RoadTrip

RoadTrip, also known as RoadTrip TV and abbreviated as RT or RTTV, were an English-Irish pop boy band formed in 2015. The final group comprised of Andy Fowler, Rye Beaumont, Brooklyn Wyatt, Sonny Robertson, and Harper Dark. Mikey Cobban and Jack Duff were part of the original lineup, before leaving in May and December of 2019, respectively.[1][2] They found acclaim covering popular artists, and embarked on nine headlining concert tours, primarily around the United Kingdom and Ireland. They were managed by Blair Dreelan, former singer of the 90s boy band, East 17. Their last project, White Label, was released in February 2020 before the group publicly split in May.

Formation
The creation of the band was through a trial process, unnamed. In March 2015, the first member was Andy Fowler, shortly followed by Rye Beaumont. The name 'RoadTrip' was announced on 26 July, and their YouTube channel was created on 29 July, where they began posting cover songs and vlogs, documenting the process in its early stages. Brooklyn Wyatt and Mikey Cobban began as trial members and joined the lineup officially in September and November.[3] In 2016, the group was invited on the European leg for the worldwide Magcon tour. They additionally sold out their first headlining tour, playing around the United Kingdom and Ireland in September. They were a four-piece for a year and a month before meeting Jack Duff at a show in Dublin, Ireland. Duff promptly left his window installer job, travelled to England the next day, and joined the group in November,[4] turning it into a British-Irish quintet as they embarked on their Christmas co-headlining tour, The Alstar Xmas Party.

Music and touring
The band went on their third headlining tour, Miss Taken, and launched their vlog channel on 22 March 2017, distinguishing from their primary one for solely music. Their debut demo EP was released on 13 April, which climbed atop the pre-order charts on iTunes. Their second demo EP was released on 17 October, followed by multiple headline and support tours, including one that made their American debut, for the Boys of Summer Tour. Both demo EPs are classified under pop, containing elements of teen pop, dance-pop, and pop-rock. Mainly guitar-driven and observed to be "stereotypical cheesy boy-band pop" regarding its sound and lyrics, Fowler lamented that they did not spend a lot of time on the second EP, mostly due to touring.[5] They performed at The SSE Arena for Voice in a Million (March), attended VidCon in Amsterdam (April), and appeared on the first series of Saturday Mash-Up! (November). The band's debut single, "Take This Home", was released in July 2018, along with embarking on a headlining tour that began in October. They performed at the event Nickelodeon SlimeFest in October. They moved houses in November, and marked it as a new era for the band, titled 'RoadTrip 2.0,' the same name of their tour in the new year.[6]

Lineup changes
In March 2019, they attained one million subscribers on their main YouTube channel.[7] In the last week of April, Cobban left the band for various reasons, including one being for family, his departure announced publicly on 7 May. He was replaced by Ryan "Sonny" Robertson, who came in on trial after reaching out to the manager, and joined the lineup on 14 June. Robertson knew Fowler previously in a former group, both being in Overload together. RoadTrip released their third EP Dynamite, with its acoustic version released in September that superseded the original and knocked Taylor Swift's album Lover from the top of the pre-order chart.[8] Their third EP was described as a stepping stone into their own unique sound, still retaining elements of a boy band. Songs were described as "anthemic" ("Dynamite"), "upbeat" ("Something About You"), and they experimented with vocoder ("Flashing Lights"). Their fourth EP comparatively was mellower and vocal-focused. Together the five went on The Hero Tour that began in October and concluded in mid-November, introducing their new song "Hero". On 8 December 2019, Duff announced his departure, feeling that it was his time to go solo. Harper Dark, who was an opening act for two of RoadTrip's tours and under the same management, became a trialist and on 1 January 2020, was announced to be the newest addition.[9] In February, the band released their fifth and final EP, consisting of the three tracks "Me and You"―its music video being released five days earlier―"Understand", and "Hero". Regarding the extended play to their previous ones, Fowler commented of "trying to branch out" from their usual sound, and less power pop.[10] With "Understand" notably moving in a more mature direction in lyrics and sound for a boy band, the group had also collectively named it their favourite song off the EP. On 1 March, they headlined their concert One Night Only at Shepherd's Bush Empire, and in May were planned to co-headline the Young Stars on Tour 2020 around Poland.[11]

Split
On 3 May, two members posted allegations online against fellow member Beaumont, for him wanting to overtake the band, leave the management, and turn them into a YouTube group. Both Beaumont and Robertson responded publicly, denying these claims.[12] Later on the 12th, Beaumont and Robertson announced that RoadTrip has split up in a video posted to a new YouTube channel, 'Thank you Roadies' (later renamed 'Four Eyes and The Skyscraper'). They explained the situation of being financially unstable, and that they could no longer carry on any further, with 4/5 collectively agreeing to rebrand RoadTrip, no longer doing exclusively music. After they decided to part ways with the manager, they suggested that Dreelan planted mistrust in Wyatt and Dark against Beaumont.[13] In December 2020, another video was uploaded to F.E.A.T.S' YouTube channel, where members, Beaumont, Robertson, Wyatt and Cobban claimed that the manager kept a disproportionate share of the group's profits, and emotionally manipulated them.

Discography

 * Miss Taken (2017)
 * Tokyo Hotel (2017)
 * Dynamite (2019)
 * Dynamite (Acoustic) (2019)
 * White Label (2020)

Tours

 * The 2016 Tour (2016)
 * Roadies on Tour (2016)
 * Miss Taken Tour (2017)
 * Tokyo Hotel Tour (2017)
 * The Summertime Tour (2018)
 * Take This Home Tour (2018)
 * RoadTrip 2.0 Tour (2019)
 * Dynamite Tour (2019)
 * The Hero Tour (2019)