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Denim | |
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| Origin | Birmingham, England |
| Genres | Glam rock, indie rock |
| Years active | 1992–1997 |
| Labels | Boy's Own Echo EMIDISC West Midlands Records |
| Past members |
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Denim were an English indie rock band, the brainchild of Lawrence (formerly of Felt), and were based in Birmingham, England. [1]
Following the end of his former group, 1980s post-punk outfit Felt, Lawrence moved into different territory with Denim, a band whose brash teaming of glam rock with cutting and highly satirical lyrics was very much the opposite of his previous work.
Denim debuted in 1992 with the album Back in Denim , a record which was both a revival (particularly with its glam rock influences and its mix of synth and guitar) and critique (in its satirical lyrics) of the 1970s music scene. [1] A single, "Middle of the Road", was released from the album in January 1993 on Boy's Own Records. [2]
Denim followed Back in Denim with the 1996 release of Denim on Ice , which was preceded by a single "It Fell Off the Back of a Lorry". [1] Denim on Ice featured even more cutting lyrics with comment on the current state of music in England ("The Great Pub Rock Revival", a stinging attack on Britpop) and the realities of England's social malaise ("Glue & Smack" and "Council Houses"), exhibiting an even more synthesizer-based sound than Back in Denim. The album also spearheaded Lawrence's growing interest in novelty music and earned Denim a support slot with Pulp who were fans of Lawrence and his work. [1]
Denim's final release was Novelty Rock , a compilation of B-sides and some new material, which was released early 1997. [1]
Denim Take Over was to be Denim's third studio album. It was shelved due to a lack of commercial success for the band, and when its lead single "Summer Smash", due to be issued in September 1997, was cancelled due to the death of Princess Diana, [3] with EMI feeling any release would be in poor taste. [1] These events marked an untimely end for Denim. However, some of the albums tracks were released on a subsequent Lawrence project, the 2005 Go Kart Mozart album Tearing Up the Album Chart , [1] as well as a complete reworking for the next album On the Hot Dog Streets .
In January 2018, satirist Charlie Brooker chose the Denim track "The New Potatoes" as one of his eight tracks on Desert Island Discs , and decided that it would be the one track he would keep with him to the island if the tide washed the others away. [4]
Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. Musically, Britpop produced bright, catchy alternative rock, in reaction to the darker lyrical themes and soundscapes of the US-led grunge music and the UK's own shoegaze music scene. The movement brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the larger British popular cultural movement, Cool Britannia, which evoked the Swinging Sixties and the British guitar pop of that decade.
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Lawrence Hayward, known mononymously as Lawrence, is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is known as the frontman in the English indie pop bands Felt, Denim, and Mozart Estate.
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"Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" (sometimes written "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)") is a song originally recorded by English musician Elton John. John composed it with his long-time songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. It was released on John's best-selling album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and as the first single. It has been covered by many artists and featured on motion picture, video game, and television soundtracks.
Back in Denim is the debut album by British rock band Denim.
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Denim on Ice is the second album by Denim. It was released in 1996. The band went on their first tour supporting Pulp on their stadium tour.
Novelty Rock is a compilation album by the English rock band Denim. It was released through EMI Records in 1997 and gathers all the B-sides from the "Middle of the Road" and "It Fell off the Back of a Lorry" singles, as well as previously unreleased material plus various cover versions. The Kraftwerk-esque track "Supermarket" had previously been issued as a single through Ice Rink under the name Supermarket in 1992.
Tearing Up the Album Chart is an album by the band Go-Kart Mozart. It was released in 2005 on West Midland's Records, a subsidiary of Cherry Red. It was former Felt and Denim frontman Lawrence's second album under the alias Go Kart Mozart. Tracks 5, 8, 9 and 12 were originally recorded for the unreleased Denim album Denim Take Over.
Post-Britpop is an alternative rock subgenre and is the period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, following Britpop, when the media were identifying a "new generation" or "second wave" of guitar bands influenced by acts like Oasis and Blur, but with less overt British concerns in their lyrics and making more use of American rock and indie influences, as well as experimental music. Bands in the post-Britpop era that had been established acts, but gained greater prominence after the decline of Britpop, such as Radiohead and the Verve, and new acts such as Travis, Keane, Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Feeder, and particularly Coldplay, achieved much wider international success than most of the Britpop groups that had preceded them, and were some of the most commercially successful acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
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