A LOVE LETTER TO A BROKEN TOWN

WELL… THEY FUCKING DID IT!

After a week of chart battles, sold-out vinyls, football shirts, cassettes, meet-and-greets, a Rotherham heart trail, a podcast edition and one hell of a final push from their army of fans, Reytons have officially landed their second UK Number 1 album with ‘A Love Letter To A Broken Town‘.

Let’s be honest, it feels pretty fucking special that the Rotherham four-piece have fought off serious competition from FLO to reach the top of the Official Albums Chart, with the girl group sitting closely behind throughout the week but when the dust settled, it was Reytons who stood at the top once again.

This wasn’t a comfortable stroll to the finish line either, Reytons reportedly held a 3,000-unit lead at Monday’s midweeks before the race really started to heat up. Rather than sit back and protect that advantage, the band did what the Reytons do best, they brought their community along for the ride.

There were limited vinyl editions selling out, the Luke Horton version disappearing, a special holographic edition unlocked through a heart trail around Rotherham and football shirt bundles with the album, with the band revealing that 75% of the shirts had already sold.

Now that Number 1 has been secured, there’s an extra little bit of history being added to those shirts too, fans who ordered the football shirt can now have a second star added above the Reytons badge before it is sent out, representing their second number 1 album.

Then came the cassettes, four limited editions tapes for each member and suddenly the album campaign turned into a full-on leaderboard, with fans watching the bars move as Jonny, Joe, Lee and Jamie battled it out to see who would sell out first. Jonny claimed the gold spot first, selling out his cassette before Lee came charging towards the finish line to bag second. The whole thing became another excuse for fans to get involved, pick their favourite and help push the band towards the top and just when you thought they’d thrown everything at it, the Reytons unveiled a podcast edition of the album, giving fans another way to get behind the release before the chart week closed.

The final evening summed up exactly what makes this band different, rather than disappearing behind the scenes, the lads went live from their sorting office, bringing fans into the madness as they celebrated release week and made one final push towards the Number 1 spot.

That’s the thing with Reytons, they don’t just have fans, they have a community and that community has been at the heart of everything they’ve done since the beginning, from ‘Kids Off The Estate‘ to their first Number 1 with ‘What’s Rock And Roll?’, from packed-out UK shows to headlining Y Not Festival and now to their second Number 1 album, the story has always been about four lads from Rotherham building something with the people around them, that’s why this Number 1 feels bigger than the chart position.

Every cassette bought, every shirt ordered, every vinyl purchased, every stream, every ticket and every person who jumped on board with the latest release has played their part. Reytons have always embraced the underdog mentality, an independent band taking on the traditional music industry machine and proving that a huge, loyal audience can still change the fucking game and this week, they did exactly that.

There is a little bit of history and vengeance hanging over this one too, their previous album ‘Ballad of a Bystander‘, famously finished at Number 2 after a controversial chart battle with James Arthur, Reytons disputed the treatment of some of their sales that week and maintained that they had actually sold more albums than their eventual chart-topping rival.That experience clearly hasn’t been forgotten but rather than allowing it to define them, Reytons have come back and done what they’ve always done, put the fans at the centre of the story and let the community decide how far they can go and what a community it is.

Reytons have built something where fans don’t simply turn up to gigs and go home, they travel together, make friendships, follow the band across Europe and even as far as Japan and meet people through the community becoming part of something that feels considerably bigger than four lads on a stage. That’s why the word “we” seems so appropriate when talking about this Number 1. It’s not just Reytons got Number 1, It’s more of a we got Number 1 and that’s exactly the story they want to tell.

The People’s Band have done it again.

A Love Letter To A Broken Town is officially NUMBER FUCKING ONE.

Congratulations… REYTONS!.