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The Rumble Strips are an English band from Tavistock, Devon. The 4 piece line up of Charlie Waller, Henry Clark, Tom Gorbutt & Keith Lunnon was present from the first recordings until late 2006 when Sam Mansbridge joined to fill out the sound developed during the recording of 'Girls & Weather'. The band were signed to Fallout Records, a subsidiary of Universal Island Records.

Having known each other since childhood, there is no precise conception date for the band. Lead singer Charlie Waller was involved in music from an early age, initial inspirations included Lou Reed's Transformer and bands such as Adam and the Ants. He moved to London for art college and played with his band from Devon, the Action Heroes. The Action Heroes included Matthew Wheeler, drums, Sam Mansbridge, Guitar & Harry Dwyer on keyboards. (Harry would later go on to direct most of the Rumble Strips' videos). The Action Heroes disbanded in 2002. At this point Waller began writing and playing again with former Tavistock friends Tom Gorbutt, and Henry Clark. These three maintained various residencies at the then local Wandsworth pubs until Matthew Wheeler, rejoined them in 2004. Also during this time, Charlie was one of two frontmen in Vincent Vincent and the Villains with flatmate and fellow singer/songwriter Vincent Vincent. The strain of playing in two bands eventually led to Waller quitting both groups before being coaxed back to the Rumble Strips. Vincent Vincent wrote the song "Johnny Two Bands" about Waller's departure. Old friend and former bandmate of all the Rumbles (from the Mother Eating Blackberries and Action Heroes) Sam Mansbridge, returning from overseas, spent some time on the road with the band after their return from recording 'Girls & Weather' in LA with Tony Hoffer. The band had been used to Tom Gorbutt alternating between playing the Bass or Sax live however the need for a complete sound with bass guitar and a bass backing vocal led to the natural inclusion of Mansbridge for the live shows. Not taking away from Tom's bass playing Sam introduced the Rumble Drum that became such a feature of the band's live act. The band took their name from rumble strips, which are a series of small, continuous lines of bumps alongside a road designed to help prevent inattentive drivers straying off the road.

The Rumble Strips were asked by Island records to remix the Amy Winehouse single "Back to Black", and this was released in 2007 on limited edition white vinyl. The band also decided to re record the song in their own style. This drew the attention of producer Mark Ronson and led to Charlie being asked to sing lead vocals on "Back to Black" at The Electric Proms in 2007. In late 2008, with Sam Mansbridge now a full member, the band began working with Ronson on their second record at London rehearsal space The Joint. Recorded off the back of their first US tour the band lay down the bulk of the tracks at Avatar Studios, New York, leaving vocals to be completed in London, England whilst orchestration was composed and overseen by Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy, Arcade Fire) and completed in Prague. The album was released in July 2009 under the name Welcome to the Walk Alone. As part of their First Listen series of features, The Fly. co. uk ran a track by track synopsis of Welcome to the Walk Alone on their site on 26 May. Whilst stating that "Ronson's kitchen sink production is evident after little more than a minute," they said that the sound of the record is "lush", highlighting "Dem Girls", "Sweet Heart Hooligan" and "Daniel" as the album's highlights. The tour for the album concluded in 2010, after which the band removed themselves from the scene for an indefinite period.

During the intervening five years, contact had always been close within the band despite much change. Geographically, all the members had been living around the world. Matthew Wheeler was in Berlin, Tom Gorbutt went back to Devon, Henry Clark was settled in Australia, and Charlie Waller was in Copenhagen, via Cuba. Since 2010 Charlie and Henry had continued to write and perform in various projects, but as of late 2014 15 they began passing new ideas to each other. The writing was developed with each member's contributions until the summer of 2015, when the five members were able to be in the same place. The band decided to record what they could in those five days together. These recordings became known as 'The Lightship recordings' after the name of the studio, Lightship 95, a floating light house moored at Trinity Buoy Wharf, East London. The recordings are being released in their entirety during 2016 with a limited edition physical release planned.

Date of ReleaseTitleTracksLabel20 November 2006Cardboard Coloured Dreams (CD/Poster 12 inch/8 inch )1. "Oh Creole"2. "Born Bored"3. "High Street Heaven"4. "Running Away"Fallout/Island Records