Speedy was a five-piece Indie Pop/Britpop band from Sheffield, England, whose songs were known for their witty lyrics, often observing the darker and seedier side of working class life; "kitchen sink narratives" in the words of founder and lead singer Philip Watson. Their debut single on a major label Boy Wonder reached No. 56 in the UK Singles Chart in late 1996, but further chart success eluded them.
Speedy | |
---|---|
Origin | Sheffield, England |
Genres | Britpop |
Years active | 1994–1998, 2014 |
Labels | Boiler House!, Arista, BMG |
Past members | Philip Watson (Vocals) Bronwen Stone (Drums) Moony Wainwright (Bass) Paul Turner (Keyboards) Richard Sutcliffe (Guitar) |
Band members Philip Watson (Vocals), Bronwen Stone (Drums), Moony Wainwright (Bass), Paul Turner (Keyboards) and Richard Sutcliffe (Guitar) (who replaced Tracey Plant) had previously performed under the name Blammo! between 1988 and 1994. In this guise they issued five singles; three on Heywood based label Imaginary Records who also had Cud and The Mock Turtles on their roster. [1] The band was invited to support The Beautiful South on three tours, which allowed them to perform in front of several thousand people at London Wembley Arena.
Their first performance under the Speedy moniker was at the Spud Club on Sunday 3 April 1994. [2] [3] The following year, their track Sporting Life (produced by Danny Shackleton) was included on a limited edition 7" single. The Saturday Night Special: Silence is Golden EP was released by Leadmill Records, [4] which was an imprint of the famous Sheffield venue of the same name. The notes on the back cover commented that The Leadmill had been voted the number one live venue/club in the UK in the 1994 Melody Maker music poll.
Signed to Arista Records imprint Boilerhouse!, the band's first 'mainstream' success came in late 1996 with the release of single Boy Wonder, which reached No. 2 on the Indie Chart. Receiving nationwide airplay on Radio 1, it also entered the official UK Singles Chart at No. 56 on 9 November 1996, but fell out of the Top 75 after just one week. [5] Boy Wonder also made it onto Polygram's Shine 7 various artists compilation album (Track 16), the Indie equivalent of the Now That's What I Call Music! series. Television exposure followed, including an appearance on the BBC Saturday lunchtime sports programme Football Focus.[ citation needed ]
But, despite this early success, and support from Radio 1 DJ Zoë Ball [ citation needed ] , who secured the band two appearances on the Saturday morning TV show Live and Kicking, which she presented with Jamie Theakston, subsequent singles Anytime Anyplace Nowhere, Time for You and Going Home failed to chart. Whilst an album was recorded, Speedy and Arista parted company before its release. [6] [7] [8] The band continued to perform live, playing Music in the Sun in 1997, alongside Longpigs and Babybird, [9] but the band members eventually went their separate ways in 1998.
Some 15 years later enterprising former fan and renowned crime writer Nick Quantrill, managed to get hold of the audio files to Speedy's long lost album News From Nowhere. [10] He passed them on to a new blogging site Britpop Revival and started a chain of events that would culminate in the band's first live shows in over 17 years.
On 30 November 2012 The Britpop Revival Radio Show on Phonic FM revealed that the unreleased album would be made available for streaming from Saturday 15 December 2012. [11] Then, on 20 January 2013, singer Philip Watson was interviewed on the show and asked what he thought about the album resurfacing after 15 years on the shelf, he said: "I'm flattered that people have somehow found, like and now want to share this album. Also slightly embarrassed. But only slightly. It's alright."
The music on the album falls somewhere between Pulp and Blur. Big tunes with chirpy choruses coupled with wry observational lyrics addressing love, life on the dole and summer holiday sex; together with darker themes such as domestic violence, teenage pregnancy and juvenile crime.
In February 2014 the people behind indie label Alcopop! Records and the 1p Album Club blog announced the launch of a new venture called The Lost Music Club. The label would dig out albums that were recorded but never released, and make them available to the public. The press release announced that first release was to be "from cult 1990s Sheffield band Speedy who, despite scoring a Radio 1 Single of the Week and gigging relentlessly in the mid-90s, saw their debut album, originally scheduled for a 1997 release, permanently shelved." [12]
So after a 17-year hiatus the band reformed for two shows in April 2014 to mark the eventual release of their album "News from Nowhere". [13] The shows took place on Friday 4 April 2014 at London Birthdays in Dalston, and on Saturday 5 April 2015 at the band's spiritual home The Leadmill in Sheffield. [14] [15] And with that the band returned to their day jobs.
The album News From Nowhere was finally released on Monday 7 April 2015. [16] On the same day, Sarah Lay reviewing the album for Louder Than War, the music website established by award-winning journalist, TV and radio presenter John Robb concluded: A lost classic? Maybe not. But a gem from the analogue age that certainly didn't deserve to be unheard for so long – well worth a listen for lovers of underdogs or the Britpop sound, for ’90s throwbacks or anyone who just wants to get their ears around some raucous indiepop. [17]
Singer Philip Watson is an architect and Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds.
