Johnny Foreigner

Few Birmingham bands have kept their own counsel as stubbornly as Johnny Foreigner. The four-piece, led by Alexei Berrow on guitar and vocals, with Kelly Parker on bass, Junior Elvis Washington Laidley on drums and Lewes Herriot on guitar, have built a catalogue of eight albums around a restless, mouthy indie rock. Berrow once half-joked that they were a country band with pretensions, a line that hints at the wry, unpredictable pull in their music.

They began in December 2005 with a self-released album, We Left You Sleeping and Gone Now, issued in a hand-made edition of 40 copies. Their 2008 debut, Waited Up 'til It Was Light, recorded in Hoboken, New Jersey, was followed by Grace and the Bigger Picture in 2009 and the 2011 album Johnny Foreigner vs Everything, and their fourth album You Can Do Better arrived in 2014. After a hiatus following 2016's Mono No Aware, they returned in 2024 with two EPs and the album How to Be Hopeful, and Forwards! came out in September 2026.