The Boy Least Likely To / The Little Ones

Tucked away in the upper recess of Bristol’s Carling Academy was a gig awash with the kind of happiness and fun filled vibes you’d get on an all expenses paid trip to Disney World.

Balloons and party poppers were being distributed freely, and there definitely was a peculiarly excitable feel to this gig. The crowd were a bit of an odd group, and as much fun as I get from stereotyping crowds, this was one bunch who had manage to evade my necessity to pigeonhole.

Support act The Little Ones are a jovial carefree group, with simple tuneful numbers based around the importance of melody. It’s a jingly affair, with similarities to Mull Historical Society, The Shins, The Bee’s and tonight’s headliners, The Boy Least Likely To.

Their cheerfulness could be their downfall, and after a few listens their songs may no doubt become more than a little irritating. Material like ‘Face the Facts’ is happy and carefree, carrying a whimsical charm. It’s listenable stuff but The Magic Number’s capture that 60’s California Dreamin’ feel so much better.


The Boy Least Likely To are, to be fair, a bit of a shambles. They struggle through their palm-muted cover of George Michael’s ‘Faith’. Not because they suffer from any musical or technical hindrances, it’s just that they can’t get through the whole thing without bursting out laughing. It’s not ruining the crowds enjoyment of their set either, as the more Boy Least Likely To laugh and stutter through their performance, the more humorous it is to watch.

‘Papercuts’ treads a fine line between subtly endearing and irrefutably annoying. The keyboard backing makes it all sound rather like a capricious version of something The Research may write. It’s still one of their most indie tracks to date, but throw in a bit of synthesised electro pop and they start to become more of Maximo Park at Christmas time and less Nizlopi taking things seriously. On their tour of the US they’d even told the crowd, every night, that this song had made it to the number one spot in the UK. In truth, it never even broke the top 100.


The spontaneous crowd-band banter keeps the gig flowing smoothly. At one point someone yells out “Oh my god I need a face lift!” to which lead singer Jof Owen replies ‘pull your hat down, that’ll do the trick”. Later on the band asks “has anyone here got a crap job?”, to which someone shouts “I’m unemployed”, forcing Owen to show off a cheeky grin and look down before commenting in an overly cheerful tone “Oh dear. That’s not good either”.

Although they’ve had a recent support slot with Razorlight (whose drummer performed on the recorded version of ‘Be gentle to me’) they also controversially supported James Blunt. A bit of an odd choice perhaps, but the bands reasoning for doing this was cited as “because we thought it would be funny”. Which pretty much sums up the group’s attitude. They have a sense of humour and aren’t prepared to take themselves too seriously.

‘Apple Wagon’ is like a cheesy nursery rhyme, but it encapsulates the very sense of being a child and living in a world of wonderment. It sounds like the type of music that would suit a little music box. It’s downright awful, but where it fails in originality it makes up with innocuous charm.

The group find their niche in the market by employing a banjo, and finding a particularly unique blend of twee pop and what the band like to call ‘country disco’. Their best song, the excessively happy ‘Be gentle with me’ is left to last and has the whole crowd swaying happily and clapping along to a track that’s bound to have instant radio appeal, and may even become a festival favourite.



As a slightly tacky disco ball twirls hangs and twirls from the roof, various instruments are passed between band members, including a glock and a badly played recorder - which ends up elevating new band member ‘Rob’ to an almost legendary status with the crowd.

When it all comes to an end it’s perfectly clear that The Boy Least Likely To play cheerful, upbeat tunes with terrible lyrics. It’s annoying, plinky plonky rhythmic music but it’s carried with such a cheery and positive disposition that you can’t hate them, no matter how much you want to. I find their music to be irksome, childlike, and derivative. Yet it’s simply impossible to walk out of a Boy Least Likely To gig without a smile on your face, and for that reason alone this act are truly terrific live.

FUTURE GIGS