Friendly Fires

Warping clattering dance rhythms, jangly shoe-gaze music and a love of techno into angular indie dance, the Hertfordshire school friends embarked on a crusade to convert the surliest indie kids into limb-thrashing dance-floor banshees. Early EPs Photobooth and Cross The Line had the critics drooling, but it was the single Paris that really made a breakthrough. Named single of the week by The Guardian newspaper, NME and Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show, they were asked to tour with Interpol and won a deal with prestigious indie label XL Records. Their self-titled debut album charmed the music press and singles Jump In The Pool, Skeleton Boy and Kiss Of Life provided a boisterous antidote to the glowstick waving that other bands attracted. The band were nominated for Best Breakthrough at The Southbank Show Awards and the album went on to earn a nomination for the 2009 Mercury Music Prize, losing out to Speech Debelle.