{"id":804689,"date":"2026-10-16T17:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/804689\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T17:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:24:17","slug":"the-mainstream-has-come-to-them-how-did-fontaines-dc-go-from-dublin-dive-bars-to-headlining-stadiums-fontaines-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/804689\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The mainstream has come to them\u2019: how did Fontaines DC go from Dublin dive bars to headlining stadiums? | Fontaines DC"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Irish rockers Fontaines DC emerged in 2019, they were a bunch of post-punk poets making abrasive guitar music at a time when Dance Monkey<\/a>, Drake<\/a> and The Greatest Showman reigned supreme. But today, as their fifth album Dopamine Chamber is released, the quintet are looking towards a 2027 filled with gigs in UK stadiums, US arenas and headline slots at big European festivals \u2013 plus rumours of topping Glastonbury\u2019s Pyramid stage. It\u2019s quite a trajectory.<\/p>\n

Their rise has been strangely traditional for a time when social media has culture in a chokehold. Ever more ambitious albums, the support of radio and institutions such as the BBC, and a lot of touring have all played parts. Beyond that, \u201cfact is, they\u2019re one of the best bands in the world,\u201d says fellow countryman Mo Chara, one third of Kneecap<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fontaines DC formed at the BIMM Music Institute in Dublin in 2014. The school\u2019s dean, Alan Cullivan, describes them as having had \u201can absolute focus. It was all about writing a better song after a better song after a better song.\u201d They\u2019d apparently play to 30 people in a dive bar one week, then come back three weeks later and half the songs would be new.<\/p>\n

That caught the attention of Trevor Dietz, who became their manager and was described by Fontaines as \u201cthe sixth member of the band\u201d when he died earlier this year. \u201cHe brought this unwavering sense of self-belief, and that was very contagious,\u201d says Jeff Bell, who\u2019d end up signing the band to Partisan Records.<\/p>\n

Dietz\u2019s connections brought Fontaines into orbits outside the Dublin gig circuit. By 2017 the band had released the single Liberty Belle and Dietz introduced them to south London band Shame<\/a>, who were playing their first headline Dublin shows. \u201cWe went on this tour together for our first album,\u201d remembers Shame singer Charlie Steen. \u201cIt felt like they had their own crowd even with just a few songs out \u2013 it\u2019s one thing to have that in Dublin, but it\u2019s another thing to have it in Leicester.\u201d He adds that Fontaines\u2019 frontman Grian Chatten \u201cgave me a Yeats <\/a>book to read on that tour\u201d: typical of the singer\u2019s unashamed poetic leanings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

BBC Radio 6 Music\u2019s Steve Lamacq was an early champion of the band around the same time. \u201cThey sent us the self-released seven-inch of Hurricane Laughter, and we played that a couple of times \u2013 it had a power and an atmosphere that a lot of records around at the time didn\u2019t really have,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

In March 2018 the band played the Victoria in Dalston, east London, a tiny pub backroom. In the crowd was Lamacq, enthralled by Chatten\u2019s stage presence, and Bell, who flew to Dublin the next week to sign them. \u201cAs soon as I met them, it was clear that they were the biggest band in the world,\u201d Bell says. \u201cIt just hadn\u2019t happened yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The label developed a clear gameplan with the band. \u201cThere were two guiding principles: authenticity and urgency,\u201d Bell says. \u201cIf the mixes weren\u2019t right, start again. If an edit didn\u2019t feel right, it didn\u2019t go to radio. If a writer didn\u2019t get it, don\u2019t do the interview. We also made a point of showcasing the lyrics wherever we could; that was a real point of access for a lot of people.\u201d After their 2019 debut album Dogrel went Top 10 in the UK and Ireland, the Covid lockdown could have scuppered them, like it did so many small acts on the rise. But instead of cancelling releases as others did, they pressed ahead with the release of their second album, A Hero\u2019s Death, which was nominated for a Grammy.<\/p>\n

Fontaines DC pictured in 2026. Photograph: Elizaveta Porodina<\/p>\n

The enormous crowds that Fontaines DC now command are not a result of pandering to the TikTok algorithm, though, even mid-lockdown. The band has a presence on social media, but they haven\u2019t done viral video series such as Hot Ones, Chicken Shop Date<\/a> or Subway Takes<\/a>. \u201cThey are one of those artists that has very quickly become contrarian to the rule, where they\u2019ve taken a less-is-more approach,\u201d says Liam Ward, founder of music-focused social media marketing agency Something Something.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t stop Fontaines having hardcore fans who film entire shows for social media and, in Ward\u2019s opinion, this fan activity online is organic (as opposed to manufactured by legions of fake accounts, as deployed<\/a> by some of their indie peers). \u201cI have not even heard rumours or whispers [of that],\u201d he says. \u201cThey put out what they put out, and all of that craziness and noise happens around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their previous album, 2024\u2019s Romance, which came with DayGlo artwork and rave-adjacent new looks for the members, was derided by some early fans as too pop but became their first platinum seller in the UK and Ireland and earned another couple of Grammy noms. Dopamine Chamber, raved about in a five-star review in the Guardian<\/a>, is just as strange and arresting. \u201cArctic Monkeys, in a way, have done a brilliant job setting up a space for Fontaines by being a really interesting rock band who have evolved a lot since the early days,\u201d Lamacq says. \u201cThere\u2019s a new, younger audience who are perhaps more lyrically led. They like the vocabulary as well as the music.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Kneecap\u2019s Mo Chara says Fontaines\u2019 political leanings, citing a homelessness benefit show the band curated, and their stance against the genocide in Palestine, further endeared the group to him and many others. He adds: \u201cIf you\u2019re making music as good as they are, the mainstream can\u2019t ignore it, but it feels like they were making music their own way and not to appeal to the masses. The mainstream has come to them rather than the other way round.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are plenty of bands making amazing music who don\u2019t reach the upper echelons of commercial success, though. For Abel Gonz\u00e1lez, who is on the booking team for Barcelona\u2019s Primavera festival, \u201cit\u2019s all about feelings\u201d. Fontaines first played the festival on a small stage in 2018, but next year they\u2019re among the big-name headliners. \u201cEvery time they\u2019ve come back to the festival, they\u2019ve had new things to say, and we\u2019ve wanted to hear them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The true reason for Fontaines DC\u2019s dizzying rise likely lies somewhere in the middle of a complex Venn diagram: a once-a-generation confluence of talent, commitment, good people and luck. The consensus seems to be that there\u2019s no limit to how massive they could become. Bell agrees, still rabidly enthusiastic about the band even after they\u2019ve moved from Partisan to current label XL Recordings. \u201cThey still haven\u2019t reached the top of their mountain. I\u2019m excited to see where it keeps going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dopamine Chamber is out now on XL Recordings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Irish rockers Fontaines DC emerged in 2019, they were a bunch of post-punk poets making abrasive guitar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-804689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}