Sports Team – Billy
If you hate Tequila Rose, then Sports Team have just the late-summer anthem for you. The Mercury Prize-nominated indie outfit have officially returned with their brand-new single “Billy” which is out today via Bright Antenna Records / Distiller Records alongside a music video.
“Billy” takes the melodious, freewheeling indie-soul of 2025’s Boys These Days and adds a jagged, rock’n’roll edge on one of the band’s most enjoyably raucous songs yet. Marking the first release since their acclaimed third studio album dropped in May 2025, the track arrives alongside a hilarious video that features a comically large paper mache head.
“It’s a love letter to getting desperately, insanely drunk at a carpeted pub on a Tuesday night,” says songwriter Rob Knaggs. “We recorded it live at RAK studios over the first weeks of summer with Seth Evans and Adele Phillips. It felt like a return to how we made the first album. Fast, and loose and loud.”
“Billy” is available on all major streaming platforms today, alongside a limited run of physical flexi discs.
Sports Team have firmly established themselves as one of the UK’s most exhilarating and essential bands and made a name for themselves in the US for all the wrong reasons in 2024 when they were robbed at gunpoint 15 minutes into their headline tour.
Renowned for their incendiary live performances and sharp, satirical lyricism, they burst onto the scene with their Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Deep Down Happy, which landed at no.2 on the UK Albums Chart. They solidified their critical and commercial status with the acclaimed follow-up Gulp! securing their second consecutive Top 3 record, while Boys These Days cemented their place at the forefront of British guitar music, peaking at no.1 on the Official Record Store Chart.
Boys These Days was with producer Matias Tellez (Girl In Red, CMAT, Gracie Abrams) in his Bergen Norwegian studio. The band spent an extensive period working on the album, thriving with a day time recording schedule and outdoor subzero hiking exhibitions which nearly ended in disaster.
Sports Team have already landed chart success, beating out Lady Gaga to the number 1 spot in the UK . Their innovative and provocative indie rock landed them critical acclaim; meanwhile, they quickly built a reputation through viral moments like warring with The 1975 and cultivating an active WhatsApp fan group–which grew into a massive live following and a predominantly young fanbase. But like all great bands, they did not rest on their laurels and sought sonic exploration outside of their comfort zones and showcased on their hit album, “Billy” and more music to come.
Sports Team are Alex Rice (vocals), Robert Knaggs (lyrics, backing vocals, rhythm guitar), Henry Young (lead guitar, lap steel), Oli Dewdney (bass), Al Greenwood (drums) and Ben Mack (synths, piano & percussion).
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