Liverpool band The Cheap Thrills get ready for UK tour and says ‘this could be our year’

This Saturday The Cheap Thrills play at the O2 Academy in Liverpool with a gig that marks the start of a UK tour.

As LFC season ticket holders, having an acoustic version of their song, Codependence, used as the soundtrack for the club’s 2022/2023 European kit campaign was a career highlight for Liverpool band The Cheap Thrills.

Lead singer and guitarist, Lewis Pike said:

“When we were first approached, the company which does their media campaigns showed us a video they liked which was of me singing it in a pub and I was like, really? I’d had about six or seven pints that night.

“But we re-recorded a cleaner version of the track and then we filmed a video with the players at the Olympia which was amazing.

“We were like kids at Christmas. We literally couldn’t stop smiling. So yeah, that was definitely a highlight.”

Lewis added:

“Hopefully this Saturday will be the next one and the start of something bigger.”

This Saturday the band is playing at the O2 Academy in Liverpool with a gig that marks the start of a UK tour for the Walton Vale band which has just released its latest single, Reborn.

Lewis said:

“The single has had some good reviews and national radio plays and so, who knows, this could be it for us.

“We all work full time but when we get together at weekends we all realise that this, music, is what we want to be doing all the time. Maybe this is the year when it all starts happening for us.”

The Cheap Thrills was formed in 2010 when band members Lewis; Anton Eger, drums and percussion; Terry Eaves, guitar, keyboards and synthesisers, and bass guitarist Callum Fitzpatrick were still at high school.

The lead singer said:

“We went to primary school together, and even though me and Anton went to Maricourt High School in Maghull and Terry and Callum went to Archbishop Beck in Aintree, we all stayed close.

“The band all started with the lads just jamming, and I was the last to join,” he goes on.

“I know some bands have got great stories about how they came about and came together, but we were just bored teenagers and we all wanted to be rock stars basically.

“It was after our first gig that we realised it was something we enjoyed, and we actually wanted to do this.”

He added:

“We played 40 or 50 gigs in 2011 and it’s gone on from there, and it’s going well, building momentum with each gig.

“We began with small gigs at places like Shipping Forecast and Little O2, before building up to 1,000 capacity venues.”

The Cheap Thrills have since supported Jamie Webster, the DMA’s, and The Night Café; they’ve performed at the BBC 6 Music Festival, and in March 2020 they made their US debut at New Colossus Festival in New York City.

All the more surprising is that the band is a DIY success story. They have no management or record label behind them, just their own motivation; since the band started releasing their own music in 2015 they have booked and promoted all their own shows.

Lewis said:

“We just thought we could do this ourselves, and we have just scaled up and scaled up, although we do work with Alex Quinn in Kempston Street Studios.

“I don’t know how far we can take it on our own. If the right people came in to help, we would be open to working with them.”

And that might need to be a possibility. The band is becoming more recognised and well-received and songs like the anthemic Reborn look set to put them on the bigger music map.

Reborn dwells primarily on the past, exploring the idea, says Lewis, that to be happy we need to do the ‘painful shit’ sometimes before we can embark on fresh starts and new beginnings.

The title suggests a relaunch, which in some ways is true, Lewis added:

“I think Covid was difficult for everyone, and this is us after that.

“We have our own practice space and during Covid we just holed ourselves in there and wrote and wrote, I think we wrote about 30 songs. Reborn is the first release. There’s a chance there could be an album but that might or might not happen. We’ll see.”

If things go well, there’s every possibility Lewis and co might be able to live their dream of playing music for a living which means he will have to leave the online shop he works for in customer service, 28-year-old Terry might have to give up his job as a firefighter, and 27-year-olds Anton and Callum might have to hand in their notices as a physicist and nuclear power worker respectively.

The goal, Lewis said, is “if we can make an impression on Liverpool like we have done, then I’m sure we can do it elsewhere.”

And while things look set to change – there’s one thing that will remain the same. Their distinctive sound.

Lewis said:

“When we were growing up there were a lot of bands we were mates with who sang with American accents, and it always bothered me a bit so I’ve tried to sound like me and keep the accent as much as I can.

“We’re rockers with a Scouse accent.”