Ballad of the Bystander is here! The Reytons have found the formula, and they are sticking to it! That’s a good thing?
NO label, NO backing, ALL Reytons! they shouted from the stage 14 months ago in Brighton and every other gig I’m sure, a battle cry chasing that number one spot and they achieved it with ‘What’s Rock and Roll’. The call to arms for fans had been perfected since I’d first seen them on tour back in early 2022 promoting ‘Kids off the Estate’.
I’d been following them a while after being introduced early 2022 then that first live performance at The Old Fire Station in Bournemouth, a venue with a 550 capacity for live acts. It was intimate, loud, brash, at times exactly like being on the terraces during your sides a FA Cup reply with crowd chants of “here we, here we, here we f**king go” and the mosh that followed. ‘Kids off the Estate’, an album with an early Arctic Monkeys feel, Aled Turner even being referenced in the track ‘On the Back Burner’ from the previous EP ‘Alcopops and Charity Shops’ from 2018.
‘What’s Rock and Roll’ was hot on the heels of the previous album and barely gave fans a breath alongside the relentless touring the band seem to endure, but if you want to connect with an audience, that’s the place to do it! The singles off that album starting with ‘Avalanche” and ‘Cash in hand and Fake ID’s” felt right at home alongside what had come before as did the two that followed. The formula was well and truly there, and the audience had bought into it.
Now we have ‘Ballad of the Bystander’ Released 26th January, my two per-ordered copies of the album arriving yesterday the 29th of January. Yes two, the first I ordered when advertised, black vinyl with a signed cover. The second ordered as my wife wanted the Zoetrope version from Blood Records as it ‘looked cool!’. Its arrived and I’ve already been on the tour to pre-promote it seeing them at Portsmouth Guildhall last October the 21st, a capacity of 2500 so a growing crowd.
The album sticks to the formula again, neither growing the sound to new places or shirking away to something softer and maybe more commercial, it is there as brash as the FA Cup terraces of the first. Is that a good thing, for the fans yes! They have not had a chance to breath between releases and touring and if ‘it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. Currently I’m sold, I do find myself going back to ‘Kids off the Estate’ as that was my intro and there is some nostalgia there of sorts, plus great fun tunes. If the next another album is another of the same, will it stand. Is there room to develop further? Judging by the audience It’s talking to a healthy mixed demographic and long may that continue.
Right now I’m enjoying the music, I’ll be there for the next tour and the vinyl will be played.
Tour dates attended:
- 22 April 2022 – The Old Fire Station, Bournemouth, support from Stone and Bandit
- 9 December 2022 – The Chalk, Brighton, support from The Lottery Winners and The Clause
- 21 October 2023 – Portsmouth Guildhall support from The K’s and Declan Welsh + Decadent West
