Breakout British Band Sports Team Debuts New Single 'The Game'

Today, breakthrough British band Sports Team debuts their new song, "The Game," which orignally premiered on BBC Radio 6. In conjunction, the group premieres an accompanying video, starring cult 70's punk legend John Otway as frontman Alex Rice is put through a series of surreal trials.

Of the song, the band explains, "It's a mantra for a nation of landlords... Something to mutter to yourself behind the electric gates as the world burns around you. It's that bunkered, island mentality, where someone has allowed themselves to believe that the news is what happens to other people."

The new track will appear on the band's highly anticipated new album, Gulp!, which is set for release on August 12 via Island UK/Bright Antenna. "The Game" follows the release of "R Entertainment," the first single off Gulp!, which was released last month as a BBC Radio 1 Hottest Record in the World.

Following a sold-out UK tour with the Wombats, Sports Team confirms a run of European dates and festival appearances throughout the summer. Further stateside headline tour dates to be announced soon while full tour routing can be found below.

Sports Team is Alex Rice (lead vocals), Rob Knaggs (rhythm guitar, vocals), Henry Young (lead guitar), Oli Dewdney (bass), Al Greenwood (drums) and Ben Mack (keyboard, percussion).

Formed in 2016, the band released two EPs, Winter Nets and Keep Walking!, before sharing their 2020 Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Deep Down Happy, which charted at #2 on the UK's Official Charts, achieving the biggest vinyl sales for a debut British artist that year.

Rolling Stone hails, "The crisp, jagged tunes on their debut LP, Deep Down Happy, recall Franz Ferdinand or the early Arctic Monkeys; their weird-angled guitars can evoke Pavement or Silkworm; their clever critiques of British life recall Pulp and the Kinks; and singer Alex Rice's ranting style has shades of Art Brut's Eddie Argos and Mark E. Smith of the Fall. It's all conjured with a buoyant sense of good-natured humor, so they sound like they're having fun even when they're pissed off. The album bounces by with the logic of a free-for-all pub debate."

Sports Team's vivid vignettes of modern Britain and inspections of the follies, foibles and frustrations of youth have earned them an impassioned fanbase, a real community who come together at the band's electrifying and infectious live shows.

Listen to the new single here:

Tour Dates

June 3-Eiland Buitenvest-Hulst, Netherlands
June 4-Temple Newsam-Leeds, UK
June 16-Bergenfest 2022-Bergen, Norway
June 17-Sofienbergparken-Oslo, Norway
July 6-Mad Cool Festival 2022-Madrid, Spain
July 14-Super Bock Super Rock 2022-Sesimbra, Portugal
July 29-Edinburgh Academicals Sports Ground-Edinburgh, UK
August 5-Bute Park-Cardiff, UK
August 27-Victorious Festival 2022-Portsmouth, UK
September 8-Sacaba Beach-Málaga, Spain
November 4-Exil-Zurich, Switzerland
November 6-Chelsea-Vienna, Austria
November 9-Privatclub-Berlin, Germany
November 13-Debaser Hornstulls Strand-Stockholm, Sweden
November 14-Parkteatret Scene-Oslo, Norway
November 16-Molotow-Hamburg, Germany
November 17-Helios 37-Köln, Germany
November 21-La Boule Noire-Parisa, France

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