I think we gradually realised that it was potentially as alienating for people as it was amusing for us, and once we had played a few shows under the name The Phantom Band, without anyone complaining, it made sense to stick with it.

Checkmate Savage was eventually released in January 2009 to critical acclaim and it peaked on the UK Albums Chart at number 181 in February of that year.

The release of Checkmate Savage led to several UK and European tours for the band including sell-out shows in Glasgow King Tuts, London Macbeth, Inverness Hootananny and Manchester Deaf Institute.

Directly after this the band supported Frightened Rabbit on a string of dates during their headline tour including shows in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, New York and Chicago.

On returning to the United Kingdom the band embarked on a small tour of their own culminating in a sold out show at Oran Mor in Glasgow.

Beginning in Ireland at the end of January the group then travelled through France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and Great Britain.

(Genk), Tramlines (Sheffield), Camden Crawl (London), Summer Sundae (Leicester), Belladrum (Inverness-shire) and T in the Park (Kinross-shire).

Largely self-produced, their third record Strange Friend was released on 2 June 2014 followed by a short tour of the United Kingdom and several summer festival dates.

Also some members of the band (mainly Duncan Marquiss, Andy Wake and Greg Sinclair) perform occasionally at art-related events as an improvisational ensemble called Omnivore Demon.