The band met at the City of Sunderland College as a quartet consisting of Barry Hyde on vocals and guitar, David "Jaff" Craig on vocals and bass guitar, Peter Brewis on drums and Ross Millard on vocals and guitar. They first performed in 2000, and through word-of-mouth, their reputation in the local area grew. The Futureheads played their first gig at Ashbrooke Cricket and Rugby Club in December 2000. They debuted with their Nul Book Standard EP and then their 123 Nul EP on 10 March 2003, and later that year released their first single, First Day, on 4 August. First Day peaked at No. 58 in the UK Singles Chart in August 2003. The Futureheads released their self-titled debut album in September 2004 on 679 recordings.
Five of the tracks were produced by Andy Gill of Gang of Four. The rest of the album was produced by Paul Epworth. The song Decent Days and Nights from the album was featured in the video game soundtrack to Burnout 3 on PlayStation 2 and Xbox as well as EA's Rugby 2005. On 21 February 2005, Hounds of Love, a cover of a Kate Bush song, was released as a single. It reached number eight in the UK Singles Chart in its first week, and was named Best Single of 2005 by NME. The band toured the United States and later supported the Pixies, Foo Fighters and Snow Patrol. They performed at BBC Radio One's One Big Weekend, held in their home town of Sunderland over the weekend of 7–8 May 2005.
On 8 May 2005 Sunderland A.F.C. picked up the Championship trophy. In tribute, the Futureheads performed a set live at the Stadium of Light as pre-match entertainment. The stand-alone EP, Area was released in November 2005 while the band was working on their second album News and Tributes (name inspired by the Munich air disaster in 1958), which, according to NME in February 2006, took only five weeks to produce. The first single from the album was Skip to the End released on 15 May. The album News and Tributes was first released on 29 May 2006.
Throughout the rest of 2006, The Futureheads started their own independent record label, Nul Records, and started working on songs for their next album. The second single from their album Radio Heart was released on 19 May (and featured in the game Colin McRae's DiRT 2), 2008 from their album This Is Not The World followed by the release of the music video for the single on 16 April. A third single from the album, Walking Backwards, was released on 4 August 2008.
In 2009 the band played at the biggest open-air festival in Europe – Przystanek Woodstock in Poland. The Futureheads released their fifth full-length album, Rant, on 2 April 2012. In a change from their usual style, this album is entirely a cappella. In January 2019, the band announced they had reformed, had written and recorded new material during 2018, and their first tour dates since 2013. On 5 June they released Jekyll, the lead single from their first album in seven years, Powers, which was later released on 30 August.
