Those Unfortunates are a four piece band based between Scotland and Margate, who released first on their own Midnight Bell record label, and now on Gare du Nord Records. They formed in January 2013, almost taking their name from BS Johnson’s 1969 ‘book in a box.’ Their songs aim for the wit and warmth of bands like The Kinks and Television Personalities. They have been hailed in Germany as the next Beatles, a band they don’t much sound like. They are self-deprecating, for the most part, and self-contained. They sound harder than they sound.

Those Unfortunates could have been renaissance men, but they never had the French. For the purposes of this biography, however, they have rather narrow tastes, and enjoy the authors Alexander Baron, Patrick Hamilton and Colin MacInnes.

The band has released a clutch of singles, EPs and an album, receiving repeat airplay on BBC 6Music from DJs Steve Lamacq, Gideon Coe, Jon Hillcock and Tom Robinson, who described them as “daft and irresistible….[with] the lightness of touch and complete assurance found among all genuine Great British Eccentrics.”

The second album

Those Unfortunates release their second album, Welcome to Woodberry Down, on October 27 with Gare Du Nord Records on vinyl and streaming. A collection of songs about the Woodberry Down housing estate in Hackney, North London, that singer/lyricist Ben Brill’s family called home for over 50 years, the album explores themes around social housing, utopias and the impossibility of the perfect pub.

Produced and engineered with long-term collaborator, Tom Hatfield, the album is a step change in ambition for a band previously described as ‘beautiful’ by 6 Music’s Gideon Coe: a bold vision, confidently realised.