This UK rock band can trace its origins back to the early 90s, when school friends Sam Herlihy (vocals/guitar), Anthony Theaker (guitar) and James Lawrence (b. 25 January 1977, Chichester, West Sussex, England, d. 15 January 2004, Box, Wiltshire, England; guitar) first began playing together in their native Chichester. They were joined later on by Paul Wilson (bass) and, following a number of false starts, formed Hope Of The States at the end of 2000. The band's unusual name was derived from a controversial paper on schizophrenia written in 1948 by social commentator Albert Deutsch. Hope Of The States' avowedly political stance was accentuated by their adoption of military uniforms as stage wear, a tactic previously used by the recently disbanded Mansun. Simon Jones (drums) and Mike Siddell (violin) joined the line-up during this period, which saw the band heavily hyped in the UK music press as post-millennial rivals to the champions of UK art-rock, Radiohead.
A few copies of Hope Of The State's demo, the Fingerprints EP, were released in August 2002 prior to the signing of a recording contract with the Sony imprint Seeker Records. The limited edition single "Black Dollar Bills" was released in March 2003, housed in a hand-stitched and stamped hessian bag. The follow-up, "Enemies/Friends", broke into the UK Top 30 later in the year. Tragedy struck the band during sessions for their debut album, when guitarist James Lawrence committed suicide at the Real World studios. The remaining members vowed to continue without their friend, adding new guitarist Mike Hibbert to the line-up for a subsequent tour. By the summer they had completed work on their debut, The Lost Riots. The album managed to fuse the band's more experimental post-rock urges into a fairly conventional collection of guitar-based tracks, with the singles "Black Dollar Bills" and "The Red The White The Black The Blue" particular stand-outs.
