Manchester favourites Courteeners continue celebrating two decades as one of Britain’s defining indie bands with the release of ‘Plus One Forever’, the latest preview of their forthcoming greatest hits collection, God Bless The Band, arriving on 28 August via Ignition Music.
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Following recent single ‘The Luckiest Man Alive’, Plus One Forever finds frontman Liam Fray once again leaning into the emotional clarity and melodic instinct that has become synonymous with the band’s songwriting. Produced by Fray alongside James Skelly of The Coral, the track is an intimate love song built around understated melancholy and a chorus seemingly destined to become another crowd favourite.
God Bless The Band traces Courteeners’ remarkable journey from their 2008 debut St. Jude through to 2024’s Pink Cactus Café, bringing together highlights from all seven studio albums. The collection features enduring fan favourites including ‘Not Nineteen Forever’, ‘Are You In Love With A Notion?’, ‘Modern Love’, ‘The 17th’ and ‘Hanging Off Your Cloud’, alongside the two newly recorded tracks.
Since emerging from Middleton, Greater Manchester in 2006, Courteeners have steadily grown into one of Britain’s biggest live bands. More than one million albums sold, four consecutive Top Five albums and the remarkable achievement of St. Jude reaching No. 1 in the UK charts fifteen years after its original release have cemented their place in modern British guitar music. Their concerts have become communal celebrations, with Liam Fray’s deeply personal songwriting transformed into stadium-sized singalongs.
The influence of Courteeners extends well beyond the UK charts. Fray’s emotionally direct songwriting and the band’s blend of anthemic indie rock and Mancunian melancholy have helped shape a new generation of British guitar bands while maintaining a fiercely loyal fanbase of their own.
The release of God Bless The Band will be marked by a sold-out hometown performance at Wythenshawe Park before the band embark on a nationwide UK arena tour this November. Available across heavyweight vinyl, CD and deluxe editions featuring additional material, the compilation serves as both a retrospective and a reminder that Courteeners continue to evolve while remaining firmly connected to the songs that first defined them.
