Sleepy People

Last updated

Sleepy People
Origin Wakefield, England
Genres alternative rock, post-punk, psychedelic rock, progressive pop
Years active19892003, 2017present
LabelsOrg Records, Edgy Records, Bad Apple Records
MembersPaul Hope
Andrew "Tiny" Wood
Rachel Theresa Hope
Graeme Swaddle
Mark Wallis
Past membersLiz Waudby
Kerry Harrison
Richard Green
Adrian "Bill" Bailey
Danny Orange
Phil "Earl Slick" Sears
Anna "Tanglewood" Blaydon
Gary "Spangles" Bowden
Mark Greenwood
Lee Haley
Mark Dunphy
Tom Evans

Sleepy People (sometimes also known as Blue Apple Boy) is a British psychedelic rock band known for eccentric, energetic songs and live performances, as well as for incubating several future members of Britpop band Ultrasound.

Contents

The band has an eclectic musical approach blending psychedelic rock, New Wave pop, punk and progressive rock (other ingredients have included noise-rock, nursery rhymes, ska, Muzak, bossa nova, circus/fairground music, tango and anything else which the band members find inspiring). Sleepy People is strongly influenced by other theatrical British psychedelic band such as Cardiacs and The Monochrome Set, with lyrics varying from cheerful or sinister nonsense to surreal representations of everyday life and hallucinatory twists on eccentric stories from tabloid newspapers.

There is a difference between Sleepy People and The Sleepy People (a New Wave indie rock band from Oregon) or Sleeping People (a Californian progressive rock band).

Sleepy People band history

Formation and early years (1989-1991)

Sleepy People began in Wakefield, Yorkshire circa 1989, when students on Wakefield College's Popular and Commercial Music became friends. These included songwriter and former coal miner Paul Hope, mature student Andrew "Tiny" Wood, teenaged classical cellist and bass guitarist Richard Green, drummer Andy Peace and singing flute player Rachel Theresa Hope (Paul's wife). Paul Hope and Tiny Wood first teamed up in a band called Step TLV. The two along with Rachel Hope would subsequently work together as Pop Kid, who released a lone cassette album called Strange Planets Emerging From Behind The Coal Shed. The loose ensemble of musical friends later relocated to Newcastle upon Tyne, where Wood and Green pursued music degrees. They established themselves in a run-down house in the suburb of Jesmond (which they called "Sleepy Hall" [1] ) .

The first lineup and Blunt Nails in a Sharp Wall (1992-1995)

Pop Kid had by now developed into the first line-up of Sleepy People - Paul Hope (guitar, vocals), Rachel Theresa Hope (flute, vocals), Richard Green (bass guitar), Kerry Harrison (drums) and Liz Waudby (keyboards), with Tiny Wood as lead singer and frontman. The band began making themselves a fixture at various small venues on the British live circuit. Though tuneful, Sleepy People's music was complicated, demanding and often considered noncommercial, winning over some audiences and confusing others. To bolster its impact, the band devised a stage show which Paul Hope described as "designed to provoke a response on the soporific and conservative pub circuit up and down the country, and at that we excelled!" [2] The show was in the theatrical/absurdist tradition of early Split Enz and early Cardiacs, featuring eccentric outfits, make-up and haircuts plus music hall comedy. Tiny Wood made the most of his bulky physique and imposing stage presence, including at least one performance when he dressed up as a Chinese mandarin.

During the first few years of recording and touring, the band underwent the first of its many personnel changes. Pete Haslam replaced Liz Waudby on keyboards, and Andy Peace replaced Kerry Harrison on drums. Peace was himself replaced by Graeme Swaddle (formerly with legendary Tyneside psych band Dead Flowers), who'd remain the band's longterm drummer. [1]

In 1994, Sleepy People issued their first album Blunt Nails in a Sharp Wall. The songs – based on a broad template of tightly played psychedelic pop – were eccentric and sometimes absurdist, with ingredients veering from the disco stylings of "Sordid Sentimental" to the Gong-inspired sprightliness of "Mr Marconi's Unusual Theory", the full-on progressive rock fantasia of "Rare Bird at the Window" and the harder-rocking "Nicky's Little Army" (the latter inspired by the orphanages in Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romania). Originally put out as a self-released cassette (with distribution help from the "Organ" fanzine, who'd supported the band from the early days), the album was eventually re-released on CD by Org Records in 1999.

