 27 April 2014. The single entered the Indie Breakers chart top 20 and is the band's most streamed song to date. They decamped to Woking that summer to record their debut album ''Class'' with producer Matt O'Grady (

You Me at Six You Me at Six are an English rock band from Weybridge, Surrey. The band consists of lead singer Josh Franceschi, guitarists Max Helyer and Chris Miller, bassist Matt Barnes and drummer Daniel Flint. Formed in 2004, the name for the group origi ...

, Don Broco,

Deaf Havana Deaf Havana are an English alternative rock band from Hunstanton and King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. The band was formed in 2005 at the King's Lynn campus of The College of West Anglia. Biography Early days (2005–2008) Deaf Havana was formed ...

) and headed out on their first tour of Europe with

Watsky George Virden Watsky (born September 15, 1986), better known mononymously as Watsky, is an American rapper, singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, poet, author, and illustrator. Watsky broke out as a rapper with his viral video "Pale ...

and

Anderson Paak Brandon Paak Anderson (born February 8, 1986), better known by his stage name Anderson .Paak (), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and drummer. He released his debut mixtape, ''O.B.E. Vol. 1,'' in 2012 and went on to rel ...

, finishing with a sold-out homecoming headline show at Glasgow's ABC with support from Vukovi and

Gerry Cinnamon Gerard Crosbie (born 1 October 1984), professionally known as Gerry Cinnamon, is a Scottish singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist. He sings in his local accentMarrakesh in early 2015 to film the music video for "King", which would be the first single from their debut album ''Class''. ''Class'' was released on 6 June 2015 via 889 records, a label set up by the band using funding from

Creative Scotland Creative Scotland ( gd, Alba Chruthachail ; sco, Creative Scotlan) is the development body for the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Based in Edinburgh, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. The o ...

and debuted at 10 in the Scottish Album Chart and number 98 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. That summer they opened the main stage at T in The Park and headed out on their own headline UK tour to support the album release as well as support tours with

Doomtree Doomtree is an American hip hop collective and record label based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The collective has seven members: Dessa, Cecil Otter, P.O.S, Sims, Mike Mictlan, Paper Tiger, and Lazerbeak. The collective is known for incorporatin ...

and Eliza & The Bear, ending with the band's biggest headline show to date at the Glasgow Barrowlands. The LaFontaines supported

The Summer Set The Summer Set is an American rock band from Scottsdale, Arizona, United States. The band consists of lead vocalist Brian Logan Dales, guitarist John Gomez, bass guitarist Stephen Gomez, and drummer Jess Bowen. The Summer Set was signed to The ...

on tour in May 2016 which was followed by festival appearances at

2000 Trees 2000trees festival is an independent music festival held from Wednesday to Sunday on the second week of July at Upcote Farm, Withington, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. It offers a diverse selection of more than 120 acts across five stages ...

Belladrum Belladrum is a small community in the Mahaica-Berbice Region of Guyana, on the Atlantic coast, about east of Mahaicony. Geography Belladrum is a rural area close to the sea wall on the northern coast of Guyana. It is below sea level and is rich ...

and

Secret Garden Party The Secret Garden Party, often colloquially shortened to the SGP, is an independent arts and music festival which takes place in Abbots Ripton near Huntingdon in England. This location is on part of the grounds of a Georgian farmhouse and has its ...

. Guitarist Iain Findlay left the band to focus on management and that November they embarked on a headline UK and Ireland tour to support their new single ‘Release The Hounds’

''Common Problem'' (2017–2018)

''Common Problem'' was recorded at the beginning of 2017 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

with Joe Cross (

Courteeners Courteeners are an English band formed in Middleton in 2006 by Liam Fray (lead guitar/vocals), Michael Campbell (drums/backing vocals), Daniel "Conan" Moores (rhythm guitar) and Mark Cuppello (bass); the latter was replaced by the band's produ ...

Hurts Hurts are an English musical duo formed in Manchester in 2009, consisting of singer Theo Hutchcraft and multi-instrumentalist Adam Anderson. They have released five studio albums: ''Happiness'' (2010), ''Exile'' (2013), ''Surrender'' (2015), ' ...

