Formation (2008–2010) The band's origins go back to before their university years during secondary school, attending
Bedford Modern School, where they played their first gigs, but it was not until after studying at
Nottingham University that they decided to become a band. The band initially took on many different names, including "Summer fall" and "Club Sex". One of the group's ideas was "Don Loco", which was changed to Don Broco following guitarist Simon Delaney breaking his wrist in a football accident. They first toured England in November 2008, playing gigs in places such as Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Swindon, Watford and County Durham amongst others. They appeared at Camden Crawl and
Download Festival in 2009, as well as supporting
Enter Shikari on a short run of shows in May 2009. Don Broco also played
Underage Festival, at Victoria Park in
London, UK, in both 2009 and 2010. They played
Sonisphere festival 2010 on the
Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage. The band then went on to support
Enter Shikari at both their Christmas parties at Hatfield Forum in December 2010. In September 2010 Don Broco also played in a local festival called
Amersham Summer Festival.
Big Fat Smile (2011) In January 2011, they released the video to "Beautiful Morning", directed by Lawrence Hardy. The following month they released "Beautiful Morning" as a single. They released their
EP Big Fat Smile on 14 February 2011.
Hevy Festival, Liverpool Sound City,
Slam Dunk Festival, The Great Escape Festival. and at the
Reading and Leeds festivals on the BBC Introducing stage which they were put forward for by the BBC Introducing programme which covers the Bedford area where the band is originally from. An accompanying video to the band's B-Side "We Are On Holiday" off their "Dreamboy" single was released in August 2011. The single was made available to download on
iTunes on 22 August 2011.
Priorities and Rayner's departure (2012–2013) Don Broco supported
Four Year Strong on their UK tour in January and February 2012. During this time, before the release of the debut album, Luke Rayner left the band due to commitment issues and different interests, however they are still on good terms. The band played Hit the Deck festival in Bristol and
Nottingham, the Great Escape Festival in
Brighton, Slam Dunk festivals in
Leeds,
Hertfordshire and
Cardiff, and Redfest 2012. Don Broco were going to support
Futures in April 2012, but their tour was postponed to July 2012. On 23 March 2012, the band announced that they had signed a deal with Search and Destroy Records, a new venture between Raw Power Management and
Sony Music. The band's first single "Priorities" from their debut album of the same name was released on 20 May, with the album released on 13 August. The band replaced original bassist with new bassist Tom Doyle. In April, the band supported
You Me At Six in Dublin and Belfast on their Irish leg of their UK tour. The band replaced the support bill originally consisting of
Kids In Glass Houses,
The Skints and
Mayday Parade, however the Irish leg was rescheduled after
Josh Francheschi contracted
tonsillitis. The band supported
The Used on their April/May UK tour, alongside
Marmozets. The band released the second single from
Priorities, titled "Actors" it was released on the same day as Don Broco's debut album, 13 August 2012. The video sees the boys performing and a storyline where the boys don't get on and putting all the chemistry between them on for the cameras. On 20 September, "Hold On" was revealed to be the third single from the album and shortly after they supported Lower Than Atlantis along with The Dangerous Summer and Gnarwolves in Autumn 2012, followed by their first European tour, supporting
Young Guns accompanied with
Your Demise on their European leg in October 2012. It was announced that Don Broco will be the final support on the Rock Sound Riot Tour 2012 in November 2012 along with
Billy Talent and
Awolnation. In February 2013, they embarked on their first headline tour of the United Kingdom with dates spanning from February to April. For the February to March dates they brought
Mallory Knox and Hey Vanity along as support. On 3 February it was announced that all dates for the February leg of the tour had sold out. For the April dates
Pure Love and Decade were the supporting acts. On 30 March 2013 Don Broco performed a headlining set at the Radstock Festival,
Liverpool, at the
O2 Academy Liverpool. On the weekend of 23–25 August 2013, Don Broco performed on the main stage at the
Reading and Leeds Festivals. The band concluded 2013 by releasing their new song "You Wanna Know" as a standalone single which also came as a bundled EP featuring various remixed versions of the song.
Automatic and signing to SharpTone Records (2014–2016) Don Broco stated that the majority of 2014 would be focused around writing material for a new album and that they will headline a tour after its release. It was announced that the band will be supporting British band
You Me at Six during their UK headline tour during March and April 2014, along with support act
Young Kato. In late August 2014 Don Broco were announced to headline 2015's
Kerrang! tour in February, when they toured the UK with support from
pop rock band
We Are the In Crowd and
metalcore bands
Bury Tomorrow and
Beartooth. On 23 November 2014, the first single from the new album, titled "Money Power Fame", premiered on
BBC Radio 1's "Rock Show" programme. A second single, "Fire", was streamed online on 26 January 2015. On 7 April 2015, the band released the third song off the new album titled "What You Do to Me", followed by music videos for the tracks "Automatic" and "Superlove" respectively.