In 1995, Sleepy People suffered a major line-up change when Tiny Wood, Richard Green and Pete Haslam all left Sleepy People in order to move to London and set up a new band, Pop-A-Cat-A-Petal, with former Sleepies drummer Andy Peace.

Typhoid and Swans, Paint a Ceiling on the Sky and the Ultrasound connection (1995-1997)

To replace the departed members, Paul and Rachel Hope recruited a new lead singer - Phil "Earl Slick" Sears - plus bass player Adrian "Bill" Bailey and keyboard player Danny “Orange” Robinson. A self-released double A-side single featuring the new line-up ("Home Is Where Your Telly Is/Hanghar") kept up the band's momentum; although Orange and Bailey both left in 1997 to be respectively replaced by Anna Blaydon (also known as "Anna Tanglewood") and Gary "Spangles" Bowden. [1]

In 1997, the band signed a deal with Edgy Records and recorded and released their second album Typhoid and Swans. The band's songs were now less eccentric than previously. Hope was favouring more direct lyrics and making use of Sear's rich quasi-operatic voice, although signs of the band's more theatrical past remained in the shape of the lengthy "Everything You Know Is Wrong". Former Gong violinist Graham Clark made a guest appearance on the album. Several songs from this period were recorded for a live-in-the-studio mini-album called Paint a Ceiling on the Sky, which was released on cassette.

Meanwhile, down in London, the former Sleepy People members in Pop-A-Cat-A-Petal had released a four-song cassette EP in 1994 via Org Records. Following the departure of Pete Haslam and the addition of Vanessa Best and Matt Jones, the band reinvented themselves in 1996 as Ultrasound. The new band suddenly began to attract avid attention on the London gig circuit and were soon being chased by various record labels. Following a single released on Fierce Panda, Ultrasound signed to Nude Records and became an up-and-coming name in late-period Britpop. [1] [3] In turn, Sleepy People gained attention from interest in Ultrasound's prehistory. Still friendly with his former bandmates, Paul Hope cheerfully exploited the connection whenever and wherever he could.

All Systems Fail - the Lee Haley period (1998-1999)

Further Sleepy People line-up changes followed in 1998, when Phil Sears left the band to try his own luck in London (and, later, Australia) and Gary Bowden also left, following clashes with Hope. They were replaced by bass player Mark Greenwood and teenage singer Lee Haley. This line-up of Sleepy People recorded the 1998 cassette single "All Systems Fail/Every Wave Is Higher on the Beach".

Lee Haley was a lighter singer than Sears and brought an air of cool insouciance to the band, [1] which by now had jettisoned most of the make-up, costumes, and theatrics in favour of letting the music work by itself. However, Haley's time with the band was brief, and he left in 1999 to form a more straightforward band called The Embassy.

The "Blue Apple Boy" period, part 1 - Mark Dunphy (2000-2001)

Although Phil Sears obliged Sleepy People by filling in as lead singer for several gigs, he was unable to make a long-term commitment. The band then recruited Mark Dunphy (the brother of Cud guitarist Mike Dunphy), whose more flamboyant singing style returned the band to their previous sound; while new bass player Tom Evans replaced Mark Greenwood. [1]

In 2000, in search of a fresh start, Sleepy People changed their name to Blue Apple Boy (a name apparently based on Masonic imagery). [4] Initially, the name change led to a new lease of life for the band. The band recorded a new double A-side single – ("Who’s That Calling?/Sunshine Valley Paradise Club" – which was released as a one-off arrangement with cult Oxford indie label Shifty Disco. [4] Both songs were inspired by bizarre true-life newspaper stories: a tale of a man falling off a bridge while conversing on his cellphone, and one of unpleasant goings on in a retirement home. Former Sleepy People/Ultrasound member Richard Green (by then leading his own Leeds-based band The Somatics) added noise-guitar to "Sunshine Valley Paradise Club". The single attracted attention from the national music press, leading to an appearance in Melody Maker.

