Shed Seven

Shed Seven biography

Shed Seven are an English indie rock band from York and were one of the groups which contributed to the Britpop music scene that evolved during the 1990s, yet never received the degree of mainstream success achieved by bands such as Oasis and Blur. They formed in 1990 and originally comprised Rick Witter (vocals), Joe Johnson (guitar and keyboards, later replaced by Paul Banks), Tom Gladwin (bass) and Alan Leach (drums).

They belonged to the post-Smiths wave of UK musicians such as The Sundays and Marion, with a sound relying heavily on complex guitar arpeggios often in a minor key, and wailing vocals. At the height of their popularity between 1994 and 1999 they had fifteen Top 40 singles and four Top 20 albums in the UK. The band officially broke up in 2003, but reformed for a greatest hits tour in July 2007. The band has continued to play shows around the UK periodically but has not released a new studio album.

History

The early years

Shed Seven formed in 1990 from the ashes of Brockley Haven, a band featuring frontman Rick Witter, guitarist and songwriter Paul Banks, bassist Tom Gladwin, Magnus Thompson and John Leach, brother of Alan Leach. Both Witter and Banks had also previously played together in a band named ENAM, performing to German exchange students in Banks's front room. The band's name derived from a railway shed with Polydor Records in October 1993, guitarist Joe Johnson left the line-up and was replaced by Paul Banks. The band twice entered the local Fibbers/Evening Press Battle Of The Bands competition, "...Shed Seven's beautifully posed, epic music is different. Not so much New Wave Of New Wave as post-Smiths, they're taking the insular bedsit angst of Morrissey's early music and subverting it with a brash and insensitive sexual narcissism."

Their debut single, the double A-side "Mark"/"Casino Girl"-labelled by NME as "spirited 'Barbarism Begins At Home' skirl" -was released on 7 March 1994 to considerable acclaim from some sections of the music press, during Banks' two year absence from the band's line-up, was released on 13 June 1994 peaking at number 28 with first week sales reaching 15,000, leading to Shed Seven's first Top of the Pops appearance on 23 June 1994. Despite their third single release, "Speakeasy", entering the UK charts at number 24 and giving them their biggest hit to date, the first negative press reviews began to emerge. Writing for the UK music magazine NME in August 1994, John Mulvey believed that it represented "four clumsy blokes trying to come over all sensuous, fragile and complex."-"Speakeasy" was later to be re-written as an advertising jingle in 1999, for the mobile phone company The Link, with Witter later admitting regret at his re-recording and re-wording of the original. As a result, the song was omitted from Shed Seven setlists for a number of years, only making its live comeback as a stripped-down acoustic version on their "farewell" tour in December 2003.

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