Nine Black Alps are an English indie rock quartet from Manchester. They are named after a line in a Sylvia Plath poem and are fronted by Sam Forrest. The band's first album Everything Is was released June 2005 and their live performances earned them a hardcore fanbase after playing for only 6 months on the Manchester music scene. They supported the Kaiser Chiefs (along with HARD-Fi) for part of their UK tour in April 2005, and later Weezer in August. They also performed at 2005's Glastonbury festival, T in the Park and Reading and Leeds festival. Arctic Monkeys played a gig with the band for Radio 1 at Manchester Academy in 2005.
Their first U.S. single was "Cosmopolitan"; their album Everything Is was released in America on February 28, 2006. They played to a large audience in March, 2006, at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, TX.
On 18 October 2006 NME.com reported that they were working on the follow up to Everything Is, recording with Oasis and Jet producer Dave Sardy in Los Angeles. "According to a posting on Nineblackalps.com the band and Dave Sardy will "furrow their brows, vent their spleens and bleed their hearts into the production of a glorious technicolour audiophonic dreamscape." "
Love/Hate was released under the Island label, on 29 October 2007.
Nine Black Alps played on the NME Stage at Reading and Leeds festival and Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, Inverness-shire, in August 2007. The band's first release of 2007 came in the form of "Pocket Full of Stars", a song written by the band and Hayley Hutchinson for inclusion in the movie soundtrack to Surf's Up. The first single taken from the new album was "Burn Faster" released on July 23 and the second single, "Bitter End", was released on October 15.
In November 2007 Nine Black Alps supported Biffy Clyro on the Scottish leg of their tour and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The band are touring the UK in January and February 2008.
