The K's Tickets

In British towns where nothing much besides real life happens, there’s enough peace to form plans and the abundant energy, momentum and initiative to fuel all notions of escape. The K’s, Merseyside’s four-strong, rousing, real-world-documenting indie phenomenon, brought up in a town caught between other places, used every benefit and drawback of out-of-the-way youth to create their adored, masterpiece debut album, ‘I Wonder If The World Knows?’ and watch as it reached the Top 3 of the UK Official Album Chart at the first time of asking. 

It's a success made of belief. A success catalysed by the achievements of sell-out UK-wide tours, cresting with a 3,700-capacity ‘homecoming’ at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse, being handed the Best Breakthrough Act award at the 2024 Nordoff Robbins Northern Music Awards (aka The Northern Brits) and reaching major festival stages, including their Glastonbury debut in 2024, in addition to main stage appearances at Leeds, Reading and Isle of Wight Festivals, Camp Bestival, Kendal Calling and more. Knowing just those small parts of their story, who would have bet against The K’s turning out to be the band so many lost music lovers, young or old, cut adrift on seas of similarly staid suburban life, have been anxiously waiting for? 

Beyond the plaudits and awards, beyond the radio play across BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, Radio X and Absolute Radio and beyond the more than 2 million streams per month is the connection to a battalion of fans, many who have been there since their emergence in 2017. Circling a band that’s endlessly grateful for their support, so many more have caught the bug since. Speaking to NME in April 2024, front man and songwriter, Jamie Boyle, revealed that the band sees, in numerous exchanges between fans and kind words they receive directly, repeated confirmations that The K’s music has provided salvation in times of trouble. “That is worth more than any Number One ever could be,” he said. “We’re literally having a massive effect on people’s lives.” 

Bands can do that. The K’s, made up of Boyle (vocals/guitar) Ryan Breslin (guitar/keyboards), Dexter Baker (bass) and Nathan Peers (drums), forming in Earlestown in 2017, have become one of those bands, yet the romance in their story doesn’t include any lines dedicated to overnight success. Quite the opposite. Giving a black eye to any critics of guitar-based indie as unintelligent or unambitious, The K’s debut single in 2017, ‘Sarajevo’, delved into the history books to find an unlikely formula of upfront, festival-ready songwriting and 20th Century European political upheaval. From the start, The K’s had gone beyond the ordinary.