Sea Power: British or not - still a great band

There is a band, a rock band, who are at once quintessentially British and, at the same time, not British anymore.

Sea Power's Yan onstage at St Luke's in Glasgow in April 2022. Picture: Graham Lindsay

Sea Power (nee British Sea Power. Well actually British Air Powers, but let's not split hairs) are now eight albums into their career.

Not bad for a group whose first LP was titled The Decline Of British Sea Power.

Their most recent effort, 2022's Everything Was Forever was crowd-funded amid the pandemic by their fiercely loyal band of fans and the result was a triumph. For those who contributed to its making, it will be a long-lasting source of pride.

British Sea Power perform live onstage during the Isle of Wight festival at Seaclose Park in Newport, Isle of Wight.

However, it was not the album reviews which saw them make the national news but the decision, not directly prompted by, but against the backdrop of Brexit and the rise to prominence of the likes of Nigel Farage, to drop British from their name. In the event, the ludicrous reaction of certain commentators and publications showed exactly why they were right to do it.

For a band who've had relatively moderate success in the album charts, they have built a strong following based on their powerful and engaging live shows which began with their own club night in Brighton in 2001. Featuring on-stage foliage, dancing bears (now sadly retired) and other props, the real star is, of course, the music. It has been described as a melodic wall of sound - perfectly characterised by their epic set-closer The Great Skua.

Never afraid to expand their horizons, they have performed with brass bands around the UK and at the Barbican Centre. Their soundtrack to the highly acclaimed video game Disco Elysium won best music at the British Academy Games Awards.

The group also organise their own festival – Krankenhaus – at Muncaster Castle in Cumbria not far from where brothers Yan and Hamilton (both guitar and bass) and ex-drummer Woody grew up. Annually, it features an eclectic line-up of bands and performers, as well as activities such as coastal walks, bird of prey displays and heron feeding.

If you've spotted an avian theme, you'd be right. Their albums and film soundtrack work have always been infused with a distinctly ecological and pastoral flavour.

Shaped and inspired, you could say, by the sea and the land beyond. The countryside - the British countryside.