The Horrors

What’s that mess of sharp elbows, big hair, feedback and monochrome clothes at BIG DAY OUT 2010? It can only be THE HORRORS, the flamboyant future of British rock.

Only four and a bit years after playing their very first gig in London, and two and a bit years since a wave of hype greeted their debut album Strange House, THE HORRORS have already evolved beyond expectations. With their Mercury Music Prize-nominated second album Primary Colours, singer Faris Badwan, keyboardist Rhys “Spider” Webb, drummer Joseph “Coffin Joe” Spurgeon, guitarist Joshua Hayward and bassist Tom “Tomethy Furse” Cowan have created “the British art-rock album we’ve all been waiting for” (NME).

Rolling Stone declared that they “suddenly sound as demented and hungry as they look”. The BBC called Primary Colours “a colossal sounding amalgam of incredible influences” from My Bloody Valentine to acid house to krautrock, and began the landslide of calls for “album of the year” status.

Produced by Geoff Barrow of Portishead, the album has won them yet another high profile fan – Damon Albarn recently called THE HORRORS into the studio to collaborate on a song for the next Gorillaz album.

Live, THE HORRORS “smoulder and shake”, says Record Collector. News of the World sees a strong substance behind their style – “they certainly beguile the crowd. Lanky singer Faris Badwan swings from the rafters… It’s an engaging and assured performance”.

Out of the darkness and into the blinding sunlight of a Down Under summer, THE HORRORS will cut a captivating figure on stage at BIG DAY OUT 2010.