Words and pictures by Rhona Murphy.
Sports Team kicked off their UK tour this week at The Brook in Southampton (22/9/26).
If you’re not familiar with the band, they’re renowned for their lively and raucous performances and sharp, satirical lyrics.
Sports Team erupted out of the Cambridge music scene whilst they were at university and are now based around the London area. Their debut album Deep Down Happy (2020) was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2020 and their follow up album Gulp! (2022) was widely acclaimed. The third and latest album Boys These Days (2025) went to No 1 in the Official Record Store Chart.
Sports Team have a brand new single, ‘Billy’, out now which is the first release since the 3rd studio album. Having checked out the video for ‘Billy’ which is brilliant, chaotic and encapsulates what Sports Team is all about and also reading Rob Knaggs (backing vocals/rhythm guitar) description: “It’s a love letter to getting desperately, insanely drunk at a carpeted pub on a Tuesday night. It felt like a return to how we made the first album. Fast, loose and loud”, I knew this set was going to be fun!
Bristol indie-rock band Pack Of Animals open up the evening with a high energy set to get the audience jumping. They go on my list of bands to check out and catch again.
Manchester 4 piece Porij are up next as main support. This band has played some huge shows notably supporting Coldplay on four Manchester dates in 2023 and are a real contrast to the first band with an indie/synth dance vibe. Three of the band have keyboards on stage with lead singer Scout Moore (aka Egg) also multi-tasking with a trumpet. 30 minutes wasn’t long enough to get full appreciation of Porij and that’s another band to check out more fully in the future.
As we wait for Sports Team to come on stage the excitement in the room builds, all the gaps in the crowd close up as everyone moves forwards and the mosh pit is ready to go even before the band appeared!
Sports Team waste no time and bound onto the stage and straight into their 75 minute set. The songs taken from all three albums plus other singles/EPs, blend seamlessly from one to another, it’s as if they’re challenging the world record of how many songs can you fit into a setlist. Alex Rice on lead vocals chats to the crowd throughout the set and having a crowd that knows every word to every song obviously means a great deal. Rice opened up the mosh pit on song number two but it was one of the friendliest pits I’ve ever come across with people just wanting to have fun without necessarily flattening the person next to them!
I was waiting for ‘Billy’ to be played and it was worth waiting for, I honestly think it’s the best song from Sports Team for a while.
Catching a band of this calibre on a small venue tour is an absolute joy and highly recommended. Sports Team now moves onto Oxford, Bristol, Liverpool, Blackpool, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Nottingham followed by an appearance at Earth Hackney Festival.
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