Automatic was released on 7 August 2015. It is available in standard and deluxe versions; the deluxe version includes the standard ten tracks as well as four bonus tracks, two of these being previously released songs "Money Power Fame" and "You Wanna Know". In April 2016, they supported
Bring Me the Horizon on the European leg of their tour and also supported
5 Seconds of Summer between 15 April 2016 and 8 June 2016 on their
Sounds Live Feels Live World Tour. On 24 June 2016, the band officially signed with
SharpTone Records, a label co-founded by Shawn Keith and
Nuclear Blast CEO Markus Staiger.
Technology and "Action" (2017–2019) 2018 Don Broco released the single "Everybody" on 16 July 2016 along with an accompanying music video. On 21 October 2016, SharpTone Records uploaded Don Broco's 2013 music video for "You Wanna Know" on their YouTube channel. It was also announced that Don Broco will rerelease
Automatic in the United States on 11 November 2016 through SharpTone Records. The label uploaded the videos for "Money Power Fame", "Superlove", and "Automatic" to their YouTube channel prior to the release. Don Broco released five singles for their third album
Technology: "Pretty", "Technology", "Stay Ignorant", "T-Shirt Song" and "Come Out to LA". The band went on to play to a sold-out crowd at London's
Alexandra Palace in November, 2017, their biggest show to date.
Technology was released on 2 February 2018 via SharpTone Records. In October to November 2016, Don Broco appeared as a support act for rock-metal band
Bring Me the Horizon on their UK tour, playing arenas such as
The O2 Arena. In 2018, Don Broco was one of the support bands for
Our Last Night's North American and European tours. They also toured with
Mike Shinoda of
Linkin Park in support of his album
Post Traumatic. The band were nominated for 'Best British Live Act' at the
2019 Kerrang! Awards. On 6 September 2019, Don Broco released the standalone single "Action". Two versions of this single were released, one solely featuring Don Broco vocalists Rob Damiani and Matt Donnelly while the second features
Caleb Shomo (
Beartooth),
Tyler Carter (
Issues),
Taka Moriuchi (
One Ok Rock) and
Tilian Pearson (
Dance Gavin Dance). The music video for "Action" won the award for Best Music Video by Heavy Music Awards.
Amazing Things and Live from Royal Albert Hall (2020–2024) 2022 Don Broco began writing new material for their fourth studio album in early 2020, and began recording in December 2020. They released a series of studio updates via YouTube before the release of the first single "Manchester Super Reds No.1 Fan" on
Annie Mac’s Future Sounds, and its accompanying music video on 13 May 2021. Announcement of the album
Amazing Things came the following day, along with a UK tour that took place in October–November 2021. The second single "Gumshield" was released on 8 July 2021, with a music video involving boxer
Dave Allen. The band headlined
Slam Dunk Festival, in
Leeds and
Hatfield in September 2021, and also released a small set of warm-up gigs to precede the festival. The album was released on streaming platforms on 22 October 2021, initially reaching No. 91 on the UK Album Charts. The physical release had to be delayed due to a global vinyl shortage until 28 Jan 2022. During the build up to the physical release of the album, Don Broco did a run of intimate gigs at small venues in the UK to push physical sales of Amazing Things, the album then went on to claim the band's first UK No.1 album the week following its release. On 21 March 2022 the band played the Iconic Royal Albert Hall in London in support of Teenage Cancer Trust, this performance featured a live orchestra and Choir, something the band had only previously done with the Orchestral studio version of the single 'One True Prince'. In April 2022, Don Broco released the single "Fingernails" on the 25th of the month to help promote their 2023 UK Arena Tour that was announced on the same day, with
Papa Roach and Dance Gavin Dance in support. In 2023, they went on to open for American rock bands
Pierce the Veil and
The Used on their
Creative Control Tour in North America. On September 15, 2023, Don Broco independently released a standalone single "Birthday Party" along with a music video. On October 13, 2023, "Birthday Party (Party in the U.S.A. Remix)" featuring
The Home Team, Ryan Oakes,
Skyler Acord, and The Color 8 was released. On November 24, 2023,
Live from the Royal Albert Hall - the first live album by Don Broco - was released via Live Here Now label in aid of
Teenage Cancer Trust. In November and December 2023, the band headlined "The Birthday Party Tour" in the UK with support from
Trash Boat and
Ocean Grove.
Nightmare Tripping (2024–present) In 2024, Don Broco played three live shows only, including a live set at
2000trees festival. In June of 2025, Don Broco played three headlining UK shows, and a live set at
Download Festival. On 10 July 2025, the band announced their World Tour would start in September with 5-date Australian leg. On 25 July 2025, "Cellophane", the first single off the upcoming fifth album, was released on the official Don Broco
YouTube channel, alongside an official music video. Four further singles were then released before the full album; "Hype Man" on 29 July 2025, "Disappear" on 15 September 2025, "Euphoria" on 21 November 2025, and finally "Nightmare Tripping" featuring
Nickelback on 13 February 2026. Their fifth studio album,
Nightmare Tripping, was released via Fearless Records on 27 March 2026. On the same day, they also announced their Nightmare Tripping Europe/UK 2026 Tour on their official Instagram account. ==Musical style==