Embrace

Bailiff Bridge to a third number 1

Embrace formed in Bailiff Bridge, West Yorkshire, where the McNamara brothers began writing in a small outbuilding at the bottom of a garden, first on a cassette recorder and then with a drum machine; Wikipedia gives 1990 as the start and MusicBrainz 1993. From 1992 they gigged under several one-off names before settling on Embrace, already used by an American band, whose singer Ian MacKaye approved. Steve Firth joined on bass in 1996 completing the permanent line-up, and Mickey Dale, who had worked with them as an unofficial member, says he officially joined in October 1998. Their debut single "All You Good Good People" came out in February 1997 on Fierce Panda and reached 8, and The Good Will Out (June 8, 1998) went to number 1 in the UK, gold on its first day.

Drawn from Memory (March 27, 2000) reached 8 and If You've Never Been (September 3, 2001) 9. Out of Nothing (September 13, 2004) was their second number 1 and sold 600,000 copies, 2x platinum in the UK, after a period in which Geffen had dropped the band and a US tour was cancelled; Firth said they had been broke and he had been working as a pipe fitter. This New Day (March 27, 2006) became their third chart-topper, and their England World Cup song "World at Your Feet" reached 3 that year. They went on hiatus until August 2013, signed to Cooking Vinyl that December and returned with Embrace (April 28, 2014), Love Is a Basic Need (March 2, 2018, recorded at their own Magnetic North Studio) and How to Be a Person Like Other People (August 26, 2022), their eighth consecutive UK top ten studio album. Avalanche is dated June 12, 2026.

Setlist.fm lists 523 setlists. In 2024 they toured Out of Nothing in full for its 20th anniversary, opening at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds, with a live album from the show. In 2026 the official site promotes an Embrace at 30 tour and a book, Good Good People: The Story of Embrace.