Athlete is an indie rock band formed in Deptford, London, England, comprising Joel Pott (lead vocals and guitar), Carey Willetts (bass and backing vocals), Stephen Roberts (drums and backing vocals) and Tim Wanstall (keyboards and backing vocals).Friends since the age of fourteen, Athlete took their wide ranging influences such as Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips and started jamming and practicing in the basement of The Bear, a pub which was converted into a church and sandwich bar, on Deptford High Street in 1999. They began recording there, before sending demos out. Signing with Regal Recordings, they released their first single in February 2002. The band came to prominence in 2003 with their debut album, Vehicles and Animals, producing popular singles such as "You Got the Style" and "El Salvador". The album earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination and went on to sell over 250,000 copies.Their second album, Tourist, reached Number One in the UK Album Charts in its first week, following the huge success of single Wires, which, in 2006, won them the Ivor Novello Award for "Best Contemporary Song". In the UK charts, the band has frequently been frustrated by singles just missing out on top 40 placings, due to inconsistent support by music television channels and radio stations. For instance, certain songs, such as "Wires" and "Half light", were played up to 10 times a day on larger UK radio stations, yet other singles such as Westside and Tourist received little to no radio play whatsoever, fueling talk of radio stations deciding who becomes a major player in the pop music franchise.On 30 March 2007, the band said on their MySpace blog that the new album is ready and finished and was mixed by Ben Allen and Michael Brauer, who also worked on Tourist. In February Stephen Roberts said that the band are "also talking about when to release the album. We're now thinking that maybe to wait after the summer could be a good time. So then the festivals will be finished and we will be all rehearsed ready to tour." Some of the new songs confirmed by the band are "Accidents Happen", "Airport Disco", "Shades On", "In the Library", "Tokyo", "Minute to Lose" and "This is What I Sound Like". [1]On 10 June 2007, it was announced that the title of their third album would be Beyond the Neighbourhood.[2]