Sleeper | |
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 Sleeper in 2024 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | London, England |
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Sleeper are an English rock band formed in London in 1992. The group had eight UK top 40 hit singles and three UK top 10 albums during the 1990s. [1] Their music was also featured in the soundtrack of the pop cultural hit movie Trainspotting . The band split up in 1998, but reunited in 2017.
Jon Stewart met Louise Wener at Manchester University in 1987 in a political philosophy class. [2] They played in a number of bands at university, including jazz outfit the Lime Street Blues Band, then after graduating in 1988, moved to London to seek gigs. Wener later wrote that "we sounded not unlike the Sundays, but as time went on our music became increasingly influenced by US bands such as Hole, Nirvana and, most especially, the Pixies". [3] They advertised for new band members in Melody Maker ("Bass player and drummer wanted. Influences The Pixies and The Partridge Family") and recruited Diid Osman and Andy Maclure. [4] Wener solicited interest from record label representatives by sending out a fake NME review, a move she called "pure cheek and cut-and-paste fakery." [5]
At one point, the band called themselves Surrender Dorothy, [6] after the smoke trail in the sky from the Wizard of Oz movie, but abandoned this idea after discovering that several other bands had done the same thing. They subsequently chose the name "Sleeper" after the Woody Allen film Sleeper , and also because the word has a number of different meanings (a spy, an unexpected hit, etc.). [7] In 1993 Sleeper signed to Indolent Records, a subsidiary of RCA Records, and released three EPs and singles before their breakthrough single release, "Inbetweener", [8] which notably featured UK TV personality Dale Winton in the promo video. Prior to the release of "Inbetweener" Sleeper had been the opening act for Blur on that band's tour to promote the Parklife album, and became closely associated with Britpop as a result. [9]
The band's debut album release Smart was certified gold by the BPI for sales of over 100,000 copies. It was followed by the platinum-selling (over 300,000 copies) release The It Girl which yielded four top 20 hit singles "What Do I Do Now?", "Nice Guy Eddie", "Sale of the Century" and "Statuesque". [10] Sleeper recorded a cover of the Blondie song "Atomic", which was used in the film Trainspotting , after Blondie refused to allow the use of the original version. "Statuesque" also features in the movie and its follow-up soundtrack volume. The band’s third album, Pleased to Meet You , released October 1997, was a UK Top 10 hit and certified silver, though had fewer sales than the previous albums; the band split in March 1998 after a tour in which venues had been cancelled or downsized due to lower than expected ticket sales. [11]
After Sleeper split, Wener and Maclure recorded material for a new project, aimed at a more mainstream market and featuring a guest appearance by George Michael. However, the project was not completed at the time, [12] and Wener went on to have a career as a novelist. Her fourth book for Hodder & Stoughton was published in 2008. Wener also features prominently as an interviewee in John Dower's feature film documentary on Britpop, Live Forever (2003).
Stewart moved to Los Angeles, California, where he played with West Coast band UFO Bro [13] and contributed as a session guitarist to k.d. lang's album Invincible Summer (2000) and Melanie C's album Reason . After returning to the UK he became Course Leader of the BA (Hons) Music Business and a lecturer in popular culture and music history at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute in Brighton, where his former students include The Kooks, James Bay, Black Honey, The Xcerts, Kate Walsh and Luke Sital-Singh, as well as members of As It Is and Miss Vincent, amongst others. Stewart also wrote a monthly column for Guitarist magazine from 2002 to 2010, and gained a PhD in Music from the University of Southampton in 2018. [14] In 2019 he joined The Wedding Present as guitarist during their thirtieth anniversary Bizarro UK and EU tour.
Osman subsequently went on to become a session player with Parlophone records band Dubstar and later became an artist manager, with bands including Infectious Music outfit My Vitriol, Hell Is For Heroes on EMI and Atlantic Records band The Glitterati, and helped writer-producer Justin Parker sign to Sony Music publishing. Maclure later ran a "Punk Rock Karaoke" enterprise with DJ Steve Lamacq. [15]
A greatest hits compilation, with a tracklisting selected by and artwork designed by the band themselves, was released on Sony/BMG in 2007. Their first two albums were reissued as deluxe versions on 29 November 2010, with second discs of B-sides and live tracks.
By 2014, Wener and MacLure had formed another band, Huge Advance, although they only played in and around their residential suburb of Crouch End. [16]
Sleeper reformed in 2017 to play in four British cities in July and August, as part of the Star Shaped Festival, alongside other Britpop acts including Space, Dodgy and The Bluetones. [17] These dates saw Wener, Maclure and Stewart joined on bass by new member Kieron Pepper, previously known as live drummer for The Prodigy from 1997 to 2007, and were followed by an eleven-date headline tour of the UK in spring 2018. [18]
In the summer of 2018, Sleeper announced that they were recording a new album in collaboration with their old producer Stephen Street for release in early 2019 and that this would be accompanied by another headline UK tour. [19] Lead single "Look at You Now" premiered on BBC Radio 6 Music on 4 December 2018, while presenter Steve Lamacq announced the title of the new album was The Modern Age . [20]
During 2020 Wener and Maclure compiled unreleased material from previous recording sessions, including the George Michael collaboration, with new material as the basis for a new Sleeper album This Time Tomorrow, released on 14 December 2020.
