Chapterhouse

All Music Guide:

Five rail-thin longhairs from Reading, England, Chapterhouse was first linked to the space rock likes of Spacemen 3 and Loop -- the connection with the former being inextricable during the band's youngest months, thanks in part to vocal support from Sonic Boom. Early on, the two bands also shared the same management and gigged together. As the years transpired, Chapterhouse would eventually be identified as a shoegaze band, thrown in with the so-called "Scene That Celebrates Itself," as alternately championed and ridiculed by the U.K. press. Until their unfortunate slip into an overambitious, ill-fitting, increasingly dance-reliant sound with unconvincing gospel references, Chapterhouse could switch from bliss to dread in an instant, with steady downpours of guitars and buried vocals that were either phased into haunting drones or ecstatic rushes of melodic noise.

The band formed in 1987. Drummer Ashley Bates, bassist Jon Curtis, guitarist Simon Rowe, and vocalists/guitarists Stephen Patman and Andrew Sherriff allegedly called themselves Incest early on but made a smart decision to change the name. Long before they laid down their first demos, they rehearsed and honed their live show. One 1988 gig, performed in their home base of Reading, won a supporter in Sonic Boom. The Spacemen 3 member wanted to release the band's music on his Bop-a-Sonic label, but that never materialized. Instead, the band signed with BMG's Dedicated subsidiary -- home of Cranes, Global Communication, and (ding ding) Spacemen 3 (if only for 1991's Recurring). By the end of 1990, the band replaced the exited Curtis with Russell Barrett and had a pair of four-song singles -- Freefall and Sunburst -- released and reviewed with mostly favorable results. A third single, early 1991's Pearl, gained them even more attention, featuring an oft-used John Bonham sample and background vocals from Slowdive's Rachel Goswell. This set the stage for the full-length debut Whirlpool, also released in 1991. While it didn't capitalize on the band's building popularity quite as hoped (the rise of grunge made sure the group didn't have more than a small, if rabid, cult following stateside), they were able to stir up a couple low-charting singles and a sizeable fan base in England.

After the Mesmerise single closed out 1991, the band went silent for over a year before reappearing with 1993's Blood Music. "She's a Vision" and "We Are the Beautiful" were successive, successful singles; the album from which they came otherwise sunk. It was accompanied by a slew of remixes, many of which came from Global Communication. (Initial copies of Blood Music -- meaning most of the copies that are floating around, since it wasn't a blockbuster -- came with a bonus disc of nothing but remixes.) The band was then laid to rest, anthologized in 1996 by the handy double-disc Rownderbout compilation. Sherriff continued to work with electronic music with the Bio.com and Bionic projects; Barrett later became part of Inner Sleeve; Rowe joined former Slowdive members in Mojave 3; Bates went trip-hop for 4AD's Cuba (aka Air Cuba).

Wikipedia:

For the religious buildings, see Chapter house

Chapterhouse are a British shoegazing band originally of the early 1990s, from Reading, Berkshire, England. Formed in 1987 by Andrew Sherriff and Stephen Patman, the band began performing alongside Spacemen 3. After the band split, Sheriff later formed Biocom.

Career

The band comprised Andrew Sherriff (born 16 May 1969, Wokingham, England; guitar/vocals), Stephen Patman (born 8 November 1968, Windsor, Berkshire, England; guitar/vocals), Simon Rowe (born 23 June 1969, Reading, Berkshire; guitar), Jon Curtis (bass) and Ashley Bates (born 2 November 1971, Reading; drums).

Chapterhouse took the unusual step of rehearsing and gigging for well over a year before recording even a demo tape. They were initially compared to the British acid rock scene, a mistake hardly rectified by the band's early performances supporting Spacemen 3. Chapterhouse eventually found themselves associated with the shoegazing groups of 1991 (with Lush, Ride, Moose and Slowdive).

Bassist Jon Curtis left early on to study, being replaced by Russell Barrett (born 7 November 1968, Vermont, United States) who also fronted his own garage band, the Bikinis. Chapterhouse eventually signed to the newly formed Dedicated label, releasing a series of singles, including "Pearl," which featured guest vocals by Rachel Goswell of Slowdive and reached #67 in the UK Singles Chart.

Their first album, Whirlpool, released in 1991, has been cited as one of the genre's high points, but failed to capture a wider market despite reaching #23 in the UK Albums Chart. In the same year, Chapterhouse also appeared in their home town Reading Festival immediately following Nirvana's performance.

Blood Music, stylistically different, was released in 1993. Two singles from this album, "She's a Vision" and "We Are the Beautiful", were relatively successful, but the album was withdrawn due to a sampling lawsuit. Global Communication reworked Blood Music for a remix album, Pentamerous Metamorphosis.

The band then released no further new material other than a double album, Rownderbout in 1996, compiling their singles, various B-sides, rarities and unreleased demos which featured Slowdive drummer Simon Scott. Sherriff went on to form Bio.com and Rowe went on to play guitar for Mojave 3. Bates formed Cuba and now plays in the British folktronica band Tunng, and Chapterhouse ceased to be for almost fifteen years.

The music of Chapterhouse was mostly out of print on CD until March 2006, when Cherry Red Records reissued the album Whirlpool with bonus tracks, and for the first time, lyrics.

The band played a version of "Love Forever" with Ulrich Schnauss on the Barn Stage at the 2008 edition of Truck Festival. In response to requests over the years, Chapterhouse played live at Club AC30's Reverence show at the ICA on 26 November 2009 along with Ulrich Schnauss and Kirsty Hawkshaw. This was preceded on 23 November by a warm up show at the Luminaire in Kilburn. The band also played at The Scala in London on 18 March 2010, and undertook on short tours of Japan in April 2010, and North America in May 2010. The North American tour had to be postponed due to the Icelandic ash cloud cancelling flights, stranding Patman in Japan. Chapterhouse rescheduled the North American tour for September and October 2010.