On the morning of Monday, January 30, the billboard outside Reading Station announced that Reading band Only The Poets had signed to EMI Records.
The band broke the news via Twitter with a video showing them making the announcement to fans in Berlin on Sunday, January 29.
While Berlin might seem like an unusual place to be celebrating, guitarist and lead vocalist Tommy Longhurst says it is indicative of the fandom they have garnered abroad.
“It’s rare to have the footprint we have and the fans we have already in Europe as an unsigned band.
“But we feel that support and love in rooms all over Europe and the UK.”
Last year, the band’s Our Time tour saw sold-out shows in Paris, Cologne, Oslo, Warsaw, Vienna, Barcelona, and Amsterdam across a 24-date run.
Only The Poets’ beginnings as a project lay in Woodley, though: “the live music scene, well Reading Festival really, whet my appetite,” Tommy explains.
“I started going before doing the band and it made me fall in love with the idea of writing music to be performed in that way.
“I showed Andy,” who is the other original member, on bass, “what I was working on, and we started jamming.
“We were joined by Clem and Marcus about four years ago, but they had worked on recording, and so they’re incredibly techy.
“It was a little like two bands came together, and now it feels like this has been the only ever line-up.”
Now that the band has been signed, Tommy says: “You feel very flattered, it’s what a lot of people strive for.
“We’ve built a lot on our own, so there’s no shame in saying that we feel like we were ready for that opportunity.”
He says the ability to keep the integrity of the relationships with fans was an important factor to consider.
“EMI gets what we’re about with our fans, and we have to ensure nothing changes for them.
“Our message is that we are a family, and our shows are a safe space, and they are the driving force behind everything we have.
“Especially in the digital age, we strive to make it so that there’s no judgment.”
The fostering of this atmosphere has led to particularly touching moments, he says: “Fans have come up to us and told us they’ve met their best friends at our gigs.
“There’s no bigger compliment than people telling you that; we want to look after them, and thank them, because they’re why we got here, really.”
The band’s efforts to create this space is part of a growing movement of artists such as Yungblud who make the community and its well-being the focus of the movement.
“I write songs about important topics and it speaks to people– it’s really important for us to write about topics like mental health awareness.
“People didn’t traditionally, but now more than ever, which is brilliant and refreshing; negativity is pouring into the world and it affects people.”
This is also some of the focus of Tommy’s songwriting: “People get really emotional.
“You can either leave everything at the door at our gigs if you want to, but we also see how much they can mean to people.
“It’s more important than ever that people know you’ve got their back.”
As well as its signing to EMI Records, the band is about to set out on tour supporting Lewis Capaldi, also signed to the label.
Ahead of that, however, is the much more important matter of two sold-out homecoming shows at The Purple Turtle, which features in some of the band’s work.
“We’ve been very vocal about the Turtle and the nights we’ve had in there, and those shows will be special because it’s part of our world.
“Across the two shows, there’ll be about 600 people there, I think– the first time we played was about 20.
“I can’t wait– it means a lot to me, and that bar is ingrained in the DNA of Only The Poets.”
On signing with EMI, Tommy says: “I couldn’t speak more highly of them, we know how good they are at what they do.
“The ideas they throw out there are what we want and it doesn’t feel like much has changed, which is great.
“I’m quickly learning that, because we went full time for about five months– flying to Oslo, Sweden, Atlanta– is that it sounds really glamorous.
“And I love how busy it is, but you don’t have control so feeling anxious and excited is only natural.”
The band has had a number of turning points, including their appearance at the festival which started it all for Tommy.
“It was before they got rid of the NME stage, so it was as I remembered the festival, and we were stepping out to a beautiful moment– even for a Sunday morning.
“Playing the festival that made me fall in love with the idea of being in a band was the real full circle moment; we’re dying to play again.”
On the day that the band was signed, he says: “We weren’t together in the same place, but it was emotional, and we had a call and a heart-to-heart.
“We all celebrated individually, and it feels like the end goal, but this is where it starts.
“We were already hungry, and now it’s going to be on a whole new scale.
“We’re more than ready for the ride.”
Both of the band’s homecoming shows at The Purple Turtle are sold out.
However, information about the band’s upcoming tour with Lewis Capaldi and their headline European tour in April, as well as links to their social media, can be found via: linktr.ee/OnlyThePoets
