Foals Tour Overview
Foals, stylised as FOALS, are a British rock band formed in Oxford in 2005. The band's current line-up consists of Greek-born lead vocalist and guitarist Yannis Philippakis, drummer and percussionist Jack Bevan, rhythm guitarist Jimmy Smith and bassist Walter Gervers. They are currently signed to Warner Records, and have released seven studio albums to date: Antidotes (2008), Total Life Forever (2010), Holy Fire (2013), What Went Down (2015), and Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1 & 2 (2019) and their most recent, Life Is Yours (2022). They have also released one video album, six extended plays and thirty-five singles.
The band have toured internationally for over a decade, and have featured at many festivals including Glastonbury, Coachella, and Roskilde. They have won a number of awards, including best live act at the 2013 Q Awards while producers Alan Moulder and Flood were awarded 'UK Producer of the Year' for their work on the album Holy Fire.
The band's studio albums Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1 & 2 were released March and October 2019, respectively, with the latter becoming the group's first album to top the UK Album Chart.
About Foals
The lead singer of the band Youthmovies, Andrew Mears, originally formed the band Foals. He was present on the band's debut 7" single, "Try This on Your Piano/Look at My Furrows of Worry", but left shortly afterwards to concentrate on Youthmovies's debut album, Good Nature.
Jack Bevan, Lina Simon and Yannis Philippakis were originally in cult math rock band the Edmund Fitzgerald. The group disbanded, claiming that things had become "too serious" and that they wanted to have more "fun making their music".
Walter Gervers and Jimmy Smith were part of a small Oxford band called Face Meets Grill. They met at and formed the band from members of Abingdon School, the same school that Radiohead attended. They played gigs in and around Oxford, and recorded an EP in Hull. After playing Truck Festival in 2004 they separated to follow different paths and careers.
Guitarist Jimmy Smith is the only one of the band members to have completed his degree, at Hull University, each of the other band members quit their respective universities when the band signed to Transgressive Records.
Foals Facts
- The first thing Yannis purchased after being signed were two pairs of signature editions of Air Jordans.
- On being described as the most anticipated band of 2008, they said it felt “pretty wack.”
- Foals’ albums have all been recorded in different countries. ‘Antidotes’ was recorded in Brooklyn, ‘Total Life Forever’ in Gothenburg, Sweden, while ‘Holy Fire’ was recorded closer to home, in London.
- While recording ‘Antidotes’, the band worked from 4pm until dawn every day for 5 weeks during which their producer, TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek ‘encouraged’ them by popping off an air gun.
