Rooney were a British DIY band that released three albums between 1998 and 2000, including the debut album Time on Their Hands which received much support from John Peel, who booked them for a session in 1999.^[1][2] They reached number 44 in Peel’s Festive Fifty of 1998.^[3][4] The lo-fi music incorporated sometimes humorous — but often unsettling — spoken-sung lyrics describing everyday, mundane activities and observations, an approach which was consistent across all Rooney releases.^[5]

Artist Paul Rooney self-released the first Rooney album Time on Their Hands on Common Culture Records in 1998.^[6][7] The album was widely and favourably reviewed, including notices by Stewart Lee in The Sunday Times,^[8] Tom Ridge of The Wire^[9] and Gary Valentine of Mojo magazine.^[10] The continued support of John Peel earned a place for Went to Town at number 44 in John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1998,^[11][12] and a Rooney Peel session was broadcast in 1999.^[3]

By 1999 Rooney became a band with new members Colin Cromer and Ian Jackson.^[13] The second Rooney album On Fading Out was released in 1999,^[13][14] and the project ostensibly ended with the third and final album, On the Closed Circuit, in November 2000,^[15][16][17] though gigs continued sporadically until late 2002.^[18]

In 2006 comedian and writer Stewart Lee curated the Rooney track Into the Lens for the CD/book The Topography of Chance, which also included Mark E Smith, Derek Bailey and Simon Munnery.^[19][20] The Rooney Peel session was repeated in 2016 on Gideon Coe's BBC 6 Music show,^[21] and an EP of the session, entitled This Job's Forever - The Peel Session, was released on Owd Scrat Records in 2020.^[22]