) and was released on 27 October 2017 via A Wolf at Your Door Records. That summer the band performed at Download Festival, The Great Escape,

TRNSMT TRNSMT (pronounced as "Transmit") is a music festival staged at Glasgow Green in Glasgow, Scotland, organised by DF Concerts. History An early line-up for the first TRNSMT festival was revealed in January 2017, two months after the announceme ...

, Reehaperbhan and opened the BBC Radio 1Xtra Stage at Leeds & Reading. The first single from the album, "Asleep", was released on 27 August 2017 and was followed by "Common Problem", which saw the band travel to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

to shoot the music video. Winter 2017 saw the band head out on their most successful headline tour thus far, including a sold-out show at London's Boston Music Room as well as another sold-out show at Glasgow Barrowlands, where the band were introduced on stage by Game Of Thrones actor

Rory McCann Rory McCann (born 24 April 1969) is a Scottish actor, best known for portraying Sandor "The Hound" Clegane on the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', Michael "Lurch" Armstrong in Edgar Wright's crime-comedy ''Hot Fuzz'', Jurgen the Brutal in the ...

. In April 2018, bassist John Gerard left the band and they continued to perform as a four piece with guitarist Neil Mulholland. The band toured with Don Broco&

Yungblud Dominic Richard Harrison (born 5 August 1997), known professionally as Yungblud (pronounced "Youngblood"), is an English singer, musician, songwriter and actor. In 2018, he released his first EP, ''Yungblud'', followed shortly after by the albu ...

throughout the UK, Ireland and Europe in April/May 2018. On 15 June 2018 the band released "Up" via SO Recordings. The song was played on Annie Mac's

show on 18 July 2018. The band then embarked on a headline tour of the UK, Ireland and Europe throughout September and October. The LaFontaines replaced

J Hus Momodou Lamin Jallow (born 27 May 1995), known professionally as J Hus, is a British rapper and singer who has been credited with pioneering the genre afroswing. He is currently signed to Black Butter Records. He gained popularity in 2015 follo ...

on the main stage at

festival on 30 June 2018 opening the 2nd day of the festival. They also appeared on the main stage at

in Scotland and at Hammer Summer & Eier Mit Speck in Germany that summer. On 9 December 2018, the band performed at the

NH7 Weekender NH7 Weekender is an annual, multi-city and multi-genre, music and comedy festival held in India. It is created by Only Much Louder (OML) and is among the largest South Asian arts festivals. It began in Pune, Maharashtra, India, as a three-day, m ...

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

, India and closed out the year with a homecoming show at Motherwell Concert Hall on 23 December.

''Junior'' (2019–2021)

On 8 March 2019, the band announced the departure of guitarist/vocalist Neil Mulholland and announced that drummer Jamie Keenan would be taking on lead vocals as well as continuing drumming duties. Four days later the band released new song "All In" as their debut as a three piece while also announcing that new album ''Junior'' would be released in June 2019. Their first show as a trio was opening up for

Mike Shinoda Michael Kenji Shinoda (; ja, 篠田賢治, Shinoda Kenji; born February 11, 1977) is an American musician, singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and was the band's collaborative vocal ...

at the Roundhouse (venue) in Camden. In March 2019, they supported

throughout the UK and Ireland. The band's third studio album ''Junior'' was released via SO Recordings on 14 June 2019 to critical acclaim. The album charted at number 33 in the

, giving the band their first top 40 record. They supported the release of the album with the ''Junior'' tour across the UK. That summer the band performed at

Y Not Festival The Y Not Festival is an annual music festival held in Pikehall, Derbyshire, United Kingdom. It first took place in 2005, at a disused quarry site as a party for around 120 people organised by Ralph Broadbent who was planning a party in the g ...

Liverpool Sound City Liverpool Sound City is an annual music festival and industry conference in Liverpool, England. Founded in 2008 by Dave Pichilingi (also founder of Modern Sky UK), Sound City was located in Liverpool City Centre venues, such as The Kazimier, T ...

, United Islands of Prague, Home Festival in Venice, Italy, supported

Kaiser Chiefs Kaiser Chiefs are an English indie rock band from Leeds who formed in 2000 as Parva, releasing one studio album, ''22'', in 2003, before renaming and establishing themselves in their current name that same year. Since their formation the band h ...

in Inverness & Montrose and opened the

Dance Stage at

Reading and Leeds Festivals The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Fe ...

