Jo Lloyd, born in Northern Ireland, had been attempting to make original compositions ever since her high school days, when she used to take piano classes. During her adolescence, she would start meeting up with other musicians, further motivating her to pursue a career in music, which led to her not advancing into college after graduating. [2] Lloyd would instead start performing at piano bars, playing casually alongside other musicians. [3] [4]
Dave Magee started learning music the age of 9. At first, he aspired to learn the saxophone, which he incorrectly believed to be an instrument played on the theme song of british animated series The Wombles. Around the same age, however, he would be gifted a drum kit and start playing it. [3] Magee reported a desire of attempting to play the drums as fast as possible allowed him to get into heavier music. [2]
James Wright was born in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, but lived in Australia since the age of four. His father was a painter and had a studio at his home where he would record local bands playing. It would later be used by Wright and his brother to write songs and host their own recording sessions. Wright performed in a few concerts in Perth before deciding to move to London. [3]
At one point, a trio Lloyd was performing in would disband due to the other two members moving on to playing professionally with different bands. It was around this time that she would get to know Magee and share a demo tape with him. Having liked her recordings, the drummer agreed to help Lloyd find a guitarist and, in 1996, the two would place an advertisement in the music magazine Melody Maker, which called the attention of Wright. [2] [5] Lloyd reported that the guitarist had been in England for only a few weeks when he contacted her and Magee and had answered thes advertisement "just for a laugh". The guitarrist was accepted into the group, leading to Stretch Princess being properly formed. [1] The band was given its name in reference to one of the limousines previously owned by John Lennon. [2]
Early years and Stretch Princess (1996 - 1998)
Stretch Princess would start playing in concerts throughout London, beginning with only around six original songs in their first performance. About this concert, Wright stated: "We were so nervous and played so fast we had to play the whole set twice to fill up our time". [4] The trio would eventually travel to Dublin, Ireland for a music convention named "In the City", [6] which featured exclusively new bands. Lloyd reported that Stretch Princess got a lot of interest from british record labels but that she and the other members felt intimidated by it. Following the convention, the trio would spend a year focusing on improving their playing and songwriting, composing many songs the singer considered "really good" with relative quickness. [2] [5]
In spite of the interests, the band wasn't generally well received in England due to the popularity of the britpop genre at the time. While Wright claimed that Lloyd's singing was "more honest" compared to the style adopted in britpop, [1] Magee expressed that the trio had been discontent with the state of the british music scene for a long time, stating that Stretch Princess had "nothing in common with those so called new discoveries". [7] The guitarist also claimed that the band always knew their music "would be better suited to American audiences". [6]
The trio would eventually get to perform in the United States through the College Music Journal festival, which allowed them to get the attention of several record labels. [6] Among these labels was Wind Up Records, headquartered in New York City, which Stretch Princess would sign up to after sharing a demo tape. The contract motivated the band to move to the same city, where its members would live for the following of their years of activity. [3] At Wind Up, Stretch Peincess would team up with poducers Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, who had worked with bands such as Radiohead and Hole in the past. [4] The group was also tasked with frequent touring, often being paired with other bands such as Third Eye Blind and Better than Ezra. [2] [5]
On August 25th of 1998, the band would release their debut album, the homonimous Stretch Princess, [8] with the song "Sorry" being released as a lead single. [5] Stretch Princess would be positively reviewed by Ira Robbins, editor of british rock and roll magazine Trouser Press, who placed it on his "Top 10 Albums for 1998" and described the trio as "energetic and confident". [9]
The band created other songs not featured in Stretch Princess during this period, including Stupid Boy and Comet. [6]
