English Teacher have performed a new song called ‘Billboards’ – check out the footage below.
The Mercury Prize-winning band and former NME Cover stars have played the track four times this year, according to Setlist.FM. Its most recent outing was during a show in Montreal last Sunday (September 22).
English Teacher were supporting IDLES on their current North American tour. A fan-shot video of the latest ‘Billboards’ performance has since emerged online.
Opening with an arpeggiated piano part, the track finds frontwoman Lily Fontaine singing about “a vital message that the Earth should see“. She later recalls “screaming at a life in front of me“.
After a tempo switch, Fontaine mentions the billboards in Leicester Square and says she’ll “purchase all the adverts on TV” before the song progresses into a soaring declaration of love.
“If happiness wore a face / It would steal your smile, eyes / And carve them into the Hollywood Hills,” Fontaine sings, with a powerful and thumping instrumental then segueing into a shuffling outro. “‘Cause I know / If I ask him to give me a sign, he will.”
Watch English Teacher perform ‘Billboards’ here:
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Earlier this month, English Teacher won this year’s Mercury Prize for their acclaimed 2024 debut album ‘This Could Be Texas’. The record has since re-entered the UK top 40 albums chart thanks to a sales increase of over 1,000 per cent.
Speaking to NME last year, guitarist Lewis Whiting said the band “don’t want to sit within one sound” and that they’ve “got a point to prove” with their music.
Shortly after taking home their Mercury, the band told NME about their progress on new material, which will see them build upon their already-signature sound.
Whiting said that English Teacher have “got some writing” to do in between their support shows with IDLES and their 2024 UK headline tour in November. Bassist Nicholas Eden also teased a new song, describing it as “an amalgamation of every single track on this [first] album”.
He continued: “It’s so satisfying in that way.” Whiting added: “The first song we’ve written for the second album does feel like an extension of the first. But I’m sure as it goes along we’ll faff about and figure something out.”
You can see English Teacher’s upcoming UK tour dates below, and buy any remaining tickets here.
English Teacher’s winter 2024 UK tour dates are:
NOVEMBER
12 – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
13 – KOKO, London [NEW]
14 – O2 Ritz, Manchester
18 – Saint Luke’s, Glasgow
19 – Boiler Shop, Newcastle upon Tyne
21 – SWX, Bristol
In May, NME gave English Teacher’s show in London a glowing five-star review. “English Teacher have been more than vocal in the never-ending battle for artists’ hard-work to be valued and compensated. They’ve put the hours in, and tonight it pays off,” it read.
“They’ll clean up at festival season and if there’s any justice they’ll be at least nominated for the Mercury Prize. The year could very much belong to English Teacher – the band keeping UK indie very safely out of that swamp.”