Drummer Bronwen Stone is an archaeologist. For many years she ran Antics on Ecclesall Road in Sheffield
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Formatting, non-use of wikitable(s), laundry list appearance, unreferenced.(June 2020) |
Saturday Girl (1994) (Fanclub Cassette)
A1) Saturday Girl
A2) Slippers
B1) Cherry Street
Pills to Purge Melancholy (1994) (Fanclub Cassette)
A1) News From Nowhere
A2) Best Years
A3) There's Always Suicide
A4) Slippers
B1) Saturday Girl
B2) The Boy Hairdresser
B3) What a Carry On
B4) Almanac of Slack
Anytime, Anyplace ... Nowhere (1995) (Fanclub Cassette)
A1) Sporting Life
A2) News from Nowhere
A3) Illustrated Man
B1) Speakeasy
B2) I Like You So Much
B3) How Low?
Saturday Night Special: Silence is Golden EP (1995) (Leadmill Records) (Various Artists)
7" Vinyl EP (LEAD003)
A1) Jet Girl (The Wedding Present)
A2) The Sporting Life (Speedy)
B1) Dolphins (Heights of Abraham)
B2) All the Time in the World (The Apartments)
Saturday Girl (Demo Cassette)
1) Saturday Girl
2) Slippers
News From Nowhere (Demo Cassette)
1) News From Nowhere
2) Best Years
A Day in the Life (of Riley) (1996) (Boilerhouse!)
7" Vinyl Single (BOIL1)
1) A Day in the Life (of Riley)
2) How Low?
Boy Wonder (Nov 1996) (Boilerhouse!) UK #56
7" Vinyl Single (BOIL2V)
1) Boy Wonder
2) Shopping Around
CD Digipack (BOIL2CD)
1) Boy Wonder
2) Shopping Around
3) The Illustrated Man
I Like You So Much (December 1996) (Fanclub 7" Christmas Single)
7" Vinyl Single Sided Single (BOIL3VPA)
1) I Like You So Much (Bedroom Mix)
2) Band signatures etched into disc [Unplayable]
Anytime Anyplace Nowhere (1997) (Boilerhouse!)
CD1 (BOIL3CD1)
1) Anytime Anyplace Nowhere
2) Heard Seen Done Been (Live Version)
3) Sweetalk
4) This is England
CD2 (BOIL3CD2)
1) Heard Seen Done Been
2) Anytime Anyplace Nowhere (Youth Club Version)
3) Almanac of Slack
4) Boy Wonder (Live Version)
12" Vinyl (BOIL3P1) (European Only Promotional Release)
1) Anytime Anyplace Nowhere (Commercial Suicide Mix)
2) Anytime Anyplace Nowhere (Dub Version)
3) Anytime Anyplace Nowhere (Youth Club Version)
Time For You (27 May 1997) (Boilerhouse!)
7" Vinyl Single (BOIL4V)
1) Time for You (radio edit)
2) Where Were You?
CD1 (BOIL4CD1)
1) Time for You (radio edit)
2) Where Were You?
3) Sour 16
CD2 (BOIL4CD2)
1) Time for You
2) Nearly Man
3) Going Home (Acoustic)
Going Home (1998) (Boilerhouse!)
CD1 (BOIL5CD1)
1) Going Home
2) Dead Sheep
3) Need for Speed
CD2 (BOIL5CD2)
1) Going Home
2) Whole Wide World
3) Bad Time Girl
News From Nowhere (7 April 2014) (LOSTMUSICCLUB001)
1) Anytime, Anyplace, Nowhere
2) Boy Wonder
3) Nine O'Clock News
4) The Sporting Life
5) Time for You
6) Going Home
7) I Like You So Much
8) Another Day (In the Life of Riley)
9) Heard, Seen, Done, Been
10) Karaoke King
11) Fisto
12) News From Nowhere
Pulp are an English rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. At their critical and commercial peak, the band consisted of Jarvis Cocker, Russell Senior, Candida Doyle (keyboards), Nick Banks, Steve Mackey (bass) and Mark Webber.
The Moonies were an alternative rock band from Liverpool, England, who existed from 2001 to 2005. The band consisted of singer/guitarist Steve Banks, singer/bassist Ryan Clarke, guitarist Steve Charmley, and drummer Mike Berry.
Ocean Colour Scene are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1989. They have had five top 10 albums including a number one in 1997. They have also achieved seventeen top 40 singles and six top 10 singles to date.
Teenage Fanclub are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in Glasgow in 1989. The group were founded by Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley and Gerard Love, all of whom shared lead vocals and songwriting duties until Love's departure in 2018. As of 2023, the band's lineup consists of Blake, McGinley, Francis Macdonald, Dave McGowan and Euros Childs.
