Manchester Scenewipe

Nine Black Alps

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010, 3:53 pm

From their inception in late 2003, the band’s energetic live performances earned them a hardcore fanbase after playing for only a few months on the Manchester music scene. In 2004 the band were signed to Island records and spent the year touring the UK and recording their first studio album with producer Rob Schnapf in Los Angeles.
In 2005, having completed the album recording, Nine Black Alps toured the UK extensively, promoting the release of their debut album, Everything Is on 13 June 2005. The band supported the Kaiser Chiefs for part of their UK tour in April 2005, and later Weezer in August. The band also performed at 2005’s Glastonbury festival, T in the Park, V Festival, and the Reading and Leeds Festival. Also in 2005 Nine Black Alps performed in Japan at the winter SonicMania Festival in February, and later that year returned to play the Club Quattro Venues in Tokyo and Osaka. The band also spent time touring northern Europe, including France, Holland and Germany and also supported the Kaiser Chiefs in Scandinavia. The band also ventured to the US, playing at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, and making a short tour of the north east. During February 2006 Nine Black Alps set off for a final ‘Everything Is’ UK tour with their Manchester friends The Longcut as support. This was Nine Black Alps’ largest and most successful UK tour to date, and included sold-out headline shows at Manchester Academy and an NME Shockwaves Awards Show at Hammersmith Palais.

Their first U.S. single was “Cosmopolitan”; their album Everything Is was released in America on 28 February 2006, and to support the album release Nine Black Alps toured the US extensively during 2006, including several performances at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas and a performance at the Coachella Festival on 28 April that year.
On 18 October 2006, NME.com reported that they were working on the follow up to Everything Is, recording with Oasis and Jet producer Dave Sardy in Los Angeles, California: “According to a posting on Nineblackalps.com the band and Dave Sardy will ‘furrow their brows, vent their spleens and bleed their hearts into the production of a glorious technicolour audiophonic dreamscape’”.

Nine Black Alps played on the NME Stage at Reading and Leeds Festival and Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, Invernesshire, in August 2007. The band’s first release of 2007 came in the form of “Pocket Full of Stars”, a song written by the band and Hayley Hutchinson for inclusion in the movie soundtrack to Surf’s Up. The first single taken from the new album was “Burn Faster” released on 23 July and the second single, “Bitter End”, was released on 15 October.

The band’s second album, Love/Hate, was released on 29 October 2007.
In November 2007 Nine Black Alps supported Biffy Clyro on the Scottish leg of their tour and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, two of their most prestigious support tours. On the back of this, Nine Black Alps brought the ‘Love/Hate’ era and their partnership with Island Records to a close with a successful UK headline tour in January and February 2008.
Having spent much of 2008 writing new material, Nine Black Alps finished recording their third full-length album in February 2009 with producer Dave Eringa in North Wales’ Bryn Derwen Studio.

In April 2009, Nine Black Alps released a free download song on NME.com and their own website. The track, called ‘Buy Nothing’, was the first release from their forthcoming third album, ‘Locked Out from the Inside’. The band have just completed an English tour in May 2009, and are due to tour again throughout June and July 2009.

The new album is due out on 5th October 2009, and will be promoted by a UK-wide tour.