Scouting for Girls

Formed in London back in 2005, the playful indie pop outfit Scouting for Girls took their moniker from the Boy Scout Handbook titled Scouting for Boys, a volume that first appeared in the opening decades of the twentieth century. Greg Churchouse, Peter Ellard, and Roy Stride joined the Epic Records roster in the first months of 2007, then issued their debut single, “It’s Not About You,” that June. The band’s self-titled album soon climbed to the summit of the U.K. charts, buoyed by the success of “She’s So Lovely,” “Elvis Ain’t Dead,” and “Heartbeat.” Returning to the studio in 2009, they delivered their sophomore set, Everybody Wants to Be on TV, through Epic the next year. The 2012 single “Summertime in the City” announced their third album, The Light Between Us. A year later the group assembled Greatest Hits, a collection that gathered four U.K. Top Ten singles from their earlier releases, added fresh material, and spotlighted the new track “Millionaire.” A supporting tour followed, highlighted by a performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and the trio continued with festival appearances plus opening slots for the supergroup McBusted throughout summer 2014. Lead songwriter Roy Stride has also earned credits on hits by One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer, and Alexandra Burke. Scouting for Girls resurfaced in 2015 with their fourth studio album, Still Thinking About You, led by the single “Life’s Too Short.” Marking their tenth anniversary in 2017, the band played a special show at London’s intimate Bush Hall and, later that year, released the hits package Ten Add Ten. The set paired ten selections from their catalog with ten newly recorded tracks. The ensuing tour drew the largest audiences the group had yet seen and prompted their fifth studio album, 2019’s Trouble with Boys, an effort aimed at recapturing the spirit of their first release.