Those Unfortunates are a four piece band from London, who released first on their own Midnight Bell record label, and now on Gare du Nord Records. They formed in January 2013, almost taking their name from BS Johnson’s 1969 ‘book in a box.’
Those Unfortunates wear herringbone coats and oxblood shoes without ever really managing to look rakish. Their songs aim for the wit and warmth of bands like The Kinks and Television Personalities. They are self-deprecating, for the most part, and self-contained. They sound harder than they sound.
Those Unfortunates could have been renaissance men, but they never had the French. For the purposes of this biography, however, they have rather narrow tastes, and enjoy the authors Alexander Baron, Patrick Hamilton and Colin MacInnes.
Those Unfortunates have released a clutch of singles and EPs, receiving repeat airplay on BBC 6Music from DJs Steve Lamacq, Gideon Coe, Jon Hillcock and Tom Robinson, who described them as “daft and irresistible….[with] the lightness of touch and complete assurance found among all genuine Great British Eccentrics.” Their debut album, “Nothing Isn’t Beautiful’, was released in May 2017.
Since forming in 2013, they have hosted a festival of music and literature celebrating forgotten and lost London, shared a stage with a socialist magician, and played the last ever gig at the (squatted) 12 Bar Club on Denmark Street before the police moved in. They have already started work on their second album, a collection of songs about the soon-to-be demolished Woodberry Down housing estate in North London.
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