Blue Apple Boy followed up with a more sinister single called "Freak" (released on the band's own Bad Apple Records) which dealt with vigilante/mob violence and was inspired by the then-current paedophile panic in the UK (during which several innocent people had been harmed by mobs on the suspicion of being paedophiles). [5] [6] [7] [8] Unfortunately, "Freak" did not gain the same level of attention as its predecessor, and this disappointment added to the band's continuing instability. In 2001, Dunphy was asked to leave the band after falling out with Paul Hope. Evans and Blaydon also chose to depart at this point, leaving the band once again reduced to a trio of the Hopes plus the loyal Graeme Swaddle.

The "Blue Apple Boy" period, part 2 - return of Tiny Wood; Salient; band splits (2002-2003)

Paul Hope restructured the band yet again, re-recruiting Bill Bailey as bass guitarist. The keyboard playing role was taken over by Rachel Theresa, adding Moog synthesizer work to her flute-playing and singing. At around the same time, following the collapse of Ultrasound, Tiny Wood had returned to Newcastle to form a new band called Siren. Having also renewed his musical relationship with Paul Hope, Wood agreed to join Blue Apple Boy as singer. [4]

Revitalised, the band set about assembling the debut Blue Apple Boy album. Wood re-recorded vocals for earlier songs (including some late Sleepy People ones), rewrote others and worked on new material with Hope. Credited to "Blue Apple Boy featuring Tiny Wood", the Salient album was released on the Soma Sound label in 2002, and displayed a further strengthening of the band's songwriting skills. Tiny Wood co-wrote two of the album's songs - "Jump Start" (a rewrite of "Freak" with new Wood lyrics) and "Cold War" (a conceptual sequel to the Ultrasound anthem "Stay Young"). Although Wood sang on most tracks, the band was now pursuing a more flexible approach to vocals. Rachel Theresa sang lead vocals on "Leave The Mud for the Worms" and the Gurdjieff-influenced bossa-nova "The Moon Is Hungry", while "Apples And Pears" featured the Hopes' eldest child, Dorothy Pippin.

Although Salient gained some extra attention due to the presence of Tiny, this didn't expand beyond the existing Blue Apple Boy/Sleepy People/Ultrasound fanbase. Blue Apple Boy effectively split up in 2003, although the end of the band was never formally announced.

Interim

From 2003 onward, Paul and Rachel Hope concentrated mainly on running The Sky Apple Cafe, their vegetarian restaurant in Newcastle. Both Hopes became chefs and managers, with Tiny Wood also involved. The various core band members retained their friendships (although the stress of running the restaurant would eventually end the Hopes' marriage). Tiny Wood would continue, on and off, with Siren and would rejoin a reformed Ultrasound in 2010.

Paul Hope returned to musical work in 2009, forming an intermittent new trio called The River Valley Giants (with Julie Carpenter and Beresford Francis Delany) containing elements of post-punk, progressive rock and film soundtrack music. They released an EP called Three Irrational Songs and, among other projects, reworked the Sleepy People song "Halfway World". [9] The band sometimes featured contributions from other members of the Sleepy People family, with Tiny singing lead vocals on one of the EP songs and the Hopes' daughter Dorothy Pippin Hope singing backup on others.

Reunion (2017-present)

In 2017, after a fourteen-year break, Sleepy People reformed under their original name. The band now featured the 'Salient' lineup - Paul & Rachel Hope, Tiny Wood, Bill Bailey, Graeme Swaddle - plus new keyboard player/guitarist Mark Wallis. The news emerged via various postings on Facebook and the uploading of new rehearsal videos on YouTube.

The band's return to live work began with a gig in Preston on 11 November 2017. [10] Despite Bailey's departure from the band in 2018, more gigs followed that year, with Wallis moving to bass guitar and Rachel Hope now covering all keyboard parts. A new Sleepy People track, "As a Matter of Fact" (a reworking of a River Valley Giants song), appeared on the double album The Whole World Window II (a charity album raising funds for Tim Smith in August 2018.

