I Was a Cub Scout began back in 2005 when Todd Marriott decided to leave his old punk band and decided to start a one-man dance band. In 2006, he began to compose a series of songs with the use of his drum machine. Eventually, he realized that he needed to expand. He found what he was looking for in William Bowerman, who had been a long time friend of Marriott since they met in Grantham when they belonged to rival punk bands. It did not take long before I Was a Cub Scout released their first single entitled “Pink Squares” later that same year courtesy of Abeano XL Records. Apart from being able to launch I Was a Cub Scout into instant stardom, the single was also recognized to be the group’s most renowned and highest ranking song they have recorded.
Over the next few months, Bowerman and Marriott found themselves performing one show after another, including having a stint in the BBC 6 Music Showcase held in Austin, Texas in March the following year. This had led them to decide to record their own album. Along with composing and arranging songs that would be included in this project, Bowerman and Marriott also decided to re-release another version of their single “Pink Squares”. The decision was made due to the fact that it was their most accessible and popular song. To help them with this, I Was a Cub Scout decided to launch a contest to their numerous fans to send in their own version of the song, with the chosen version being included in their album project. According to Bowerman, “we had heard a bunch of interesting cover versions of “Pink Squares” on the Internet…so we thought it’d be ace to offer them the chance to be on our single.”
The first and only album of I Was a Cub Scout was released on February 2008 and was titled “I Want You to Know that There is Hope”. When asked on the reason for the album title, the group responded by saying that the title came to them while they were in a bus and began to talk about their feelings at that time.
With so much success being experienced by the group, the Nottingham music scene and their fans had expected that I Was a Cub Scout would be here for a very long time. So when the group announced in June 2008 that they were splitting up, it sent shockwaves all over the country. According to Marriott, the decision to part ways was brought about by countless problems experienced by the group for the past few months. What these specific problems were, they did not specify, making their split sounding more like a nasty breakup between two lovers after a whirlwind romance due to “irreconcilable differences”.
It has been almost two years since I Was a Cub Scout members had parted ways. Today, they continue pursuing a career in music while trekking on separate paths, with each member now part of separate bands.