CU Next Tuesday

The beginnings of White Lies were when Charles Cave and Jack Lawrence-Brown played together in a school performance, when they were originally called Fear of Flying. They were initially just a weekend project whilst being at school, but their following grew and grew, seeing the band land support slots on tours with The Maccabees and Jamie T. In August 2007, the band played the Underage Festival in Victoria Park. The band took a second gap year deciding to pursue the band full time, and changed their name to White Lies in October 2007. With the name change came a new level of maturity with generally darker songwriting.

With a new name and a new sound, the band played their first gig at Hoxton Square’s Bar & Kitchen on February 28th 2008 supporting Team Waterpolo and Semi Finalists. They soon began to capture the attention of record labels, and had many offers before signing to Fiction Records. The band earned themselves airplay on BBC Radio 1 when Zane Lowe named “Death” the ‘Hottest Record in the World’ on February 5th 2008. With their career beginning to snowball into something bigger by the day, they earned a headline slot on the BBC Introducing stage at Big Weekend 2008. In March 2008, they were announced as one of the four bands that would be taking part in the NME New Noise Tour. A couple of months later, they had their first performance on Later… With Jools Holland on May 30th 2008, on which they performed the songs “Unfinished Business” and “Death”.

Towards the end of 2008, the band embarked on a headline tour, which had six dates in the US. They released their debut album entitled “To Lose My Life” on January 12th 2009, and became the first British act in 2009 to achieve a number one album, which beat Lady Gaga, The Script and Kings of Leon to the number one spot. Later in 2009 the band travelled across the pond to build their following in the US. They played on Last Call with Carson Daly and the Late Show with David Letterman, the latter marking the band’s debut performance on US television. In the summer of 2009 they played Coachella and Lollapalooza.

“Ritual” was released on January 17th 2011 and became an international hit, making it to the top 20 in eight countries. It was later certified Silver by the BPI. “Big TV” was released on August 12th 2013 and made it to the top forty of six countries.

They are the recipients of three awards including a Q Award for ‘Best New Band’, a ‘MOJO Honors Lists: ‘MOJO Breakthrough Award’ and ‘Best Album Artwork’ for Big TV.