Spearmint (band)
Encyclopedia
Spearmint are a London
-based indie pop
band, founded in 1995. Their founding members were Shirley Lee (lead vocals, guitar), Simon Calnan (vocals, keyboards), Martin Talbot (bass), and Ronan Larvor (drums). Talbot left soon afterward, to be replaced by James Parsons. Dickon Edwards
later ended up joining as second guitarist, though leaving in 2000 to form Fosca
. Parsons then took over second guitar duties, with Andy Lewis joining on bass.
on BBC Radio 1
and was remixed by long-time Pet Shop Boys
producer Stephen Hague
.
Spearmint's sound can be said to be classic British indie
guitar pop, with some major Northern Soul
influences, and have often been compared to the Lightning Seeds
.
Spearmint formed from the ashes of Laverne and Shirlie sometime in 1995. During the initial few months of gigs around their homes in south-east London
, they put out a run of 500 white label
7" singles featuring "Somebody" and an early version of "I Can't Sleep" on their own hitBack label. A few were sent out to journalists and record companies, the rest were kept under their beds. This song featured an unauthorised Beatles
sample, which should have made them infamous at the very least. It was not to be, but it was fiery enough to get a manager on board.
The original bass player left later that year, so the band advertised in Melody Maker
for a new bass player and met James Parsons. He'd just parted ways with previous band Supersaurus and was really looking to play guitar, but they persuaded him to play bass with promises of records, glamour and riches, and he joined. As a double bonus he turned out to be a graphic artist, and would design all the band's record sleeves from then on.
"Goldmine" was recorded in January 1996. A producer, JB, had been recommended and he agreed to mix the track - and he has worked with the band ever since. Vital unexpectedly agreed to distribute the record, which was a massive boost, as the band probably had not even played in North London by this point.
By that summer 1000 copies were pressed up and Spearmint were go! Mark Radcliffe
was the first to play them on the radio, on his show on BBC Radio 1
. Reviews followed in the Melody Maker, Everett True
said "it builds and builds like a good 'un."
The band started playing every back room in North London, and picking up fans left right and centre. By the end of spring 1997 an unnamed indie record company had decided to put out the next single "A Week Away", but weeks of dithering meant momentum was being lost. The band scraped together the cash and put it out by themselves once again. It sounded as if Spearmint had the sweetest horn section in pop
but it was Simon with a scratched Four Tops
record providing the driving sample behind the song.
The other half of the double a-side was "Scared Of Everything", a sparkling guitar driven tune with James's trademark elephantine-bass-distortion taking the song to another planet. The record managed to get on the radio
a bit earlier in the day, with Steve Lamacq
featuring it on the BBC Radio 1
Evening Session. Rumours that it was to be single of the week on the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show fuelled a fortnight of speculation about imminent stardom, but Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
got the slot instead.
After the big gap between "Goldmine" and "A Week Away", they got straight down to business with the next record, "I Can't Sleep". A reworked and remixed version of an old recording, it was backed with a 4-track cassette recording of Shirley's done the previous year called "Song For The Colour Yellow". It came out hot on the heels of "A Week Away", and ever-increasing sales led to the record being released on CD as well, including the song 'The Other Seven', described by Shirley as "like a loony cousin who sometimes comes to stay".
The third single of 1997 was "Sweeping The Nation". Based around a loop taken from the sublime Northern Soul
classic 'Out On The Floor' by Dobie Gray
, it was released in November just as London's new alternative station XFM
was taking shape. They couldn't get enough of it, and put it on their main playlist
for 6 weeks. Along with several plays on daytime BBC Radio 1, it meant that the song was impossible to ignore. The launch gig at the Bull and Gate, Kentish Town
, had a real buzz of expectation, and as the band walked on stage in front of the biggest crowd they had ever played to, impromptu applause started.... The band looked confused for a moment until they realised it was for them, then launched into a wonderful set described by Jim Wirth in Melody Maker
as "everything that makes pop music special". In the following weeks a session was recorded for Greater London Radio, and the band played their first gig outside London, at TJ's in Newport
.
Over Christmas
the band were mentioned in several papers - including The Times
- as one to watch in 1998, and immediately the band started work on another single "A Trip Into Space". A totally re-written version of a song Shirley had composed in pre-Spearmint days, it took up where "Sweeping The Nation" had left off, providing six minutes of what Melody Maker described as "fantastic, gigantic, day-glo pop, exploding into effervescent DIY disco".
Again, XFM
loved it and it seemed to become a permanent fixture on the radio throughout March and April. The band embarked on their first UK tour, with their Leeds
show being recommended as gig of the week in the NME
. The band also finally received full page interviews in both Melody Maker and NME, as well as dozens of fanzine articles from as far and wide as Berlin
and Tokyo
.
At around the same time, Tone Vendor Records in Japan
came to the band with a plan to release a compilation CD of previous singles and b-sides. This became the Songs For The Colour Yellow LP, and it was released in June to a great reception in Japan
, where imported 7" singles had been selling well over the previous couple of years. Over the summer it was decided to release the same LP in the UK minus "A Week Away", which was being saved up for the debut album proper.
