This band came together in 2000. We were inspired by lots of people, but we wanted to make a noise that had 3-part harmonies, guitars, harmonicas, pianos, and things like that, so that’s what we did.

After a few gigs in front of the good people of Birmingham, we went to Magic Garden Studio and recorded a single. We pressed two songs onto 500 7” singles, in green vinyl, and we gave one these singles to John Peel and, much to our delight, he played it and gave us a session on his show. We went to Maida Vale in December 2001, just a few days after George Harrison died, and recorded in the same room that The Beatles and a whole host of other cool people had also recorded. That was pretty good.

John Peel liked the first session, so he gave us another one the following year, and on that day we took along some friends with us to Maida Vale. Julian Wilson from Grand Drive came to play, as did Simon Alpin, then of Willard Grant Conspiracy. Neil Codling from Suede came down as well, but he didn’t play, but that’s another story. That was a really lovely day.

All of the above brought us to the attention of management companies and record labels. We signed a management deal, recorded some songs with Creation Records’ Joe Foster, and had lots of meetings with record labels, small and large, that were all a bit like the old Kit-Kat advert. On Bonfire night in 2003, on our way to London for a support slot with My Morning Jacket, one of us, and mentioning no names (it was Phil) put diesel fuel into the petrol tank of the van. My Morning Jacket had to struggle along without us, but we did get to see fireworks explode across the English countryside as we sat by the side of the road. That evening, amongst many other things, marked the end of our involvement with management companies and large record labels. To be honest, we hadn’t really been enjoying that very much anyway.

We came back to Birmingham and spent most of 2004 recording an album in a dark and damp basement room just outside the city centre. The drum kit was on a piece of rickety and unsafe flooring that sat above a 20-foot drop into the canal network below. That album sounded great, but we didn’t release it, and I can’t remember why now. In 2005 we ditched studio rooms altogether and began to wrestle with computer based recording at home. We drank a lot of beer, wasted a lot of time, and had a lot of fun. Along the way we accidentally acquired an eye-wateringly expensive microphone, but that’s another story.

Our first album, recorded at home and mixed with some outside help, eventually saw the light of day in 2007. People seemed to like it, and some people even wrote nice things about it. We booked a launch party in a bar on an allotment for the middle of August. This was marred by Campbell getting stabbed by some local toughs the night before, but that’s another story, too. Eventually we gave some of the songs on the album to some talented friends and they did remixes of them. People seemed to like these too.

From 2008 onwards, life being what life is,  we found ourselves living in different places around the UK. We still wanted to play together, and so we did whenever we could. In late 2009 we eventually started recording our second album. Even with the wonders of internet communciations, our new found computer recording skills could not entirely combat geography, at least not all of the time, and some things could only ever be done when we were in the same room. We eventually finished that record in the summer of 2011. That record might by why you’re reading this now. Hello. Did you like it?

When you find a bunch of people to play with that make a good noise together, like we all did in 2000, it makes sense to be mates and to stick together, so that’s what we did. We’ll have another record for you to listen to eventually, but I’d be lying if I told you I knew when.

Thanks for stopping by.