The Boy Least Likely To

Event information

A very special hometown show from Wendover's very own The Boy Least likely To. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album - The Best Party Ever - and also the first night of our third Real Magic Weekend.

"We always dreamt of playing a show in Wendover but somehow it just never happened, so we're really excited to finally be doing one. I imagine all the shops will close early and the streets will be lined with cheering, flag waving children just like when the Queen drove through the village."

The Boy Least Likely To released their debut album, The Best Party Ever, in 2005 to widespread critical acclaim, earning spots in both Pitchfork's Top 50 albums and #8 in the Rough Trade Shop top 100 of that year. Pitchfork called the album "a thing of wonder, made of rubber and springs" and they were featured in Rolling Stone's top ten bands of 2006.

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of The Best Party Ever, the band are performing the album in its entirety for the first time ever along with a selection of their greatest hits at a special show at Bush Hall in London on June 5th along with a long-awaited hometown show in Wendover with Real Magic Books on 30th May.

"We toured The Best Party Ever so much for a couple of years over in the UK and the US, but we've still never played the whole album live. I'm so excited to play all these songs. There's one song we've never played live at all. I know we made it, so I probably shouldn't say this, but it's still my favourite album of all time." Jof

With their trademark glockenspiels and banjos, they were one of the last wave of mid- noughties indie pop bands who could happily play the Pitchfork stage at SXSW and appear live on KEXP at the same time as enjoying mainstream success back home in England with appearances on Popworld, GMTV and the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party.
The video for 'Be Gentle With Me' also starred American actress and filmmaker Rashida Jones best known for her roles in Parks and Recreation, Freaks and Geeks, Boston Public and The American Office.

The band, made up of Peter Hobbs and Jof Owen, met when they were still at school and grew up together in the middle of the English countryside in the small Buckinghamshire village of Wendover. They spent their teenage years scouring countryside car boot sales for rare Dexys seven inches and Lee Hazelwood albums; reading Carson McCullers, Anne Sexton and Smash Hits magazines; and watching John Hughes films and old videos of Top of the Pops. All the time putting together a collection of weird and wonderful instruments found in second hand shops, craft fairs and the Early Learning Centre.
Initially released on their own Too Young To Die imprint (and later re-released by Simon Fuller's 19 Records) The Best Party Ever was constructed from glistening melodies, glockenspiels, guitars, recorders and insightful lyrics informed by an awareness of mortality and a loss of innocence.

“The Best Party Ever is a thing of wonder, made out of rubber and springs - heartache with a sense of humor.”
- Pitchfork

“The only true twee pop heirs to Belle and Sebastian.” 
- Spin Magazine 

“If all your childhood stuffed animals got together and started a band, it might sound like The Boy Least Likely To.' 
- Rolling Stone