In 2021, Sleeper were credited on "Bad Things", an R&B-laced indie-pop track by Greater Manchester based band The Lottery Winners. The track features vocals from Louise Wener and can be found on an eight-track EP by The Lottery Winners called Start Again. [21] [22] [23]
The band toured the UK in Spring 2022 performing their 1996 album The It Girl. The Lottery Winners were the support act. In 2023 the band undertook a UK acoustic tour as 'Sleeper unplugged'. [24]
Frontwoman Louise Wener, along with Elastica's Justine Frischmann, was one of Britpop's biggest female stars, and became one of its enduring sex symbols, placing highly in Melody Maker and NME "Sexiest Woman" polls two years running. Wener enjoyed significant media coverage, including an NME front cover and a slot as guest presenter of Top of the Pops . The band had multiple appearances on The Word (TV series) and also on TFI Friday . Billboard described how Wener's "forthright opinions on female sexuality, censorship, and other issues, have been manna for feature editors." [25]
The band was the inspiration for the phrase "Sleeperbloke", referring to the disparity between the glamorous singer Wener and the other frequently ignored members of the band (who tended to be far more anonymous and stood at the back). This pejorative term was used by music press journalists and musicians, to refer to any person of limited standing within a band or an especially drab and unremarkable individual. The "Sleeperblokes" themselves were reported to be highly amused by the phrase, and even produced an ironic "Sleeperbloke" T-shirt to go with Wener's "Another Female Fronted Band" T-shirt, both of which sold well. [26]
Current
Past
| Sleeper discography | |
|---|---|
| Studio albums | 5 |
| EPs | 1 |
| Compilation albums | 2 |
| Singles | 14 |
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [28] | |||||||||||||
| Smart | 5 | ||||||||||||
| The It Girl |
| 5 |
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| Pleased to Meet You |
| 7 |
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| The Modern Age |
| 18 | |||||||||||
| This Time Tomorrow |
| — | |||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
| Title | Details |
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| Greatest Hits |
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| Inbetweener – The Best of Sleeper |
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| Live at the BBC |
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| The It Girl – B Sides & Demos |
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| Live It Girl – Anniversary Tour |
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| Title | Year | Label / Catalog Number | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [28] | |||||||||||||
| Alice EP | 1993 | Indolent (SLEEP001) | — | Smart | |||||||||
| "Swallow" | 1994 | Indolent (SLEEP002) | 76 | ||||||||||
| "Delicious" | Indolent (SLEEP003) | 75 | |||||||||||
| Bucket & Spade | Indolent (SLEEP004) | — | |||||||||||
| Georgeous and Fully Equipped | Indolent (SLEEP005) | — | |||||||||||
| "Inbetweener" | 1995 | Indolent (SLEEP006) | 16 | ||||||||||
| "Vegas" | Indolent (SLEEP008) | 33 | |||||||||||
| "What Do I Do Now?" | Indolent (SLEEP009) / (SLEEP010) | 14 | The It Girl | ||||||||||
| "Sale of the Century" | 1996 | Indolent (SLEEP011) | 10 | ||||||||||
| "Nice Guy Eddie" | Indolent (SLEEP013) | 10 | |||||||||||
| "Statuesque" | Indolent (SLEEP014) | 17 | |||||||||||
| "She's a Good Girl" | 1997 | Indolent (SLEEP015) | 28 | Pleased to Meet You | |||||||||
| "Romeo Me" | Indolent (SLEEP017) | 39 | |||||||||||
| "Look at You Now" | 2018 | Gorsky Records (SLEEP018) | — | The Modern Age | |||||||||
| "The Sun Also Rises" | 2019 | Gorsky Records (SLEEP020) | — | ||||||||||
| "More Than I Do" (digital only) | Gorsky Records | — | |||||||||||
| "Live at the Ritz" | Gorsky Records (SLEEP021) | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Vegas 2020" (digital only) | 2020 | Gorsky Records | — | — | |||||||||
| "We Should Be Together" (digital only) | 2021 | Gorsky Records | — | This Time Tomorrow | |||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| "Pyrotechnician (I Think I Love You)" (demo) | 1995 | Sharks Patrol These Waters: The Best of Volume, Pt. II |
| "Bedside Manners" (live at London Astoria) | Home Truths | |
| "Disco Duncan" (Peel session) | ...Hold On (BBC Radio 1FM Sessions) | |
| "Atomic" | 1996 | Trainspotting: Music from the Motion Picture |
| "Sale of the Century" (live at BBC Sound City) | Radio One Sound City Leeds 1996 | |
| "The Other End of the Telescope" | "All This Useless Beauty" single | |
| "Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" (featuring David Gedge) | 2020 | Not from Where I'm Standing |
| "Bad Things" (with The Lottery Winners) | 2021 | Something to Leave the House For |
| Title | Year | Director |
|---|---|---|
| "Delicious" | 1994 | unknown |
| "Inbetweener" (UK Version) | 1995 | Nick Egan |
| "Inbetweener" (US Version) | unknown | |
| "Vegas" | ||
| "What Do I Do Now?" | Lindy Heymann | |
| "Sale of the Century" | 1996 | Nic Goffey and Dominic Hawley |
| "Nice Guy Eddie" | Garth Jennings | |
| "Statuesque" | unknown | |
| "She's a Good Girl" | 1997 | |
| "Romeo Me" | ||
| "Look at You Now" | 2019 | |
| "The Sun Also Rises" | ||
| "More Than I Do" | ||
| "Tell Me Where You're Going" | 2021 | Keith Davey |
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 American-led grunge music and the Britain'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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Suede are an English rock band formed in London in 1989 by singer Brett Anderson, guitarist Justine Frischmann, and bassist Mat Osman. Drawing from glam rock and post-punk, Suede were labeled "The Best New Band in Britain" by Melody Maker in 1992, attracting significant attention from the British music press. The following year, their debut album, Suede, reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the fastest-selling debut album in nearly a decade. It won the Mercury Music Prize and helped propel 'Britpop' as a musical movement, though the band distanced themselves from the label.