For an album which collected together a dozen tracks which had been recorded in different places at different times, it came over as a surprisingly coherent album in its own right, and much to the bands delight won favourable reviews across the board. Melody Maker called it 'almost perfect', and the NME and Time Out wondered why on earth no major label had signed them. To celebrate, Spearmint made their first trip abroad to play both nights of the annual London's Calling show in Amsterdam
, where the Dutch
press picked them out as by far the highlight of the weekend - and Dutch national radio
has recently broadcast the concert in full.
Their most recent studio album, Paris In A Bottle, was released in the summer of 2006, however the band are due to return in September 2009 with a new album having all worked together on Shirley Lee's eponymous solo album.
More recently the band were referenced in the film (500) Days of Summer wherein Joseph Gordon-Levitt
's character states “It pains me we live in a world where nobody's heard of Spearmint.”
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
-based indie pop
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
band, founded in 1995. Their founding members were Shirley Lee (lead vocals, guitar), Simon Calnan (vocals, keyboards), Martin Talbot (bass), and Ronan Larvor (drums). Talbot left soon afterward, to be replaced by James Parsons. Dickon Edwards
Dickon Edwards
Dickon Edwards is a London-based indie pop musician, writer, critic, DJ and online diarist. Although his parents named him Richard Edwards, they also chose to call him by the archaic derivative of Richard, "Dickon"...
later ended up joining as second guitarist, though leaving in 2000 to form Fosca
Fosca
Fosca was a British band, combining indie pop songwriting with synth pop instrumentation. They released a total of three studio albums between 2000-2008...
. Parsons then took over second guitar duties, with Andy Lewis joining on bass.
History
Spearmint have released eight albums and many singles, all on their own label, hitBack, having a minor success with 1997's "Sweeping the Nation" and "A Trip into Space". "We're Going Out" received some airplayAirplay
* Airplay is the amount of time a song is played on the radio.It may also refer to:* AirPlay, an audio & video streaming technology from Apple Inc.* Airplay , Foster & Graydon music project from 1980* Citroën C1, Citroën C1 Airplay...
on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
and was remixed by long-time Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....
producer Stephen Hague
Stephen Hague
Stephen Hague is an American music producer most active with various British acts in the 1980s. He was an influential figure in the synthpop movement.-Early career:...
.
Spearmint's sound can be said to be classic British indie
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
guitar pop, with some major Northern Soul
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
influences, and have often been compared to the Lightning Seeds
Lightning Seeds
The Lightning Seeds are an English alternative rock and pop band from Liverpool, England formed in 1989 by Ian Broudie , formerly of the Big in Japan band....
.
Spearmint formed from the ashes of Laverne and Shirlie sometime in 1995. During the initial few months of gigs around their homes in south-east London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, they put out a run of 500 white label
White label
White label records are vinyl records with adhesive plain white labels affixed. Test pressings, usually with Test Pressing written on the label, with catalogue number, artist and recording time or date, are produced in small quantities to evaluate the quality of the disc production...
7" singles featuring "Somebody" and an early version of "I Can't Sleep" on their own hitBack label. A few were sent out to journalists and record companies, the rest were kept under their beds. This song featured an unauthorised Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
sample, which should have made them infamous at the very least. It was not to be, but it was fiery enough to get a manager on board.
The original bass player left later that year, so the band advertised in Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
for a new bass player and met James Parsons. He'd just parted ways with previous band Supersaurus and was really looking to play guitar, but they persuaded him to play bass with promises of records, glamour and riches, and he joined. As a double bonus he turned out to be a graphic artist, and would design all the band's record sleeves from then on.
"Goldmine" was recorded in January 1996. A producer, JB, had been recommended and he agreed to mix the track - and he has worked with the band ever since. Vital unexpectedly agreed to distribute the record, which was a massive boost, as the band probably had not even played in North London by this point.
By that summer 1000 copies were pressed up and Spearmint were go! Mark Radcliffe
Mark Radcliffe
Mark Radcliffe is an English broadcaster who has worked in various roles for the BBC since the 1980s and remains one of Britain's most recognised DJs. He is currently a presenter on BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music, where he hosts an afternoon show five times a week alongside Stuart Maconie, called...
was the first to play them on the radio, on his show on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
. Reviews followed in the Melody Maker, Everett True
Everett True
For the cartoon character, see The Outbursts of Everett True.Everett True is a British music journalist, who grew up in Chelmsford, Essex...
said "it builds and builds like a good 'un."
The band started playing every back room in North London, and picking up fans left right and centre. By the end of spring 1997 an unnamed indie record company had decided to put out the next single "A Week Away", but weeks of dithering meant momentum was being lost. The band scraped together the cash and put it out by themselves once again. It sounded as if Spearmint had the sweetest horn section in pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
but it was Simon with a scratched Four Tops
Four Tops
The Four Tops are an American vocal quartet, whose repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, hard rock, and showtunes...
record providing the driving sample behind the song.
