Coast is a Scottish rock group, based in Oban, UK. Coast's members are Paul Eastham (lead vocals, keyboards, guitars, accordion), Chris Barnes (percussion) and Finlay Wells (guitars).
Early history
Coast was formed in winter 2007 by the Stockport born singer-songwriter Paul Eastham and his brother, Chris Barnes. A classically trained pianist, Eastham had previously co-written and co-produced the first EP by the Welsh singer Duffy, Aimée Duffy, which was released in 2004 under the Welsh Awen Records label. Eastham also played keyboards, synthesizers and guitar on the EP.
Coast's first EP was The Great Crowd, released in January 2008, also on Awen Records. Per Paul Eastham in the accompanying DVD for the album "'10'", Coast was originally intended to be a studio-only project. But due to the positive online reaction to the title track, a live lineup was soon assembled. Coast performed their first live show at the Storm Club in Leicester Square, London, on 12 March 2008.
In May 2009, Coast was asked to record the official single for "Saints Aid", a charity event organized by Southampton Football Club fans to raise funds to keep the club from going into liquidation. The single, "Colours", was released on 18 May 2009 and the band appeared at the Saints Aid music festival at St Mary's Stadium in Southampton on 23 May 2009. In September 2009, "Colours" hit the top of the German Web Radio Charts.
Eponymous Debut Album Coast and The Turning Stone
The band released their first full-length album, Coast, on 21 November 2009 in conjunction with a sold-out album launch show at the Talking Heads in Southampton. The album was first previewed on the Karin Ingram Show on Radio Borders on 15 November 2009.
Coast appeared on the Sally Taylor Show on BBC Radio Solent on 23 January 2010 before their appearance at the Danny Kyle Open Stage of Glasgow's Celtic Connections music festival on 24 January 2010. The band's show at Oban on 26 February was reviewed by The Oban Times. On 8 March 2010, Celtic Music Radio in Glasgow selected Coast as its Album of the Week
It was announced on 16 March 2010 that Coast would appear on the same bill as Donnie Munro, Steve Harley, Status Quo and the Sugababes at the Rock4Life music festival near Inverness in May 2010. However, the festival was eventually cancelled by the organisers because of financial problems.
On 9 April 2010, it was announced that Coast would play their first non-UK show at the annual Tønder Festival in Denmark at the end of August 2010. Coast played on the same stage as the Scottish folk rock bands Wolfstone and The Chair. In May 2010, Eastham and then-bassist Adam Bowden collaborated with the Kent-based musician Trevor Osborne to record and produce the England World Cup song "Go Win for England". The track was recorded under the pseudonym The Bulldog Brothers and released on the Awen Records label. That summer, Coast were runners-up in a competition run by the Southampton-based radio station Wave 105.2 to support Bon Jovi at the O2 arena in London in June 2010. Coast played at the Tønder Festival on 27 and 29 August 2010. The award winning Scottish fiddler Duncan Chisholm from Wolfstone joined Coast onstage to play fiddle on the song "The Beat of You", co-written by Coast lead singer Eastham and Iain Bayne.
On 7 November 2010, Radio Borders gave Coast's new single, "The Beat of You" from their upcoming album, its first radio airplay. The single features Duncan Chisholm from Wolfstone. "The Beat of You" was released on 19 November 2010 in download format only. Coast released their second album, The Turning Stone, on 7 May 2011 through their own Ruabhal Records label. The band performed an album launch show at The Ironworks in Inverness on the same date. They were supported by Donald MacDonald and The Islands and The Gritters. Eddie Jordan from the Scottish new wave band Fiction Factory joined Coast on stage, playing the accordion on the song "Oceanos".
In May 2011, Coast announced that they had signed a CD distribution deal in Denmark with RecArt Entertainment Group. The band was subsequently dropped by the label in 2013. On 12 June 2011, Coast played at the 50th Anniversary Concert for the German retail giant Saturn, attended by over 10,000 Saturn employees. Also playing at the event was the Canadian singer/songwriter Bryan Adams and the chart topping German acts Unheilig and Die Fantastischen Vier.
On 21 June 2011, Coast front man Eastham released An Cuan Siar, a solo album of piano instrumentals.