Discography (Sleepy People)

Albums

Singles

Mini-albums

Discography (Blue Apple Boy)

Albums

Singles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beat Happening</span> American indie pop band

Beat Happening was an American indie pop band formed in Olympia, Washington in 1982. Calvin Johnson, Heather Lewis, and Bret Lunsford have been the band's continual members. Beat Happening were early leaders in the American indie pop and lo-fi movements, noted for their use of primitive recording techniques, disregard for the technical aspects of musicianship, and songs with subject matters of a carefree or coy nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Beatles discography</span>

Worldwide, the British rock band the Beatles released 12 studio albums, 5 live albums, 51 compilation albums, 36 extended plays (EPs), 63 singles, 17 box sets, 22 video albums and 53 music videos. In their native United Kingdom, during their active existence as a band, they released 12 studio albums, 1 compilation album, 13 EPs, and 22 singles. The early albums and singles released from 1962 to March 1968 were originally on Parlophone, and their albums and singles from August 1968 to 1970 were on their subsidiary label Apple. Their output also includes vault items, remixed mash-ups and anniversary box-sets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twelfth Night (band)</span> English neo-progressive rock band

Twelfth Night are an English neo-progressive rock band of the 1980s, reformed between 2007 and 2012 and again in 2014. The BBC has described them as Reading's biggest band of the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goo Goo Dolls</span> American rock band

The Goo Goo Dolls are an American rock band formed in 1986 in Buffalo, New York, by guitarist/vocalist John Rzeznik, bassist/vocalist Robby Takac, and drummer George Tutuska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pete Burns</span> English singer (1959–2016)

Peter Jozzeppi Burns was an English singer, songwriter and television personality who formed the band Dead or Alive in 1980 and acted as the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter. They are estimated to have sold over 30 million records and 25 million singles worldwide; they also gave successful English songwriting and record production trio Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) their first UK No. 1 hit single. Their first three albums, which Burns wrote, all reached the UK Top 30, with Youthquake reaching the Top 10.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rich Kids on LSD</span> American hardcore punk band

Rich Kids on LSD (RKL) was a Californian hardcore punk band formed in 1982 in Montecito, California, a suburb of Santa Barbara. They were associated with the "Nardcore" scene that evolved out of nearby Oxnard. Their music expanded over the years from West Coast hardcore to a mix of hardcore with rock and metal elements. This style, along with touring, made them very popular on the European scene, especially among skaters in the 1980s and 1990s. Guitarist Chris Rest was the band's only consistent member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Wood (singer)</span> American rock musician (1966–1990)

Andrew Patrick Wood was an American musician who was the lead singer and lyricist for the alternative rock bands Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone. Wood formed Malfunkshun in 1980 with his older brother Kevin Wood on guitar and Regan Hagar on drums. The band used alter ego personas onstage, with Wood using the name Landrew the Love Child. Though the band only had two songs released, "With Yo' Heart " and "Stars-n-You", on the Deep Six compilation album, they are often cited as being among the "founding fathers" of the Seattle grunge movement. During his time in Malfunkshun, Wood started relying heavily on drugs, entering rehab in 1985.

"Blue Moon of Kentucky" is a waltz written in 1945 by bluegrass musician Bill Monroe and recorded by his band, the Blue Grass Boys. The song has since been recorded by many artists, including Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney. The song is the official bluegrass song of Kentucky.

<i>Smiler</i> (album) 1974 studio album by Rod Stewart

Smiler is the fifth solo album by English rock singer-songwriter Rod Stewart. It was released September 27, 1974 by Mercury Records. It reached number 1 in the UK album chart, and number 13 in the US. The album included covers of Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke and Bob Dylan songs, as well as a duet with Elton John of John's song "Let Me Be Your Car". Stewart also covered Carole King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" where 'Woman' is switched to 'Man'. The release of the album was held up for five months due to legal problems between Mercury Records and Warner Bros. Records.

Ultrasound are an English indie rock band. With roots in the British underground psychedelic and experimental rock scenes of the 1980s and early 1990s, the band emerged in 1997 and soon gained attention for their "operatic prog-glam ambitions" and "violent reworking of the idiosyncratic compositions of Captain Beefheart and the staged ambisexual pop idioms of the likes of Marc Bolan and David Bowie".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Almost</span> American band

The Almost is an American rock band from Clearwater, Florida, fronted by Underoath drummer and vocalist Aaron Gillespie. Formed in 2005 as a solo project by Gillespie, the band currently includes guitarist Jay Vilardi, bassist Jon Thompson, and drummer JJ Revell. They released three albums via Tooth & Nail Records: their debut Southern Weather (2007), Monster Monster (2009), and Fear Inside Our Bones (2013). Following a hiatus in 2015, Gillespie revived the project and released a fourth album, Fear Caller, in 2019 through Fearless Records.

