The Boyfriends

The indie pop ensemble known as the Boyfriends hails from Britain and consists of vocalist Martin Wallace, guitarist Richard Adderley, bassist David Barnett, and drummer Paddy Pulzer. London served as the birthplace for this group, whose origins trace to 1999 when Wallace and Adderley penned their initial pair of compositions. An admirer of Suede after witnessing their 1993 rendition of "Metal Mickey" on Top of the Pops, Wallace received a request to create several pieces for a nearby independent record company. Although that arrangement failed to materialize, the pair persisted in their collaboration, eventually assembling the Boyfriends alongside Pulzer and Barnett during 2002. In the June that followed, the band delivered their debut performance before a nearly capacity crowd featuring Jim Reid from the Jesus and Mary Chain. A joint recording with the Long Blondes, the Sheffield-based pop group, came out in 2005. Morrissey became aware of the Boyfriends' rising fame around then and selected them as openers for his 2006 European trek. Early October saw the arrival of the band's debut self-titled album in the United Kingdom, where the lead track "Once Upon a Time" narrowly fell short of the British Top Ten during its opening week.