| Harriet Wheeler | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 26, 1963 |
| Genres | Alternative rock |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Associated acts | The Sundays Jim Jiminee |
Harriet Wheeler (born 26 June 1963) is the lead singer of the 1980s/1990s alternative rock band, The Sundays.[1][2]
Wheeler grew up in Sonning Common, near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, the daughter of an architect and a teacher.[3] She was enrolled as an English literature student at Bristol University when she met David Gavurin.[3] The two shared a common passion for music, and despite little musical training, released demos to various clubs in London[3] (although Wheeler had sung in a band called Jim Jiminee before meeting Gavurin).
Wheeler and Gavurin were the core of a popular alternative band, The Sundays, with "equally low-key pals Paul Brindley and Patrick Hannan to fill the bass and drum slots."[3] They decided upon the name by default as it was the only one they could all agree on.[3] The Sundays performed their first show in August 1988.[3]
Their debut album, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, was released in 1990.[3] Rolling Stone reviewer Ira Robbins called it "an alluring slice of lighter-than-air guitar pop, a collection of uncommonly good songs graced by Harriet Wheeler's wondrous singing."[3] The album sold over half a million copies around the world.[3]
The band released their second album, Blind, in 1992, and it also sold nearly half a million copies, giving the band another gold record.[3] Wheeler's vocals received the lion's share of praise.[3] One reviewer wrote, "Her singing is fluttery, mischievous, and full of unexpected, perverse flashes of tenderness."[3]
In February 1995, Wheeler and Gavurin had their first child, a daughter named Billie.[3] Parenthood prolonged the recording of their third album, but they eventually released Static & Silence in 1997. While some critics said The Sundays sounded exactly the same as before,[3][4] Kevin Raub of Ray Gun, who called their first two albums "inherently boring", called Static and Silence "the band's most solid effort to date."[3]
Two years after the release of Static & Silence, Wheeler and Gavurin had their second child, a son named Frank in 1999.[5]
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