"Common People" is a song by English alternative rock band Pulp, released in May 1995 as the lead single from their fifth studio album Different Class. It reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming a defining track of the Britpop movement as well as Pulp's signature song. In 2014, BBC Radio 6 Music listeners voted it their favourite Britpop song in an online poll. In a 2015 Rolling Stone readers' poll it was voted the greatest Britpop song.
Haze are an English progressive rock band from Sheffield, mainly active in England in the 1980s.
The Thieving Magpie (La Gazza Ladra) is a double live album by the British neo-prog band Marillion. It was named after the introductory piece of classical music the band used before coming on stage during the Clutching at Straws tour 1987–1988, the overture to Rossini's opera La gazza ladra, which translates as "The Thieving Magpie". The album was released shortly after singer Fish's departure from the band (and before Steve Hogarth's arrival) and was intended to document the "Fish years". It complements the band's first live album Real to Reel insofar as there are no overlaps. The Thieving Magpie is not a continuous live recording, but a compilation of tracks recorded at different times and places, with audible gaps between them and different moods on the individual tracks. However, the double vinyl version does include the first side of the UK number one concept album Misplaced Childhood (1985). The CD and cassette version includes the full album, as well as the track "Freaks" – originally the b-side to "Lavender", it was used as the lead single for The Thieving Magpie peaking at no. 18 in the UK.
Grand Prix is the fifth album by Scottish alternative rock band Teenage Fanclub, released in May 1995 via Creation Records.
Nowhere is the debut album by British shoegaze band Ride, released 15 October 1990. Rolling Stone called the album "a masterpiece", and online magazine Pitchfork called it "one of shoegazing's enduring moments".
Milburn are an indie rock band from Sheffield, England, that consisted of Joe Carnall, Louis Carnall, Tom Rowley, and Joe Green. They announced their split on 28 March 2008, with the band playing one final gig at Sheffield's Carling Academy on 24 May 2008 before reuniting in 2016.
Then & Now... the Best of The Monkees is a compilation album of songs by the 1960s American pop group the Monkees, released by Arista Records in 1986.
"Something Changed" is a song by Britpop band Pulp, released on their 1995 album, Different Class. Written much earlier in the band's existence but revived for the Different Class sessions, "Something Changed" features lyrics that focused on the random nature as to how important events happen in life. The song also features a guitar solo performed by guitarist Mark Webber.
Starry Eyed and Bollock Naked was the first b-side collection by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. It was released in March 1994 and reached 22nd place on the UK charts. The album artwork features an orange Volkswagen Beetle which belonged to Jim Bob at the time of release.
Cure for Sanity is the third studio album by English rock band Pop Will Eat Itself, released on 22 October 1990 by RCA Records. Upon its release, the album entered the UK Albums Chart and stayed there for two weeks, peaking at number 33, and re-entered the chart when it was re-released in July 1991, staying there for one week at number 58. In Australia, the album peaked at number 51 and spent six weeks on the ARIA top 100 albums chart.
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.
"Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann" is a 1984 song by Nena written by band members Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen and Carlo Karges. It was a commercial success in Europe. Released initially as a single, it was included on Nena's 1985 album Feuer und Flamme. Many variations and covers of the song have appeared, including samples and foreign language versions, most notably the English language "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime". Its various incarnations have charted over a 37-year period and in three different languages.
Chakk were an industrial funk band from Sheffield, who existed from 1981 until 1987. Members were Alan Cross, Mark Brydon, Dee Boyle, Sim Lister, Jake Harries and Jon Stuart. The band never achieved commercial success, but have been noted for their wide influence on later British dance music, particularly via Fon Studios. Mark Brydon later went on to form and achieved success with Moloko.
Reverend and the Makers are an English rock band from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The band is fronted by Jon McClure, nicknamed "The Reverend". Their debut album, The State of Things (2007), helped them gain success in Britain and spawned the UK top 10 single "Heavyweight Champion of the World". The band released their second album, A French Kiss in the Chaos (2009), which led to them being invited to support Oasis on their final tour, playing venues such as Wembley Stadium. The band's third studio album, @Reverend_Makers, was released in 2012, their fourth studio album, ThirtyTwo, was released in 2014 which had more electronic and dance music influences. These were followed by Mirrors in 2015 and The Death of a King in 2017 which showcased a hard rock and folk influenced sound. Their seventh album, the soul and R&B inflected Heatwave in the Cold North was released in 2023 and became the band's first Top 10 album in the UK in 16 years.
Party Day were an English goth/indie rock band formed in 1981 in Wombwell near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, originally a four-piece consisting of guitarists Martin Steele, Greg Firth, bassist Carl Firth and drummer, Mick Baker. Their sound was described as being "hard knuckleduster goth with post-punk overtones".
The Wörld Is Ours – Vol. 2: Anyplace Crazy as Anywhere Else is the twelfth live album by the band Motörhead, released on 21 September 2012, the third UDR GmbH / Motörhead Music / EMI collaboration, and is the entire concert at the Wacken Open Air, Germany, with parts of the Sonisphere, England, and Rock in Rio, Brazil, concerts from 2011.