Furniture (band)
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| Furniture | |
|---|---|
| Origin | London, England |
| Genre(s) | Pop Synthpop New Wave |
| Years active | 1979 – 1991 |
| Label(s) | Survival (1986) Stiff/ ZTT (1986 – 1990) Arista (1989 - 1991) |
| Members | |
| Jim Irvin Sally Still Maya Gilder Hamilton Lee Tim Whelan Larry N'Azone |
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Furniture was a British pop band, that was active from 1979 to 1991.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
The group comprised Jim Irvin on vocals and percussion, Sally Still on bass, Maya Gilder on keyboards, Tim Whelan on guitar, Hamilton Lee on drums and Larry N’Azone on saxophone. Furniture’s following came from the UK and parts of Eastern Europe where they toured in 1987 and 1988.
[edit] Formation
Furniture was formed in the Ealing area of London, England. The group's founding members were Irvin, Whelan and Lee. Simon Beaton (guitar) and Ian Macdonald (bass) joined shortly after, and together Furniture played their first gig in 1979. In 1981 Furniture released their first single, "Shaking Story"/"Take A Walk Downtown" on the band’s own independent record label, The Guy From Paraguay. However shortly after, Macdonald and Beaton left the band. Furniture remained a trio until new members Still and Gilder joined in 1983.
[edit] Record Deal
In 1983, Furniture released an E.P. entitled “When the Boom Was On”, on the Premonition imprint of the Ealing based Survival record label. Switching to the main label, they released their next single, "Dancing the Hard Bargain", produced by a former member of Blue Zoo, Tim Parry; followed by "Love Your Shoes", produced by former member of The Teardrop Explodes, Troy Tate; and a self-produced EP "I Can't Crack". Some of this material was collected on an LP on Survival, The Lovemongers.
In 1986 the band switched to Stiff Records and released the single "Brilliant Mind", which peaked at number 21 in the UK Singles Chart. "Brilliant Mind" is the band’s most popular song. It has since been used on a series of 1980s compilation albums, and as regular incidental music in "World Shut Your Mouth" for the character with the cymbals. A re-recorded version of "Brilliant Mind" featured in the John Hughes film, Some Kind of Wonderful.
The band attempted to build on their success by releasing a second single, (a re-recorded version of) "Love Your Shoes". By this time Stiff Records was in financial crisis and could only afford to press a limited number of singles. Advance orders for their album The Wrong People were fulfilled with a pressing of 30,000 copies, which sold out quickly, but Stiff Records went into liquidation and was sold to ZTT who pressed no further copies of the album. It was three years before the band could extract themselves from the Stiff contract during which time they toured the world with The British Council, playing shows in Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Turkey, Romania, Greece, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia in 1987 and 1989.
In 1989 the band signed to Arista Records and released the album Food, Sex and Paranoia, which was produced by Mike Thorne. Sessions got underway for a third album, to be released on Survival (who also managed the band), but were curtailed when the label's recording studio was shut down. Furniture decided to take some time off after a series of gigs, one of which was a headlining slot on the second stage at the 1990 Reading Festival, and reconvene after the release of a compilation album, She Gets Out The Scrapbook - released on vinyl and CD by Survival in 1991.
But the reunion never happened. Irvin made Mad Scared Dumb and Gorgeous, an album under the name 'Because' (1991) with Chris Ingham, and has since been a music journalist for Melody Maker, Mojo, The Guardian and Time Out. Whelan and Lee went on to form Transglobal Underground in 1992.
An active fan forum, named "wrongpeople" after the band's album, has existed since 2002 on Yahoo. Fans of Furniture discuss the band's music, and exchange information and updates on re-releases. http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/wrongpeople/
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles
- April 1984: "Dancing the Hard Bargain" (Survival Records SUR 023) b/w "Robert Nightman's Story"
- December 1984: "Love Your Shoes" (Premonition Records PREM 12002) b/w "Escape Into My Arms" and "The Script"
- May 1985: "I Can't Crack" (Premonition Records PREM 3) b/w "I Can't Crack" (Broken [[Remix|Mix), "Switch Off" and "Pause"
- May 1986: "Brilliant Mind" (Stiff Records BUY 251) b/w "To Gus" and "Brilliant Fragment"
- October 1986: "Love Your Shoes" (Stiff Records BUY 254) b/w "Turnupspeed", "Me, You and the Name".
- October 1989: "Slow Motion Kisses" (Arista Records 112648) b/w "40 Hours in a Day", "Brilliant Mind" and "She Gets Out the Scrapbook"
- February 1990: "One Step Behind You" (Arista Records 112844) b/w "One Step Behind You" (Mark McGuire club remix), "It Continues" and "International People"
[edit] Albums
- September 1983: When the Boom Was On (Premonition Records 4C1)
- Tracks: "Transatlantic Cable", "They're On Me", "Robert Nightman's Story", "I Miss You", "Why Are We In Love", "A Letter to Myself"
- June 1986: The Lovemongers (Premonition Records PREM 6)
- Tracks: "The Lovemongers", "Throw Away the Script", "Love Your Shoes", "Escape Into my Arms", "What the Fog Said", "Dancing the Hard Bargain", "Bullet", "Talking Kitten", "Sang Froid", "I Can't Crack"
- November 1986: The Wrong People (Stiff Records SEEZ 64)
- Tracks: "Shake Like Judy Says", "Love Your Shoes", "Brilliant Mind", "She Gets Out the Scrapbook", "I Miss You", "Make Believe I'm Him", "Let Me Feel Your Pulse", "The Sound of the Bell", "Escape Into My Arms", "Answer the Door", "Pierre's Fight"
- February 1990: Food, Sex and Paranoia (Arista Records 210377)
- Tracks: "One Step Behind You", "Slow Motion Kisses", "Swing Tender", "A Taste of You", "A Plot to Kill What Was", "On a Slow Fuse", "Subway to the Beach", "Song for a Doberman", "Love Me", "Friend of a Friend", "Hard to Say"
- September 1991: She Gets Out the Scrapbook (Survival Records SURC13)
- Tracks: "Brilliant Mind", "Make Believe I'm Him", "Farewell", "Song for a Doberman", "Dancing the Hard Bargain", "Love Your Shoes", "Robert Nightman's Story", "Slow Motion Kisses", "I Miss You", "How I've Come to Hate the Moon", "Bullet", "Turnupspeed", "One Step Behind You", "She Gets Out the Scrapbook"
(Two tracks, "Shake Like Judy Says" and "Brilliant Mind", can be found on the Stiff Records Box Set (4 CDs) )