. In September & October 2019, The LaFontaines embarked on an extensive tour of the UK, Ireland & Europe (dubbed "The Top 40 Tour") in support of ''Junior'' which concluded in Paris on the 26th of October November 2019 saw the band close out the year with an appearance at the

VERY TV VERY TV is a 24-hour music and entertainment channel owned by VERY ENTERTAINMENT. On air on TrueVisions Channel 64 and 79. The channel originally started its broadcast on May 16, 2011. VERY TV reaches an audience of 8 million viewers in Thailand ...

Festival in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

, Thailand. On 24 March 2020, the band began releasing a weekly podcast, titled 'The LaFontaines Podcast' where initially, each week they dissect a short story from Jamie Keenan's book ''The LaFontaines Solve Twelve of Life's Most Common Problems.'' The podcast has since moved on to include weekly interviews with musicians, actors and internet personalities. The band released a 4 track EP consisting of re-worked acoustic versions of tracks from Junior on August 28th 2020, titled - ''Junior (Acoustic Tapes)'' On 24th November 2020, The LaFontaines released news of their next gig due to take place on Friday 20th August 2021 at O2 Academy, Glasgow, Scotland. Artist pre-sale tickets went on sale at 9am on the 25th November 2020 and by midday the band reported half of these had been sold. After its initial composition on 'The LaFontaines Podcast', 'Scotland, Bonnie Scotland' - the bands comedy football anthem was released to coincide with Scotland's

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

bid on 2 June 2021.

David Marshall (Scottish footballer) David James Marshall (born 5 March 1985) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Scottish Premiership club Hibernian, and formerly played for the Scotland national team. Marshall started his career at Celtic, wher ...

appears alongside the band in the video along with a host of media personalities from across Scotland.

Musical style

Their style has often been related to genres such as

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

, hip hop,

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...

and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

by reviewers. The band are often quoted in interviews saying that the band's sound "really sounds like it shouldn’t work but it does". Infusing hip hop bars in their native

Glaswegian The Glasgow dialect, popularly known as the Glasgow patter or Glaswegian, varies from Scottish English at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum to the local dialect of West Central Scots at the other. Therefore, the speech of many Glaswegia ...

tongue with big guitar riffs and anthemic choruses. The band cite being influenced by hip hop,

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...

, rock and indie music, specifically calling out

The Streets The Streets are an English music project led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner. The project has released six studio albums: ''Original Pirate Material'' (2002), '' A Grand Don't Come for Free'' (2004), '' The Hardest Way to ...

& Beastie Boys as having an impact on their sound.

Members

Present

* Kerr Okan – vocals (2008–present) * Jamie Keenan – vocals, drums (2008–present) * Darren McCaughey – guitar, production (2008–present)

Former

* Anna Smith – bass guitar (2008–2011) * Iain Findlay – guitar (2008–2016) * John Gerard – vocals, bass guitar (2011–2018) * Neil Mulholland – vocals, guitar (2016–2019)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:500 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:110 bottom:60 top:06 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2020 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:2008 ScaleMinor = increment:15 start:2019 Colors = id:Rap value:Purple legend:Rap id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:Guitars value:green legend:Guitar id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass id:Drums value:orange legend:Drums BarData = bar:Okhan text:"Kerr Okan" bar:McCaughey text:"Darren McCaughey" bar:Keenan text:"Jamie Keenan" bar:Smith text:"Anna Smith" bar:Findlay text:"Iain Findlay" bar:Gerard text:"John Gerard" bar:Mulholland text:"Neil Mulholland" PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,–4) bar:Okhan from:01/01/2008 till:end color:Rap bar:McCaughey from:01/01/2008 till:end color:Guitars bar:Keenan from:01/01/2008 till:end color:Drums bar:Keenan from:01/01/2018 till:end color:Vocals Width:3 bar:Smith from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2011 color:Bass bar:Findlay from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2016 color:Guitars bar:Gerard from:01/01/2011 till:01/01/2018 color:Bass bar:Gerard from:01/01/2011 till:01/01/2018 color:Vocals Width:3 bar:Mulholland from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2019 color:Guitars bar:Mulholland from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2019 color:Vocals Width:3

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

References

External links

* * at iTunes * on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:LaFontaines Musical groups established in 2008 People from Motherwell 2008 establishments in Scotland Scottish alternative rock groups