THE ROYSTON CLUB RETURN WITH BRAND NEW SINGLE ‘SHIVERS’

The soaring ambition and supreme self-confidence of The Royston Club’s previous single ‘The Patch Where Nothing Grows’ signposted a bigger future for the Welsh quartet that will take them beyond the #16 Official Album Chart breakthrough achieved with their 2023 debut record ‘Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars’. That status is now elevated as they share their brand new single ‘Shivers’, their first new music of 2025. The track is accompanied by a video directed by Sam Crowston.

‘Shivers’ sees the band dramatically expand upon their core indie-rock sound. Waves of distorted, melodic guitar comes crashing down like Hüsker Dü reborn for 2025 and then they’re gone, leaving Tom Faithfull’s expressive, impassioned vocals accompanied by a minimalist bass bounce. That thrilling loud/quiet/loud dynamic contrast provides a searing energy quite unlike anything we’ve heard from the band before, while its lyrics are universally relatable (the all-encompassing pull of romance) while taking on new levels of sophistication. Those strengths place The Royston Club in a new light – something akin to their generation’s answer to the craft and invention of The Maccabees or Bloc Party.

Guitarist and main songwriter Ben Matthias says, “‘Shivers’ is a love song. I wrote it in the seaside village of Beaumaris, where the majority of this album was written. My girlfriend had made the trip to North Wales to spend a night with me there in the middle of a week writing, the next day she left again and I wrote this song.

I wanted to portray how quickly and almost morbidly time can ‘slip away’ when you’re spending time with the one you love. Days can feel like hours when you’re with the right person and memories become intrinsically entwined to the point where time spent without them feels wasted.

It’s the first song I’ve written in a minor key which I can only attribute to all The Cure I was listening to at the time and it was arranged in a much more patient way than anything else we’d worked on up to this point.”

As with ‘The Patch Where Nothing Grows’, ‘Shivers’ was produced by Rich Turvey (Blossoms, Rachel Chinouriri) and was recorded at Kempston Street Studio in Liverpool.

Three old school friends – Tom Faithfull, Ben Matthias and bassist Dave Tute – founded The Royston Club before later adding drummer Sam Jones.  They’ve risen in tandem with the wider resurgence of Wrexham led by the football club, with its co-owner Ryan Reynolds becoming one of their first famous fans. The band’s position as hometown heroes was underlined by a recent three-night run at the city’s Rockin’ Chair venue, which sold-out in minutes.

But The Royston Club’s popularity certainly isn’t confined to north Wales. They’ve also sold-out London’s KOKO, completed three unforgettable sets at Glastonbury, and played at Liam Gallagher’s Malta Weekender. Meanwhile, festival adventures have taken them from Reading, Leeds and TRNSMT to SXSW, Eurosonic and beyond.

‘The Patch Where Nothing Grows’ emerged to airplay support across 6 Music and Radio X, and it also achieved a #4 position on the Official Vinyl Singles Chart. That combined with ‘Shivers’ opens up a new era for the band.

Next up is a London underplay show at Omeara which rapidly sold-out. The Royston Club will then spend the summer playing a blend of major festivals in both the UK and internationally, as well as select outdoor shows as guests to big names such as The Lathums, Bloc Party and Travis. Their tour schedule now runs as below:

APRIL

24th – London, Omeara (SOLD OUT)

MAY

3rd – Liverpool, Sound City (HEADLINERS)

24th – Neighbourhood Weekender

25th – Tunes in the Castle Festival

31st – Vestrock Festival

JUNE

20th – Utrecht, Ekko

21st – PinkPop Festival

JULY

5th – Musiques En Stock Festival

10th – Manchester, Castlefield Bowl (with Bloc Party)

11th – TRNSMT Festival

12th – Leeds, Millennium Square (with The Lathums)

19th – Llandudno, Venue Cymru Arena (with Travis)

24th-27th – Latitude Festival

27th – Tramlines

AUGUST

2nd – Kendal Calling

15th – Hardwick Calling

22nd – Reading Festival

23rd – Leeds Festival

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