History

The band formed in 2008, naming themselves after the suburb Crookes

Crookes

Crookes ward—which includes the districts of Crookes, Steelbank, Crosspool, and Sandygate —is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the western part of the city and covers an area of 3.9 km2...

 in Sheffield, where the guitarists Alex Saunders and Daniel Hopewell met before later recruiting George Waite on vocals and Russell Bates on drums.

NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

championed the band, describing how "a band this good are unlikely to remain obscure for long".

The Crookes were named as The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

Band of The Day in September 2009 being described as having "hints of the win some, lose some C86 brigade, The Smiths (say, circa The Boy With the Thorn in His Side), the plaintive jangle of the Housemartins, even Belle and Sebastian".

In 2009 the band recorded a live session for Steve Lamacq

Steve Lamacq

Steve Lamacq , sometimes known by his nicknames Lammo or "The Cat" is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio stations BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 2.-Early career:He was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire...

 on BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 with Lamacq describing the band as having "ambition and flare and a singer with a beautiful voice; one of those special, poetic voices which dips and soars above their jangling guitars""

The Crookes have also been named as BBC 6 Music

BBC 6 Music

BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....

's favourite new band, with Lamacq later describing them as his "favourite British band of the year" on BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

.

The band's strong Sheffield roots have seen them embraced by the city's established acts, with Jon McClure

Jon McClure

Jon McClure, known as the Reverend, is lead singer and frontman of Reverend and The Makers and ex-vocalist of 1984 and Judan Suki. He claims that the name "Reverend" became his moniker because "I'm a big mouth and always running on at people"....

 promoting the band as "Sheffield's next set of musical geniusus", and Richard Hawley

Richard Hawley

Richard Hawley is a guitarist, singer-songwriter and producer. After his first band Treebound Story broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longpigs in the 1990s. He later joined the band Pulp, led by his friend Jarvis Cocker...

 describing them as 'absolutely superb' when interviewed on Shaun Keaveny

Shaun Keaveny

Shaun William Keaveny is a British broadcaster, who presents the breakfast show on digital radio station BBC 6 Music.- Career :He played guitar for John Ariss in the student band Mosque between 1987 and 1993....

's breakfast show on BBC 6 music. They recorded a session of Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...

's 6 music show. Moreover, The Crookes were chosen to represent Sheffield for MTV Canada's guide to Breaking Bands in the UK, alongside representatives from other cities such as Glasvegas

Glasvegas

Glasvegas are a Scottish indie rock band from Glasgow. The band consists of James Allan , Rab Allan , Paul Donoghue and Jonna Löfgren . The band received critical acclaim for their debut album Glasvegas which was released in September 2008, reaching No...

 (Glasgow), Wild Beasts

Wild Beasts

Wild Beasts are an indie rock band from Kendal in Cumbria. They released their first single, "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants", on Bad Sneakers Records in November 2006, and subsequently signed to Domino Records. They have released three acclaimed albums, Limbo, Panto in 2008, Two Dancers in...

 (Leeds) and The Big Pink

The Big Pink

The Big Pink is an English electro-rock duo comprising multi-instrumentalists Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell. The duo signed to the 4AD label in 2009, and won the prestigious NME Philip Hall Radar Award for best new act...

 (London).

The Crookes have recorded multiple live radio sessions for BBC Radio 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6.

The Crookes released their debut single "Bloodshot Days" through Heist Or Hit Records

Heist Or Hit Records

Heist Or Hit Records is an independent record label located in Ashford, Surrey and Manchester, founded in late 2007 by Mick Scholefield. Its most notable signees are The Answering Machine, LoveLikeFire, Rapids! and Pomegranates....

 on 5th April 2010.

The Crookes' single "A Collier's Wife" / "By The Seine" was released on 14 September through the Too Pure Singles Club as part of the Beggars Group

Beggars Group

Beggars Group is a British record company that owns or distributes several other labels, including 4AD, Rough Trade Records, Matador Records, and XL Recordings...

. It was the fastest selling single through Too Pure, selling out on pre-orders.

Debut album 'Chasing After Ghosts' was released on Fierce Panda Records on 21st March 2011.

In September 2011 the band posted a message on their website stating that Alex Saunders was to leave the band. They wrote "He left for personal reasons and completely amicably". The band then went on to explain that ending the band was "Simply not an option for The Crookes". They immediately drafted in a replacement guitarist Tom Dakin of Sheffield based band Silent Film Project, to play on impending two month UK and European tour.

Style

The band's style has been described as a fusion of 'heartbreaking melodies'. inspired by 1950s and 60s pop-music and Kitchen sink realism

Kitchen sink realism

Kitchen sink realism is a term coined to describe a British cultural movement which developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose 'heroes' usually could be described as angry young men...

.

Lamacq has highlighted the eclectic comparisons which span bands such as The Smiths

The Smiths

The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...

, Orange Juice

Orange Juice

Orange Juice was a Scottish post-punk band founded in the middle class Glasgow suburb of Bearsden as the Nu-Sonics in 1976. Edwyn Collins formed the Nu-Sonics with his school-mate Alan Duncan and was subsequently joined by James Kirk and Steven Daly, who left a band called The Machetes. The band...

 and The Everly Brothers

The Everly Brothers

The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...

, whilst also encapsualting the Romanticism

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

 of the band on his website.

"They are kings of romance (an important part of the New Pop brewing around the UK)... There is something almost subversive about their odd mix of influences (The Smiths/’60s girl groups/’50s rock and roll)... It’s the romance of the Seine, of walking in the Peaks; or lying on your back reading and daydreaming".

Noel Gallagher

Noel Gallagher

Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Raised in Burnage, Manchester with his...

 said of the band, "they've got good lyrics. All bands from Sheffield have good lyrics". Whilst publications have picked-up on the narrative quality of the songs, describing early recordings as sounding like novels by Angry Young Men

Angry young men

The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.The phrase was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer to promote John...

.

Collaborations

To celebrate a one-off special return of 'The Evening Session' with Steve Lamacq and Jo Wiley, The Crookes collaborated live in session with Richard Hawley. Together they performed cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

s of The Jesus and Mary Chain

The Jesus and Mary Chain

The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Glasgow in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid...

's "Some Candy Talking" and also a version of Longpigs' (Hawley's former band) "Lost Myself".

Band members

• Russell Bates (drums)
• Daniel Hopewell (guitar)
• Alex Saunders (2008 - 2011)
• George Waite (vocals/bass)