British Sea Power drop British from their name to become Sea Power

10 August 2021, 15:54 | Updated: 10 August 2021, 16:01

The rockers have shared a statement explaining why they've changed their name, insisting they have "no aversion to the British Isles whatsoever."

British Sea Power announced their name change this week.

The indie rockers made the announcement on Monday 9 August that they wanted to drop the "British" from their name due to “a rise in a certain kind of nationalism in this world.

Taking to Twitter, they made the announcement to their thousands of followers, writing: "Goodbye British Sea Power. Hello Sea Power".

Explaining their reasoning in a lengthy statement, the Waving Flags outfit began: "After much reflection and soul-searching, the band formerly known as British Sea Power have modified their name to simply Sea Power. We’ve been British Sea Power for 20 years – an amazing 20 years, when we’ve been able to continually traverse the British Isles, to travel the world, encountering many friendly faces, not least in the band’s remarkable audience. But the name British Sea Power had come to feel constricting, like an ancient legacy we were carrying with us. When we came up with the name British Sea Power there were at least two different lines of thought behind it."

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They continued: "The band name was intended with a kind of wry humour. The idea of British sea power in the historical sense was an obsolete thing. It was now just the name of a rock band… Now, 20 years later, we’re recasting the name. In recent times there’s been a rise in a certain kind of nationalism in this world – an isolationist, antagonistic nationalism that we don’t want to run any risk of being confused with. It’s become apparent that it’s possible to misapprehend the name British Sea Power, particularly if someone isn’t familiar with the band or their recordings. We’ve always been internationalist in our mindset, something made clear in songs like Waving Flags, an anthem to pan-European idealism. We always wanted to be an internationalist band but maybe having a specific nation state in our name wasn’t the cleverest way to demonstrate that. "

Scott Wilkinson and co. added: "We very much hope the band’s audience won’t be affronted by this adjustment to the name. We’d like to make it clear that removing the word “British” does NOT indicate any aversion to the British Isles whatsoever. We all feel immensely fortunate to have grown up in these islands. Several or our songs are filled with love and awe for this place. We do love these lands. We all still live within the British Isles, but we are now just Sea Power. We feel the name change comes in part from the band’s audience – who at a good show will shout out, “Sea Power! Sea Power!” Maybe this name change has been there for years, shouted in our ears. It’s just taken us this long to realise – to hear what was there in front of us…"

Meanwhile, the band have also dropped new music in the form of Two Fingers, which you can listen to here:

Two Fingers

Sea Power formed in 2000 with the original line-up of Scott Wilkinson (Yan), Neil Hamilton Wilkinson, Martin Nobel and Matthew Wood.

Eamon Hamilton joined the band in Autumn 2002, but left in 2006 and was replaced by Phil Sumner. In 2008 Abi Fry joined the band and their line-up has stayed the same ever since.

The band are known for their live performances, their unusual lyrics and the interesting gig locations.