<i>Love and Rockets</i> (album) 1989 studio album by Love and Rockets

Love and Rockets is the fourth studio album by English alternative rock band Love and Rockets; released in 1989 by Beggars Banquet Records on cassette, vinyl, and compact disc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kind of Like Spitting</span> American indie rock band

Kind of Like Spitting is an American indie rock band. They formed in 1996 in Portland, Oregon. The band is led by singer-songwriter Ben Barnett, whose work has drawn comparisons to Elliott Smith, Mark Eitzel, Billy Bragg, and Robert Pollard.

Great Northern is a rock group originally from Los Angeles composed of lead vocalist/multi instrumentalist Rachel Stolte, and guitarist/vocalist/multi instrumentalist Solon Bixler. In 2007, they were signed with the independent label Eenie Meenie Records, where they released their debut album, Trading Twilight For Daylight (2007), and their second album, Remind Me Where the Light Is (2009).

The Muffins were an American Maryland-based progressive rock/avant-jazz group. They were formed in Washington, DC in the early 1970s and recorded four albums before disbanding in 1981. In 1998 the group reformed and recorded a further five albums and a DVD. The Muffins played at Symphony Space on Broadway in NYC with Marion Brown in 1979, and also performed at a number of festivals, starting with the ZU Manifestival in New York City in 1978, The Villa Celimontana festival in Rome, Italy in 2000, two appearances at Progday in 2001 and 2002, NEARfest in 2005, and the "Rock in Opposition" festival in France in 2009. In 2010, the Muffins headlined at Progday, making a third appearance at this long running festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleepy Sun</span> American rock band

Sleepy Sun was an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Santa Cruz, California and now based in San Francisco. The band was composed of vocalist Bret Constantino, guitarists Matt Holliman and Evan Reiss, and drummer Brian Tice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pete Sears</span> English rock musician

Peter Roy Sears is an English rock musician. In a career spanning more than six decades, he has been a member of many bands and has moved through a variety of musical genres, from early R&B, psychedelic improvisational rock of the 1960s, folk, country music, arena rock in the 1970s, and blues. He usually plays bass, keyboards, or both in bands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solid Wood</span> 1995 single by Alison Moyet

"Solid Wood" is a song by British singer-songwriter Alison Moyet, released as the second and final single from her 1995 compilation album Singles. It was written by Moyet and produced by Ian Broudie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Fannan</span> American singer-songwriter

Rachel Fannan is an American singer, songwriter, musician and poet from Los Angeles, California. She made her musical debut in 2008, with the release of a solo album entitled Deeper Lurking, under the moniker Birds Fled from Me. She is best known as the lead vocalist of the band Only You, and formerly as co-lead vocalist of San Francisco psych-rockers Sleepy Sun, as well as for collaborations with UNKLE and progressive rock band Anywhere. She has also recorded and toured with the Canadian rock band, Black Mountain, and spent 2019 drumming for the Russian group Pussy Riot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese Breakfast</span> American alternative pop band

Japanese Breakfast is an American indie pop band headed by musician Michelle Zauner. Zauner started the band as a side project in 2013, when she was leading the Philadelphia-based emo group Little Big League. She has said that she named the band after seeing a GIF of Japanese breakfast and deciding that the term would be considered "exotic" to Americans; she also thought it would make others wonder what a Japanese breakfast consists of.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dean Carlson. "allmusic ((( Sleepy People > Overview )))". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 1 November 2008.
  2. Sleevenotes for Blunt Nails in a Sharp Wall CD reissue (Org Records, 1999)
  3. "Org: Sleepy People". Organart.demon.co.uk. Retrieved 1 November 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 Dean Carlson. "Blue Apple Boy | Biography & History". AllMusic . Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  5. "UK | Mob mistakes man for sex abuser". BBC News. 24 July 2000. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  6. "UK | Vigilante attack on innocent man". BBC News. 25 July 2000. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  7. "WALES | Paediatrician attacks 'ignorant' vandals". BBC News. 30 August 2000. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  8. "Salon.com Sex | Plain stupid". Archived from the original on 26 April 2009. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
  9. "River Valley Giants | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos". Myspace.com. 22 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  10. 'All Hail Hyena/Soldato/Dirty Bare Feet/Sleepy People' gig notification on Facebook