The Boo Radleys

All Music Guide:

Formed in Liverpool in 1988, the English guitar pop group the Boo Radleys developed a dedicated cult following in the early '90s before crossing over into the mainstream in the middle of the decade. Originally, the Radleys were one of the lesser lights of the loud, noisy My Bloody Valentine-inspired psychedelic trance pop bands labeled "shoegazers" by the British weekly music press. By the mid-'90s the Boo Radleys had developed into a more straightforward pop band who didn't use noise and extended guitar workouts as a way of fleshing out their songs, instead using it as the basis of their music.

The Boo Radleys originally consisted of guitarist/songwriter Martin Carr, vocalist/guitarist Sice, bassist Timothy Brown, and drummer Steve Hewitt. The band released their first album, Ichabod and I, on a local independent record label in 1990; Hewitt was replaced by Rob Cieka after the release of the record. With the support of influential British disc jockey John Peel, the band signed with Rough Trade Records. The group released the EP Every Heaven in 1991; the record made it into the lower regions of the U.K. charts.

Rough Trade folded shortly after the release of Every Heaven, and the Boo Radleys moved to Creation Records, releasing Everything's Alright Forever in 1992. Everything's Alright Forever was released in the U.S. through Creation's association with Columbia Records, but it didn't gain much attention in America. In England, it received favorable reviews and the group began to build a fan base. Topping several Best-of-the-Year lists, including Melody Maker's, 1993's Giant Steps was a critical success in England and sold respectably. In America, the record launched the minor alternative rock hit "Lazarus" and led to second-stage spot on Lollapalooza '94.

Released in England in the spring of 1995, the more pop-oriented Wake Up! was the band's commercial breakthrough, debuting at number one. The bright, horn-driven single "Wake Up Boo" entered in the Top Ten and stayed on the charts until the early summer, preventing the follow-up single, "Find the Answer Within," from charting higher than the Top 30. Wake Up! was released in America in the fall of 1995 with no promotional push from Columbia, who dropped the band early the following year.

The Boo Radleys returned in the fall of 1996 with C'Mon Kids, a self-consciously loud and arty album designed to shake off the band's newfound pop fans. It worked -- the album debuted in the Top Ten but it soon fell off the charts, despite overwhelmingly positive reviews. Early in 1997, the band finalized an American contract with Mercury, and C'Mon Kids was released in March, a half a year after its initial British release. Kingsize followed in late 1998, though the group officially broke up just months later. Carr went on to form Brave Captain. In 2005 the Boo Radleys issued Find the Way Out, an extensive two-disc retrospective complete with exhuastive liner notes and memories from the band.

Wikipedia:

The Boo Radleys were an English alternative rock band of the 1990s who were associated with the shoegazing and Britpop movements. They were formed in Wallasey, Merseyside, England in 1988, with Rob Harrison on drums, singer/guitarist Sice Rowbottom, guitarist/songwriter Martin Carr, bassist Timothy Brown . Their name is taken from the character Boo Radley in Harper Lee's 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Shortly after the release of their first album, Hewitt replaced Rob Harrison on drums and he was in turn replaced by Rob Cieka. The band split up in 1999.

Career

Beginnings

In 1990, the band's first album Ichabod and I was released on a small British indie label, Action Records. Although not a commercial success, this release brought the band to the attention of Rough Trade Records, to whom they signed. Around this time, Hewitt was replaced on drums by Rob Cieka.

Almost immediately after the release of the Every Heaven EP in 1991, Rough Trade collapsed and the Boo Radleys were signed by Alan McGee's Creation Records. Their first for Creation was Everything's Alright Forever in 1992, and Giant Steps (1993) followed. The record was awarded 9/10 by the UK music magazine NME, which stated, "It's an intentional masterpiece, a throw-everything-at-the-wall bric-a-brac of sounds, colours and stolen ideas. That The Boo Radleys (of all people!) have decided to accept their own challenge and create a record as diverse and boundary-bending as this is, at first glance, staggering. Isn't this the job of the U2s and the leisured idols of rock, unable to do anything without the tacit approval of history? Fortunately not. The Boo Radleys are sifting through time (the mid-'60s, mostly) and conjuring up something that's as cut-up and ambitious as anything you'd care to mention". Reviewing the album's re-release in 2008, Sic Magazine wrote, "For 64 minutes they were the greatest band on the planet."

Giant Steps placed second to Debut by Björk in the 1993 NME album of the year list, voted by the paper's contributors, although it came in first place in the subsequent NME readers' poll. The now-defunct Select magazine declared Giant Steps their album of the year for 1993".

Wake Up! and beyond

Despite critical acclaim and a cult fanbase, the Boo Radleys were still largely unknown to the general public by the time the Britpop phenomenon broke into the mainstream in 1995. This changed when the band released the upbeat single "Wake Up Boo!" in the spring of that year. It made the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 9. The single remained on the chart for two months, by far the band's longest run for any of its singles; later, on 26 October 2009, BFBS Forces Radio launched its live Afghanistan studio output with the track after it topped a listeners poll seeking a suitable first track. Carr describes writing the song watching The Big Breakfast after a night on acid. The follow-up release, "Find the Answer Within," was the band's only other single to chart for more than two weeks. Their fourth album Wake Up! (1995), was their commercial peak. Interviewed in 2005 by the BBC, Carr said: "I tried to have nothing to do with what was being called Britpop. Our whole career was spent trying not to 'fit in'. We just carried on doing what we had been doing. I didn't like most of the new bands or the flag-waving. I didn't like New Labour or idolise Paul Weller and I hated media-generated movements within music".

In 1996, the Boo Radleys released their fifth album C'mon Kids. As explained by Rowbottom in an interview in 2005: "We didn't want to scare away the hit-kids, we wanted to take them with us to somewhere that we'd not been before. All we wanted to do was make a different type of album than Wake Up... All we wanted to do was try something new - to keep ourselves fresh and interested. We were very surprised to find that it was seen as a deliberate attempt to scare away newly created fans. That would have been an extremely foolish thing to do."

The Boo Radleys' final album was 1998's Kingsize. One single was released from the album, "Free Huey!". The title track was due to have been released as a second single, but the band decided to split up.

A compilation album, Find The Way Out, was released in 2005, and a further compilation The Best of the Boo Radleys appeared in 2007.

Disbandment

The Boo Radleys disbanded in early 1999. Brown built a popular recording studio before going on to John Moores University for teacher training. He progressed on to teaching information technology at St Louis Grammar School in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland, and also taught at Park High School in Birkenhead.

Under the name Bravecaptain, Carr has since released six albums, including The Fingertip Saint Sessions Volume 1, Go With Yourself, Advertisements for Myself (2002) and All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2004). His most recent album was titled Distractions. Carr has since announced that he will be retiring the Bravecaptain name to work on new projects, but these will not include reforming the Boo Radleys. His first solo album Ye Gods (And Little Fishes) was released in mid 2009. Cieka is now a member of the band Domino Bones, alongside Mark "Bez" Berry, formerly of the Happy Mondays.

After an album in 1996 (First Fruits) under the name Eggman, while still a member of the Boo Radleys, Rowbottom walked away from music for several years after the split. Then, following a guest vocal on Bravecaptain's, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, and also two songs with the Japanese musician Ryo Matsui's solo project, Meister, he formed Paperlung. The band featured Rowbottom on vocals, Simon Gardiner on bass, Ben Datlen on guitar and Guillaume Jambel of Transcargo on drums. They released two singles, "The Days That God Sold You" and "Do What Thou Will", and an album, Balance.