| Cherry Ghost | |
|---|---|
Cherry Ghost performing at Summer Sundae 2007. Left to right: Phill Anderson, Simon Aldred, Jim Rhodes, and Grenville Harrop. |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Bolton, England |
| Genres | Indie rock, chamber pop |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Labels | Heavenly Records |
| Website | http://www.cherryghost.co.uk/ |
| Members | |
| Simon Aldred Jim Rhodes Ben Parsons Phill Anderson Grenville Harrop |
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Cherry Ghost are an indie rock band from Bolton, England. Their debut album, Thirst for Romance, was released in July 2007 and entered the UK Album Charts at #7.[1] A second album, entitled Beneath This Burning Shoreline, was released in July 2010 to positive critical acclaim.[2]
Contents |
The name "Cherry Ghost" is a reference to the Wilco song "Theologians" from the album A Ghost Is Born.
Cherry Ghost began in 2005, first as an alias for Simon Aldred as a solo artist, before morphing into a full band. Early sessions with Doves bassist and vocalist Jimi Goodwin and a special appearance on Later...with Jools Holland[3] helped excel the band's beginnings. Cherry Ghost were one of only a handful of bands and musicians to have been invited onto Jools Holland's programme before having released any material.[4] Cherry Ghost signed to Heavenly Records, and released their debut single "Mathematics" in April 2007. The debut album, Thirst for Romance, was released in July 2007, following the release of the single "People Help the People" two weeks before, which charted on the UK Singles Chart at #27.[1] The album was met with generally positive reviews, and entered the UK Albums Chart at #7.[1] A third single, "4 AM," was released in September 2007 and charted at #128. A live EP entitled iTunes Festival: Live in London, recorded in July 2007 at the iTunes Festival, was released digitally in November 2007.
In September 2007, Cherry Ghost were nominated for Best New Act at the 2007 Q Awards.[5] In early 2008, Cherry Ghost won an Ivor Novello Award for "People Help the People" in the category of Best Contemporary Song.[6]
In March 2008, Simon announced through a MySpace blog posting that the band were at the writing stage for the second album and had seven songs written, which had been distilled from over 50 different tunes. The bulk of the album was written across Europe, namely Berlin and Rome. The band began recording the album in January 2009. A later blog post indicated that the band were recording in a converted barn.
On 27 December 2009, Simon posted on MySpace that the second album had been finished and was "due to be mixed in the next month or two."[7] On 29 April 2010, a message on the band's MySpace page stated the title of the new album as Beneath This Burning Shoreline, with a release date of 5 July 2010.[8] Beneath This Burning Shoreline was released to positive reviews, garnering 4-star reviews from publications such as Q, The Guardian, and The Independent.[2] The album's first single, "Kissing Strangers," was released as a single-track download on 28 June 2010.
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | IRE | FRA | ITA | ||
| 2007 | Thirst for Romance | 7 | 67 | 195 | 91 |
| 2010 | Beneath This Burning Shoreline
|
40 | — | — | — |
| Song | Release Date | Release info | Formats | UK Singles Chart | Irish Singles Chart | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Mathematics" | 9 April 2007 | Heavenly (HVN167) | CD, 7" vinyl, DL | 57 | — | Thirst for Romance |
| "People Help the People" | 25 June 2007 | Heavenly (HVN168) | CD, 7" vinyl, DL | 27 | 41 | |
| "4 AM" | 24 September 2007 | Heavenly (HVN171) | CD, 7" vinyl, DL | 128 | — | |
| iTunes Festival: Live in London (EP) | 12 November 2007 | Heavenly | Digital download | — | — | UK iTunes-only release |
| "Kissing Strangers" | 28 June 2010 | Heavenly (HVN203) | Digital download | — | — | Beneath This Burning Shoreline |
| "Black Fang" | 20 September 2010 | Heavenly (HVN206) | 7" vinyl, DL | — | — | |
| "We Sleep on Stones" / "Finally" | 8 November 2010 | Heavenly (HVN209) | 12" vinyl, DL | — | — | |
| "Only a Mother" | 7 March 2011 | Heavenly | Digital download | — | — | |
| "—" denotes a release that did not chart. | ||||||