In 2007, while founding member Nick Corbin remained enrolled at university, he launched the British soul band New Street Adventure, taking its name from Birmingham’s New Street railway station. The outfit started out as a trio, with Corbin on guitar and vocals, Chris Daykin handling drums, and Robin Langhorn on bass. Their first recording, the EP An Excuse to Talk, was made at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, after which they quickly issued the Who Beat Up Jimmy Jazz? EP. Early lyrics from Corbin reflected the class divisions he noticed among fellow students, and during this time Ros Robertson replaced Daykin on drums.
Once the group relocated to London, Corbin again altered the lineup by adding Ashley Hayden on bass, while producer Noel McKoy brought in Ernie McKone on bass, Carl Hudson on keyboards, Paul Jordanous on trumpet, and Tom White on trombone for the Just the Kind of People EP. The Say It Like You Mean It EP followed in 2012, its single receiving considerable airplay on BBC London. Cicely Corbin, the singer’s sister, supplied backing vocals on the accompanying tour, which also featured jazz pianist Charlie Myers. In 2013 New Street Adventure signed with the Acid Jazz label and began work on a debut album, though the sessions for No Hard Feelings yielded disappointing results and stretched beyond six months.
A remix of “On Our Front Doorstep” by Mitch Ayling proved decisive; impressed by its direction, Corbin recruited Ayling to mix the entire album, which appeared in 2014. For the next release the band trimmed to Ashley Hayden on bass and backing vocals, Ben Wolfe on drums, Max De Lucia on keyboards and backing vocals, Billy Farr on guitar and backing vocals, and Corbin himself. They tracked the material in only seven days at Woods Lodge Studios in Essex. Stubborn Sons surfaced in 2017; although Corbin noted that his outlook had evolved since some of the songs originated during his university years, the album continued to address sociopolitical concerns.
