Meet the Wrexham band aiming to emulate the football club for success

Wrexham has hit stratospheric heights since the arrival of Hollywood owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds at the local football club, but it’s an all-conquering rock ‘n’ roll band from the town which looks set to make headlines this summer.

They say the bonds formed as teenagers are the strongest. In that case, Wales’ main contenders The Royston Club are an unbreakable unit.

Formed in Wrexham by schoolfriends Ben Matthias (Guitar), Tom Faithfull (lead vocals, guitar) Dave Tute (Bass), later adding Sam Jones (drums). After the lineup was complete, things moved fast: they hit the ground running, performing a run of high-energy gigs in their hometown, self-recording and releasing demos to an ever-expanding and devoted fanbase.

In 2021, they signed to Run On Records (home of The Coral), quickly making their mark by releasing debut single Coasting, which reached no.10 on the official vinyl charts. Their sound was established: anthemic indie hooks, life-affirming melodies and ragged riffs – songs to soundtrack your life.

Support slots soon came, with the likes of Jamie Webster, Blossoms and The Academic, bookended by their own raucous headline tours. More studio time followed in Chapel Studios, Lincoln; sessions which would eventually produce debut album Shaking
Hips And Crashing Cars, rocketing to number 16 on the official album charts, selling out of all physical formats and subsequent special editions.

In the time after, things snowballed. They sold out London’s Koko, conquered Glastonbury three times, headlined Focus Wales, played Liam Gallagher’s Malta Weekender and picked up Hollywood actor and Wrexham FC co-owner Ryan Reynolds as a fan.

Intermittent time on the road provided experience, space in which to write. In early 2024, they went to Kempston Street studio, Liverpool, with producer Richard Turvey (Blossoms, The Coral) for a session that led to critically acclaimed comeback single The Patch Where Nothing Grows, showing a new depth to both the band’s songwriting and performing, paving the way for new album Songs For The Spine to be released in August.

The new album is described as a soaring, emotionally-charged second album that captures a band stepping up and standing tall. Opening track Shivers sets the tone immediately: a dark love song that channels the spirit of The Cure at their most euphoric, and signals a bold new era for the band. Recorded at Liverpool’s Kempston Street Studios with acclaimed producer Richard Turvey again at the helm, the album is to be released via Run On / Modern Sky Records later this summer.

Following the success of their Top 20 debut Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars and a sold-out UK tour in 2024, The Royston Club have emerged tighter, louder, and more emotionally driven. Songs For The Spine builds on the band’s signature indie DNA while embracing something weightier and more expansive.

Tracks like Crowbar shimmer with glad-but-sad disco nostalgia, Cariad wears its heart firmly on its Welsh sleeve, and The Ballad Of Glen Campbell brings the record to a cinematic close.

The band say this is a collection of songs about the people and places that hold you up — the emotional backbone of everyday life. There’s love, loss, guilt, longing and joy in these ten tracks, delivered with a raw honesty and a more human, less polished sound than before. The band and Turvey purposely embraced imperfection in the studio, leaning into live takes and leaving in the edges that give these songs their pulse.

Songs For The Spine is the sound of The Royston Club turning a breakthrough into a mission statement — urgent, ambitious, and unafraid to evolve. If the first album was a sprinting start, they say this is a victory lap with the road wide open ahead.

Just as their hometown football club teeter on the edge of the Premier League, it’s only a matter of time before The Royston Club hit the big time.

Find out more about The Royston Club and pre-order the new album HERE