The Maccabees are bearing their marks

Their fourth album was their first chart-topper, proving The Maccabees are in it for the

AFTER a decade plus of noble underachievement, last August, London indie quartet The Maccabees topped the UK album charts with their fourth LP, Marks To Prove It. ‘Overnight’ success following a decade of deafening obscurity took more than a little getting used to. Actually, it’s something they’re still coming to terms with. They feel blessed — yet it isn’t as if their lives have been flipped head over heels. Rags to riches tales don’t really happen in the music industry nowadays.

“There’s a story about Simon and Garfunkel driving to a gig in a beaten up van just as they were starting to break through,” says guitarist Felix White. “A song of theirs came on the radio and one of them turned to the other and said, ‘Those guys sound like they’re having the time of their lives’. Whereas in reality they were still sleeping rough in vans and what have you. There’s some truth to that — your world doesn’t change immediately. You carry on much as you always did.”