Little Man Tate biography
Little Man Tate were a four-piece indie rock band from Sheffield, England who formed in 2005. They broke up in 2009. The band quickly began attracting interest from several record labels and in March 2006 signed to V2 Records, later parting ways in November 2007. Their fifth single, "Sexy in Latin" was released on January 22 and became their highest charting single.
The band made extensive use of the Internet to gather a fanbase. Like many other up and coming bands they made extensive use of MySpace as well as their own forum to communicate with and co-ordinate fans.
History
Formation
Jon Windle and Edward 'Maz' Marriott were in several bands together since the age of 15 in Sheffield and their first gig together was at the age of 12 in a church hall in Crookes.
Little Man Tate were originally formed as a 6 piece band by singer/guitarist Jon Windle, guitarist Edward 'Maz' Marriott, bassist Ben Surtees, drummer Mike Balkow and former lead singer Simon Barnes in 1998 under the name Carousel Moon. The band changed their name to The Moon on 15 October 2001 which remained in place until 2005. Then came a transitional period for the band as they briefly changed their name to Lazy Eye before finally becoming Little Man Tate in September 2005. The band line up had also changed over the early years, following the departures of drummer Mike Balkow, who was replaced by Dan Fields, original lead singer Simon Barnes and second guitarist Charlie Waites whose departure led to the band becoming a four-piece.
In an interview, Jon Windle revealed the name Little Man Tate came when he was on the telephone to bass player Ben Surtees, and was trying to think of a band name. He saw the film Little Man Tate advertised in the television listing, and they settled on that.
Touring, V2 and debut album (2005-2007)
The band began touring together in September 2005.
On 10 December 2005 at a gig in Oldham at Oldham Castle, police and sniffer dogs turned up at the venue and lead singer Jon Windle was escorted from the building and searched. He was eventually allowed back in and the gig continued. The band were signed to V2 Records on 20 February 2006 the day before their gig at the London Barfly.
Their first single, "The Agent", was released 6 March 2006 on 7" vinyl with "Just Can't Take It" as the B-side. All 1,800 copies sold out as pre-orders. The back of the record sleeve featured 273 usernames of members of the band's forum. The song was rated 9/10 by Teletext's Planet Sound. "The Agent" was Number 6 in Planet Sound's top 50 singles of 2006. They band played acoustic sets at several HMV stores around the UK to promote the single. It reached number 117 in the official UK Singles Chart on sales of the 7" vinyl alone.
In April 2006, the band toured the UK. The band's second single, "What? What You Got?" was released on 22 May 2006, and reached number 40 in the UK Singles Chart, and was first played by Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music. Both "The Agent" and "What? What You Got?" were released under the band's own label, Yellow Van Records, a tribute to their old yellow van which was stolen along with all their equipment at an early gig at Fibbers (Barfly) in York.
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