Spearmint (band)

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Spearmint are a London-based indie pop band, founded in 1995, and probably the most underrated of all indie bands. Their founding members were Shirley Lee (lead vocals, guitar), Simon Calnan (vocals, keyboards), Martin Talbot (bass) and Ronan Larvor (drums). Talbot left soon afterward, to be replaced by James Parsons. Dickon Edwards later ended up joining as second guitarist, though leaving in 2000 to form Fosca. Parsons then took over second guitar duties, with Andy Lewis joining on bass.

Spearmint have released eight albums and many singles, all on their own label, hitBack, having a minor success with 1997's Sweeping The Nation and "A Trip Into Space", both of which grazed the UK Top 75. "We're Going Out" received some airplay on BBC Radio 1 and was remixed by long-time Pet Shop Boys prodcuer Stephen Hague.

Spearmint's sound can be said to be classic British indie guitar pop, with some major Northern Soul influences, and have often been compared to the Lightning Seeds.

Their most recent studio album, "Paris In A Bottle", was released in the summer of 2006.

Spearmint formed from the ashes of Laverne and Shirlie sometime in 1995. During the initial few months of gigs around their homes in south-east London, they put out a run of 500 white label 7" singles featuring 'Somebody' and an early version of 'I Can't Sleep' on their own Hitback label. A few were sent out to journalists and record companies, the rest were kept under their beds. This rollercoaster of a song featured an unauthorised Beatles sample, which should have made them infamous at the very least. It was not to be, but it was fiery enough to get a manager on board.

The original bass player left later that year, so the band advertised in Melody Maker for a new bass player and met James. He'd just parted ways with previous band Supersaurus and was really looking to play guitar, but they persuaded him to play bass with promises of records, glamour and riches, and he joined. As a double bonus he turned out to be a genius graphic artist, and would design all the band's record sleeves from then on.

'Goldmine' was recorded in January 1996. A producer, JB, had been recommended & he agreed to mix the track - and he has worked with the band ever since. Vital unexpectedly agreed to distribute the record, which was a massive boost, as the band probably hadn't even played in North London by this point. The song was manic, wide-eyed and full of passion, kicking off their live sets like a bomb.

By that summer 1000 copies were pressed up and Spearmint were go! Mark Radcliffe was the first to play them on the radio, on his Graveyard Shift show on Radio 1. Reviews followed in the Melody Maker, Everett True said "it builds and builds like a good 'un." Not the most effervescent of praise, but hey, everyone has to start somewhere.

The band started playing every back room in North London, and picking up fans left right and centre. By the end of spring 97 an unnamed indie record company had decided to put out the next single 'A Week Away', but weeks of dithering meant momentum was being lost. The band scraped together the cash and put it out by themselves once again. It sounded as if Spearmint had the sweetest horn section in pop, but it was Simon with a scratched Four Tops record providing the driving sample behind the song.

The other half of the double a-side was 'Scared Of Everything', a sparkling guitar driven tune with James's trademark elephantine-bass-distortion taking the song to another planet. The record managed to get on the radio a bit earlier in the day, with Steve Lamacq featuring it on the Radio 1 Evening Session. Rumours that it was to be single of the week on the Radio 1 breakfast show fuelled a fortnight of speculation about imminent stardom, but Gorky's Zygotic Mynci got the slot instead. But anyway, things were going well.

After the big gap between 'Goldmine' and 'A Week Away', they got straight down to business with the next record, 'I Can't Sleep'. A reworked and remixed version of an old recording, it was backed with a 4-track cassette recording of Shirley's done the previous year called 'Song For The Colour Yellow'. It came out hot on the heels of 'A Week Away', and ever-increasing sales led to the record being released on CD as well, including the song 'The Other Seven', described by Shirley as "like a loony cousin who sometimes comes to stay".

The third single of 1997 was 'Sweeping The Nation'. Based around a loop taken from the sublime Northern Soul classic 'Out On The Floor' by Dobie Gray, it was released in November just as London's new alternative station XFM was taking shape. They couldn't get enough of it, and put it on their main playlist for 6 weeks. Along with several plays on daytime Radio 1, it meant that the song was impossible to ignore. The launch gig at the Bull and Gate, Kentish Town, had a real buzz of expectation, and as the band walked on stage in front of the biggest crowd they had ever played to, impromptu applause started.... The band looked confused for a moment until they realised it was for them, then launched into a wonderful set described by Jim Wirth in Melody Maker as "everything that makes pop music special". In the following weeks a session was recorded for Greater London Radio, and the band played their first gig outside London, at TJ's in Newport.

Over Christmas the band were mentioned in several papers - including The Times! - as one to watch in 1998, and immediately the band started work on another single 'A Trip Into Space'. A totally re-written version of a song Shirley had composed in pre-Spearmint days, it took up where 'Sweeping The Nation' had left off, providing 6 minutes of what Melody Maker described as "fantastic, gigantic, day-glo pop, exploding into effervescent DIY disco".

Again, XFM loved it to bits and it seemed to become a permanent fixture on the radio throughout March and April. The band embarked on their first UK tour, with their Leeds show being recommended as gig of the week in the NME. The band also finally received full page interviews in both Melody Maker and NME, as well as dozens of fanzine articles from as far and wide as Berlin and Tokyo. And to crown it all, the band received their first national chart placing - number 82 with a bullet!

At around the same time, Tone Vendor Records in Japan came to the band with a plan to release a compilation CD of previous singles and b-sides. This became the 'Songs For The Colour Yellow' LP, and it was released in June to a great reception in Japan, where imported 7" singles had been selling like hot cakes over the previous couple of years. Over the summer it was decided to release the same LP in the UK minus 'A Week Away', which was being saved up for the debut album proper.

For an album which collected together a dozen tracks which had been recorded in different places at different times, it came over as a surprisingly coherent album in its own right, and much to the bands delight won favourable reviews across the board. Melody Maker called it 'almost perfect', and the NME and Time Out wondered aloud why on earth no major label had signed them up. To celebrate, Spearmint made their first trip abroad to play both nights of the annual London's Calling show in Amsterdam, where the Dutch press picked them out as by far the highlight of the weekend - and Dutch national radio has recently broadcast the concert in full.