Stone Pony
Robert Batley also fronts the rock and roll band Stone Pony who have been a great function band suitable for weddings and live music nights and now are preparing to release their first full-length original album, Rabble Rock Radio on the 16th of April.
After two albums, uniform rave reviews, support slots for Supergrass, Chas n’ Dave, and a five-year break, southeast London’s Stone Pony are revving up to release their first full-length album Rabble Rock Radio with No Coward Music.
On Saturday the 14th of April, Stone Pony will host their album release party at The Bread and Roses in Clapham SW4 6DZ with free entry, a special release night price on the album, and full sets from the band and special guests. More information is on the Facebook event page.
The first single from the album “Lonely for Some Honesty” was released as a gift to their patient fans and is still available as a free download from their Facebook page at http://facebook.com/stoneponybandpage. It’s another south London tale of love lost and found on a night out in town. Set in New Cross’ finest nightclub, The Venue, it’s about the nightly saga of a guy trying to go home with a girl.
“Across Town” is the Tom Petty inspired second single from the album. Singer/songwriter Robert Batley says, “I wrote this song from the point of view of a man looking out across the Thames river from St. Paul’s Cathedral and imagining the things that were happening in the big city of London.”
When asked about taking four years away and bringing it all back together for this LP, Batley said, “We had a whole bunch of music that we were really proud of and felt needed to be heard. Listening back to old recordings we realized we had the makings of something really good and after a lot of good work over the past year, we fashioned an album we are really proud of. I think we tried to create music that we would listen to rather than music that we thought people wanted us to make and in that respect it was the most fun I think we’ve had making a record.”
Formed in the hazy summer of 2004 out of a bustling University of Kent music scene, the rock and roll five piece Stone Pony quickly established themselves as crowd favourites to the students and locals in the Canterbury area.
Equally at ease bringing the crowd to its feet with stirring guitar driven rock numbers as tugging at the heartstrings with piano led ballads, the band built up an avid following in their final year of University.
When the student days came to an end, the band moved back to southeast London, where they released their first two EPs The Sam Sessions and Chasing Thieves to uniformly excellent reviews.
“Stone Pony combines excellent musicianship, stage presence, danceable tunes and strong lyrics – the ideal club band”
- John Collis, former music editor at Time Out magazine
