Favourites of the late John Peel, who invited them to perform five sessions for his BBC Radio 1 show 2000-2004 as well as featured them many times in his Festive Fifty chart, ballboy are a cult indie-pop band from Edinburgh whose warm, whimsical and savagely witty speak-sung songs about bored sex, DIY drugs, civic shame and polar bears helped to define a generation of fiercely independent Scottish music around the turn of the millennium. 

Much of ballboy’s most evocative and enduring work was captured on a trio of EPs – Silver Suits for Astronauts (1999), I Hate Scotland (2000) and Girls Are Better Than Boys (2001) – later collected on the 2001 compilation album Club Anthems 2001. Lost Map Records are excited to work with ballboy on a reissue of Club Anthems 2001 – available to pre-order now – which will see the album released on vinyl for the very first time. This anniversary edition of the record comes with tracks from the follow-up EP, All The Songs On The Radio Are Shite (2002).

The official album release date is January 13, 2022, with vinyl pre-orders shipping before Christmas. ballboy will perform live at Lost Map’s Xmas Humbug all-dayer at Summerhall in Edinburgh on Saturday, December 17 as well as at the Lost Map 10 all-dayer as part of Celtic Connections at Oran Mor in Glasgow on Sunday, February 5. More live shows will be announced soon.

“It is Club Anthems’ 21st Anniversary,” says ballboy singer, guitarist and songwriter Gordon McIntyre. “It seemed like a good time to give it a revisit, on some nice vinyl, and gently float it out into the world again. We are delighted that this is through Lost Map. I’m not sure I’d trust it to anyone else, really.”

ballboy are Gordon McIntyre, together with Nick Reynolds (bass), Gary Morgan (drums) and Alexa Morrison (keys, vocals), the latter of whom joined the band in 2004, replacing original keyboardist Katie Griffiths (pictured above). Evoking shades of The Wedding Present, The Field Mice, Arab Strap and Billy Bragg, Club Anthems 2001 helped to break ballboy to an international audience and saw the band go on to tour widely around the US and Europe, as well as release four full-length albums – A Guide for the Daylight Hours (2002), The Sash My Father Wore and Other Stories (2003), The Royal Theatre (2004) and I Worked on the Ships (2008). In parallel, Gordon has released solo records both as ++Money Can’t Buy Music and under his own name. In 2008 Gordon co-created the Traverse Theatre Company production Midsummer [a play with songs] together with David Greig. Following a critically acclaimed run in Edinburgh that year, it has since gone on to be performed around the world. The debut Gordon McIntyre solo album titled Even With The Support Of Others was released on Lost Map in 2022 to much acclaim. 

The 21st anniversary reissue of Club Anthems 2001 marks a much-anticipated return to full-band activity for ballboy after the best part of a decade’s stasis. They are writing and recording, with plans to release brand new music soon. About the first double A-side single to be released from the Club Anthems 2001 reissue, Gordon writes:

“‘Donald in the Bushes with a Bag of Glue’ is that thing that songwriters all experience sometimes – the song that happens quickly, that seems to write itself. It is a collection of lots of things that happened in my life at that one point that was set in motion by meeting an old school friend who’s quote became the title. Our first big leap into story-songs as a band.

“‘Leave The Earth Behind You And Take A Walk Into The Sunshine’ is, probably, my favourite ballboy song of all. All I knew when I was starting it was how I wanted it to feel and that it was going to start with that two-note delay-pedal refrain. I had no idea how to get to the finished song, but the band came and wrapped around it, and we found it along the way. There are more feelings and memories wrapped up in this song for me than there are in boxes of photos.”

TRACKLISTING

Side A
1. Donald In The Bushes With A Bag Of Glue
2. A Day In Space
3. Dumper Truck Racing
4. Public Park

Side B
5. Essential Wear For Future Trips To Space
6. I Hate Scotland
7. One Sailor Was Waving
8. Olympic Cyclist

Side C
9. Leave The Earth Behind You And Take A Walk Into The Sunshine
10. I've Got Pictures Of You In Your Underwear
11. Swim For Health
12. They'll Hang Flags From Cranes Upon My Wedding Day

Side D
13. All The Records On The Radio Are Shite
14. Stars And Stripes
15. Welcome To The New Year
16. Building For The Future