Bombay Bicycle Club have looked back at their time playing the 2010 NME Awards Tour, amid their upcoming slot with The Maccabees.
The post comes as Orlando Weeks and co. confirmed the news of their comeback this week, and announced that they’d be taking to the stage in the capital’s Victoria Park on August 24 for their first gig together in eight years.
The performance will coincide with the 10th anniversary of their fourth and final album, ‘Marks To Prove It’.
It was then revealed that The Maccabees would be collaborating with All Points East to curate the full line-up for the day, including “artists that they love, both old and new”. The first wave of opening artists was soon shared, including Bombay Bicycle Club, The Cribs, Dry Cleaning, Nilüfer Yanya, The Murder Capital, Divorce and Prima Queen.
Now, in light of the announcement, Bombay Bicycle Club have looked back at the time they performed with The Maccabees at the 2010 edition of the NME Awards Tour.
Sharing a new post on Instagram, the band uploaded two images: the first being of the new All Points East poster, and the second being of the 2010 NME Awards Tour poster.
“We weren’t planning on playing any festivals next summer but we couldn’t say no to a reunion with old friends,” the caption read: “We’ll be joining @themaccabees at next year’s @allpointseastuk, 15 years after we first shared a stage together on the NME Tour.”
“Just need to convince The Big Pink and The Drums now,” they added, before sharing a link where fans could buy tickets to the show.
The Maccabees guitarist and 86TVs member Hugo White also comments on the post, joking that he would get in touch with The Big Pink if Bombay Bicycle Club would get in touch with The Drums.
The NME Awards tour started back in 1995, and the first edition included a line-up of Veruca Salt, Marion, Skunk Anansie and 60 ft. Dolls. It continued annually, and would usually take place in the run-up to the NME Awards ceremony.
Numerous bands went on to become highly successful commercially after appearing at the event. Arctic Monkeys, for example, had a support slot back in 2006, while Franz Ferdinand opened the event in 2004.
The year before Bombay Bicycle Club and The Maccabees performed saw sets from Friendly Fires, White Lies and Florence + The Machine, while the year afterwards saw Crystal Castles, Magnetic Man, Everything Everything and The Vaccines take to the stage.
It would continue up until 2017, when indie heavyweights Blossoms headlined the final instalment.
The comeback announcement from The Maccabees comes as the members haven’t performed together fully since their last show at London’s Alexandra Palace in 2017.
Felix White, who also performs in 86TVs alongside brother Hugo, explained: “In the intervening years we’ve been to All Points East a lot, separately. It’s become a bit of a landmark festival for us, always checking who’s on the line-up.
He added: “I’d go and have a great time throughout the day, but there was always this pinch of regret watching headliners that we could’ve done it ourselves one day too. I thought that moment had passed, and it was something I was prepared to come to terms with that I was always going to miss. I think we’re all kind of shocked and excited that we get to do it together again.”
During an interview with NME this summer, Felix was asked if there were any plans in the works to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the last Maccabees album.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone about it,” he replied. “Sometimes someone from Fiction, the label that put our records out, says, ‘This is an anniversary for that’. But no one’s got in touch with me about [the 10th anniversary].
“I like the classic album tours that people do – I’m really into that. So it’s a weird one with The Maccabees, yeah. We’re not doing any of that. We’re sort of just doing our own lives, which feels pretty good. Where we left it at Ally Pally… it’d be so difficult to replicate.”
Both Hugo and Felix White also revealed that they had a brief reunion at the former’s wedding, just before the COVID pandemic, and took to the stage after Adele and Florence Welch.
Since The Maccabees’ split, Orlando Weeks has made three solo records: ‘A Quickening’ (2020), ‘Hop Up’ (2022) and ‘Loja’ (2024).