Middleton
Liam James Fray was born on 15 May 1985 in Middleton, Greater Manchester. He picked up a guitar at eleven, trying to learn "Wonderwall", and never put it down. He went to Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic High School, where his classmate Daniel Moores would later become the band's rhythm guitarist. Everybody called Moores "Conan". After school Fray enrolled at the University of Salford to study economics, switched to creative writing, and then dropped out in his second year because something better had come along. In 2015 the university gave him an Honorary Doctorate of Arts. The dropout came back as Dr Fray.
Before there was a band there was a lad with an acoustic guitar doing sets in pubs around Manchester. The crowds were good enough to convince him he should stop pretending to be a student and start pretending to be a rock star. In 2006 he formed the band with Michael Campbell on drums, a lad who had never played the drums before Fray recruited him, and Mark Cuppello on bass. Conan Moores joined shortly after on rhythm guitar. All from Middleton. Their first gig was at the Manchester Roadhouse in October 2006. They called themselves The Courteeners. In December 2012 they dropped the "The".
St. Jude
Stephen Street heard the demos and offered to produce the debut album. Street had produced The Smiths' Strangeways, Here We Come and Blur's Parklife, which is not a bad CV to bring to a recording session in 2007. They were signed to Loog Records, a subsidiary of Polydor. The singles came first: "Cavorting" in August 2007, "Acrylic" in October, "What Took You So Long?" in January 2008, and "Not Nineteen Forever" at the end of March. St. Jude was released on 7 April 2008. Fray painted the cover, which features Audrey Hepburn. It reached number 4. In December 2008 they won the inaugural Guardian First British Album Award.
The critics were mixed. The fans were not. St. Jude sold and kept selling. In 2023, a fifteenth anniversary edition was released and it went to number 1 on the UK Albums Chart. Fourteen years, nine months and fourteen days between release and reaching the top. It was the longest gap in UK chart history, and they became only the third act to top the chart with a reissued album, after the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Polydor put the anniversary edition on the shelves, but the fans are the reason it sold: 97% of the sales were physical copies, bought by fans on vinyl and CD.
Not Nineteen Forever
The riff came from a mistake. Fray was trying to learn the guitar part to "Someday" by The Strokes, played it wrong, and liked the wrong version better. "Not Nineteen Forever" was released on 31 March 2008 and reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart. It has since been certified double platinum. It is a conversation between a young man and his older girlfriend, who drives him home for tea and toast and tells him he needs to grow up. It became the soundtrack to indie nights across the North, the one that emptied the bar and filled the floor. Manchester United used it to celebrate their twentieth Premier League title in 2013. It is, by any measure, their song.
Falcon followed in 2010 and reached number 6. Then the band left Polydor. ANNA came out on PIAS in 2013 and made number 6. Concrete Love reached number 3 in 2014. They have been on independent labels ever since, first PIAS and then Ignition Records, and every album has charted higher than anyone outside the fanbase expected. Mapping the Rendezvous reached number 4 in 2016. More. Again. Forever. went to number 2 in 2020. In 2017 Fray admitted he had been "a pale imitation of Liam Gallagher" in the band's first days. By the time More. Again. Forever. came out, the imitation was long gone. The voice was his own.
Fray called them the biggest underground band in the world. Fifty thousand people at Heaton Park suggest he might be right.
Fifty Thousand
In June 2015 they headlined Heaton Park for the first time. Twenty-five thousand people, sold out, their biggest show to that point. Blossoms were on the support bill. In May 2017, five days after the Manchester Arena bombing, they played Emirates Old Trafford cricket ground to fifty thousand. It was the first major concert in Manchester since the attack. Fifty thousand people sang "Don't Look Back in Anger" together. Fray opened the show by reading Ryan Williams' "And the Bees Still Buzz". It was not a Courteeners song that fifty thousand sang together, but it did not need to be. It was a Manchester moment, and they were the band who held the stage for it. They were part of We Are Manchester, the concert that reopened the Arena.
Heaton Park again in June 2019, fifty thousand, doubled from four years earlier. Emirates Old Trafford again in September 2021, fifty thousand, with Johnny Marr and Blossoms on the support bill. Then Heaton Park once more in 2023, another fifty thousand, performing St. Jude in full. They kept filling them. Mark Cuppello had left the band in December 2015 and was replaced by Joe Cross, who had been their producer. Cross and keyboard player Elina Lin both became official members in 2024. The lineup grew but the engine did not change.
God Bless the Band
Pink Cactus Cafe came in October 2024 and reached number 2. Their sold-out show at Co-op Live that November became the live album Live In Manchester. In August 2026, twenty years after the Roadhouse, they released God Bless the Band, a best-of compilation with two new songs: "Plus One Forever" and "The Luckiest Man Alive". It reached number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and number 1 on the Independent Albums Chart. They played Wythenshawe Park to thirty thousand on 29 August 2026. A six-date arena tour was booked for November 2026, with a pound from every ticket going to the LIVE Trust to support grassroots venues. Fray has confirmed an eighth album, which he has called "a bit of a left turn".
Fray called them the biggest underground band in the world. The description has stuck because it captures something real. Seven albums, every one in the top six. Heaton Park, Old Trafford, Wythenshawe Park. Fifty thousand people who know every word. And still the music press acts surprised every time they sell out. There is a sneery classist undertone to it, as Fray has pointed out, a suggestion that a band from Middleton who are "only big up north" cannot really count. The fans do not care. They never have. They were not nineteen forever, but the songs still are.