The Zutons formed in Liverpool in 2001, taking their name from The Magic Band guitarist Bill Harkleroad, better known as ‘Zoot Horn Rollo’, and consisted of Dave McCabe (previously of Tramp Attack), Russ Pritchard, Sean Payne (both of The Big Kids), and Boyan Chowdhury. Early on in their career, Sean’s girlfriend Abi Harding began joining the quartet on stage for a couple of songs mid-set, playing simple saxophone lines and becoming popular with the crowd, and thus she became the fifth member, contributing vocals and sax.

The band released their first recording in September 2002, a 3-track CD called “Devil's Deal” – this was followed in early 2003 by “Creepin' And A Crawlin'”, and then the download-only single “Haunts Me” (November 2003). Debut album “Who Killed The Zutons?” was released in April 2004, with early copies including a bonus 4-track CD of alternative versions of some of the songs. The album initially reached number 13 in the UK chart, eventually peaking at number 9 in early 2005, and was nominated for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. The single "Don't Ever Think (Too Much)" made number 15 in the UK, and some of the other tracks from the album were used in commercials, such as “Confusion” (used in a Peugeot 307 car advert in the UK), and "Pressure Point" (used in a Levis commercial in the US).

In 2005, the band were nominated for the “British Breakthrough Act” award at the BRIT Awards, and the following year, second album “Tired of Hanging Around” “Tired of Hanging Around” was released. It reached number 2 in the UK, with the first 2 singles from the album ("Why Won't You Give Me Your Love?" and "Valerie") both peaking at number 9 in the UK charts. Valerie was later covered by Amy Winehouse, who took the song to number 2 in the UK in 2007.

In July 2007, the band announced that lead guitarist Boyan Chowdhury had left The Zutons, citing ‘musical differences’, with multi-instrumentalist Paul Molloy (formerly of The Skylarks and The Stands) subsequently joining the band on lead guitar later that year.

Third studio album, “You Can Do Anything”, was released in June 2008, recorded in Los Angeles, California. However the band were dropped from Sony/BMG over the 2008 Christmas holidays as a result of the band not meeting the label's sales expectations.