I love the music

The Music all met at Brigshaw High School except Phil Jordan who went to Garforth and began playing in 1999 as Insense. In 2001 the song Take the Long Road and Walk It circulated as a demo beforebeing released by Fierce Panda as a 1000-copies-only single, a rarity from its day of release. Around this time the NME and Steve Lamacq were describing them as the best unsigned band in Britain. Theband were quickly signed by Hut, who released their first EP You Might as Well Try to Fuck Me.

In 2002, following another EP (The People) they released their eponymous début album which reached No. 4in the UK album charts. Their début single was re-issued as part of a two-disc set to promote the album, and reached No. 14 in the singles chart. Two further singles from the album, Getaway and TheTruth is No Words reached No. 26 and No. 18 respectively. June 2003 saw them filling in for an absent Zwan on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival.[2]

In autumn 2004, they released their secondalbum Welcome to the North and the accompanying single Freedom Fighters, before touring with Incubus. August 2005 saw the band play at the dual-venue V Festival. In late 2006 they played a few UK gigsand subsequently posted on their site the video new song entitled, Fire, which would eventually be released on Strength in Numbers two years later. The site also featured a video for unreleased trackKill 100 by X-Press 2 featuring Robert Harvey.

The band signed a new deal with Polydor in 2007 and spent the rest of the year recording their third album with producers Flood and Paul Hartnoll.During this time Harvey also revealed the reason for the band's extended absence. On The Music's official website, he told of his initial abuse of drugs in his mid-teens: "the addiction began to sitinto its groove. At first it was a joy then later became a habit and a way of escaping". He later quit drugs, but around the time of the band's second album, had replaced the addiction with alcohol:...