The Tourists were a British rock and pop band. They achieved brief success in the late 1970s before the band split in 1980. Two of its members, singer Annie Lennox and guitarist Dave Stewart, went on to international success as Eurythmics.
The Supernaturals are a guitar-based indie rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. The band signed to Parlophone in 1996, and had a string of singles which were taken from their three albums and four EPs. Other members included Mark Guthrie, Derek McManus, Gavin Crawford and Ken McAlpine. The band's best known songs were featured prominently in a series of television advertisements. In total they scored five Top 40 entries in the UK Singles Chart. The band broke up in 2002, before reforming in 2012, and they continue to record music, and perform concerts, to this day.
The Auteurs were a British alternative rock band of the 1990s, and a vehicle for songwriter Luke Haines.
Louise Jane Wener is an English writer, singer, songwriter and guitarist of the band Sleeper.
The Wedding Present are an English indie rock group formed in 1985 in Leeds, England, by members of The Lost Pandas. The band has been led by vocalist and guitarist David Gedge, the band's only constant member.
The Kooks are an English pop-rock band formed in 2004 in Brighton. The band consists of Luke Pritchard, Hugh Harris and Alexis Nunez (drums).
Smart is the debut studio album by English rock band Sleeper, released on 13 February 1995 by Indolent Records. It was mixed by Stephen Street. The album's sleeve photo is of the Mercury Seven astronauts. A 25th anniversary deluxe edition was released in 2020 on both vinyl and CD. The CD version has 10 extra tracks.
"Sale of the Century" is a song by Britpop band Sleeper, written by the band's vocalist/guitarist Louise Wener and drummer Andy Maclure. In Europe, "Sale of the Century" was the second single to be released from their second album The It Girl in 1996 and became the group's first top ten hit on the UK Singles Chart.
"Nice Guy Eddie" is a song by English Britpop band Sleeper, written by the band's vocalist and guitarist Louise Wener. It was the third single to be released from their second album, The It Girl. It peaked at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Swallow" is a song by English Britpop band Sleeper, written by the band's vocalist and guitarist Louise Wener along with band guitarist Jon Stewart, and produced by Paul Corkett. "Swallow" was released as the band's debut single and the follow-up to their debut extended play release, Alice in Vain.
"Delicious" is a 1994 song by English Britpop band Sleeper, written by the band's vocalist and guitarist Louise Wener along with band guitarist Jon Stewart, and produced by Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds.
"Inbetweener" is a song by English Britpop band Sleeper, written by the band's vocalist and guitarist Louise Wener. It was the third single to be released from their debut album Smart in 1995. It was their breakthrough single, crashing daytime radio playlists and reaching number 16 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Vegas" is a pop-rock song performed by English Britpop band Sleeper, written by the band's vocalist and guitarist Louise Wener. In March 1995, it was released as the fourth and final single from Sleeper's debut album, Smart, where it followed the success of "Inbetweener" by peaking within the UK top 40. The single release of "Vegas" was backed with a number of specially recorded B-sides, including a cover of the Pretenders "Hymn to Her".
Pleased to Meet You is the third studio album by English Britpop band Sleeper. The album was released on 13 October 1997 in the UK, peaking at #7 on the UK Album Chart. Two singles were released from this album, "She's a Good Girl", which reached #28, and "Romeo Me", which scraped in at #39 on the UK Top 40 singles chart. Remixes of "Motorway Man" by producer Steve Osbourne were released on 12" vinyl.
"She's a Good Girl" is a song by Britpop band Sleeper, written by the band's vocalist and guitarist Louise Wener. "She's a Good Girl" was the first and lead-in single for Sleeper's third album Pleased to Meet You and became the group's seventh top forty hit on the UK Singles Chart.
The Modern Age is the fourth studio album by English Britpop band Sleeper. The album was released in the UK on 22 March 2019, and peaked at number 18 on the UK Album Chart. Three singles were released from this album, "Look At You Now", "The Sun Also Rises" and "More Than I Do", all of which failed to chart.
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