The other half of the double a-side was "Scared Of Everything", a sparkling guitar driven tune with James's trademark elephantine-bass-distortion taking the song to another planet. The record managed to get on the radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
a bit earlier in the day, with Steve Lamacq
Steve Lamacq
Steve Lamacq , sometimes known by his nicknames Lammo or "The Cat" is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio stations BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 2.-Early career:He was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire...
featuring it on the BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
Evening Session. Rumours that it was to be single of the week on the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show fuelled a fortnight of speculation about imminent stardom, but Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci were a Welsh alternative rock band, formed in Carmarthen, west Wales in 1991. They sang songs in both Welsh and English. They split up in May 2006.-Biography:...
got the slot instead.
After the big gap between "Goldmine" and "A Week Away", they got straight down to business with the next record, "I Can't Sleep". A reworked and remixed version of an old recording, it was backed with a 4-track cassette recording of Shirley's done the previous year called "Song For The Colour Yellow". It came out hot on the heels of "A Week Away", and ever-increasing sales led to the record being released on CD as well, including the song 'The Other Seven', described by Shirley as "like a loony cousin who sometimes comes to stay".
The third single of 1997 was "Sweeping The Nation". Based around a loop taken from the sublime Northern Soul
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
classic 'Out On The Floor' by Dobie Gray
Dobie Gray
Dobie Gray is an African American singer and songwriter, whose musical career has spanned soul, country, pop and musical theater...
, it was released in November just as London's new alternative station XFM
Xfm
Xfm is a brand of two commercial radio stations focused on alternative music, primarily indie pop, and owned by Global Radio.-History:Xfm was created in London in 1992 by Sammy Jacob, who later co-founded NME Radio in 2008. Xfm subsequently expanded to a network of four stations; there are...
was taking shape. They couldn't get enough of it, and put it on their main playlist
Playlist
In its most general form, a playlist is simply a list of songs. They can be played in sequential or shuffled order. The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of radio broadcasting and personal computers.-In radio:...
for 6 weeks. Along with several plays on daytime BBC Radio 1, it meant that the song was impossible to ignore. The launch gig at the Bull and Gate, Kentish Town
Kentish Town
Kentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The most widely accepted explanation of the name of Kentish Town is that it derived from 'Ken-ditch' meaning the 'bed of a waterway'...
, had a real buzz of expectation, and as the band walked on stage in front of the biggest crowd they had ever played to, impromptu applause started.... The band looked confused for a moment until they realised it was for them, then launched into a wonderful set described by Jim Wirth in Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
as "everything that makes pop music special". In the following weeks a session was recorded for Greater London Radio, and the band played their first gig outside London, at TJ's in Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
.
Over Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
the band were mentioned in several papers - including The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
- as one to watch in 1998, and immediately the band started work on another single "A Trip Into Space". A totally re-written version of a song Shirley had composed in pre-Spearmint days, it took up where "Sweeping The Nation" had left off, providing six minutes of what Melody Maker described as "fantastic, gigantic, day-glo pop, exploding into effervescent DIY disco".
Again, XFM
Xfm
Xfm is a brand of two commercial radio stations focused on alternative music, primarily indie pop, and owned by Global Radio.-History:Xfm was created in London in 1992 by Sammy Jacob, who later co-founded NME Radio in 2008. Xfm subsequently expanded to a network of four stations; there are...
loved it and it seemed to become a permanent fixture on the radio throughout March and April. The band embarked on their first UK tour, with their Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
show being recommended as gig of the week in the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
. The band also finally received full page interviews in both Melody Maker and NME, as well as dozens of fanzine articles from as far and wide as Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
.
At around the same time, Tone Vendor Records in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
came to the band with a plan to release a compilation CD of previous singles and b-sides. This became the Songs For The Colour Yellow LP, and it was released in June to a great reception in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, where imported 7" singles had been selling well over the previous couple of years. Over the summer it was decided to release the same LP in the UK minus "A Week Away", which was being saved up for the debut album proper.
For an album which collected together a dozen tracks which had been recorded in different places at different times, it came over as a surprisingly coherent album in its own right, and much to the bands delight won favourable reviews across the board. Melody Maker called it 'almost perfect', and the NME and Time Out wondered why on earth no major label had signed them. To celebrate, Spearmint made their first trip abroad to play both nights of the annual London's Calling show in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, where the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
press picked them out as by far the highlight of the weekend - and Dutch national radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
has recently broadcast the concert in full.
Their most recent studio album, Paris In A Bottle, was released in the summer of 2006, however the band are due to return in September 2009 with a new album having all worked together on Shirley Lee's eponymous solo album.
More recently the band were referenced in the film (500) Days of Summer wherein Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt is an American actor whose career as both a child and adult has included television series and theatrical films....
's character states “It pains me we live in a world where nobody's heard of Spearmint.”
Albums
- Songs for the Colour Yellow (1998) (Compilation)
- A Week Away (1999)
- Oklahoma (2000)
- A Different Lifetime (2001)
- My Missing Days (2003)
- A Leopard and Other Stories (2004) (Compilation)
- The Boy and the Girl That Got Away (2005)
- Paris in a Bottle (2006)