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All Music Guide:
The band is composed of Louise Wener (vocals, guitar), Jon Stewart (guitar), Andy Maclure (drums), Diid Osman (bass). Wener and Stewart met at while studying politics at school in Manchester, England. Relocating to London, the two recruited Osman and Maclure and began playing Wener's original songs. The group made its debut in 1993, which led to a series of positive reviews in the British music weeklies. By November of 1993, the group had released an independent single ("Alice in Vain"). In February 1994, the band released "Swallow," which charted in the Top 100; the following May, "Delicious" was released and it became a number one independent single. During May, Sleeper supported Blur on the London band's enormously successful Parklife tour. In February 1995, Sleeper released their debut album, Smart, which entered the U.K. album chart at number five and the independent chart at number one; it would be certified a silver album in four months. Smart was released in the U.S. in March to positive reviews, yet it failed to duplicate the band's British commercial success. In the late spring of 1996, Sleeper released their second album, The It Girl. Again, the album was a major hit in the U.K., yet it barely made an impact in the U.S.
Wikipedia:
The Sleeper is the first studio album by English indie folk band The Leisure Society.
Their self-produced debut album 'The Sleeper' was initially released on 30 March 2009 on Willkommen Records. It received lavish critical praise, being named a Rough Trade album of 2009.
The first single from the album, 'The Last of the Melting Snow', was released on December 15, 2008 and has received extensive radio play on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show, Marc Riley's BBC 6 Music show Lauren Laverne's 6 Music show and Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie's Radio 2 show, where they were voted 'Record of the Week' by listeners with a record 90% of the vote. Marc Riley also invited them to perform a live session for 6music on December 15 and Mark Radcliffe tipped the single as a candidate for a left field Christmas number one. Guy Garvey named the song his favourite of 2008 and has been a vocal supporter of The Leisure Society continually since then. 'The Last of the Melting Snow' received a nomination in the Ivor Novello Awards 2009 for Best Song Musically/Lyrically, competing against Elbow and The Last Shadow Puppets. Hemming told The Times that he "spent New Year's Eve sitting on the floor with a bottle of vodka, writing 'The Last of the Melting Snow'" after breaking up with his girlfriend.
The second single from 'The Sleeper' is entitled 'A Matter Of Time' and was released on March 16. The band were invited to perform live sessions on both Radcliffe & Maconie (where the song was once again voted 'Record of The Week' by listeners) and Dermot O'Leary's Radio 2 shows.
After having signed to Full Time Hobby the band re-released The Sleeper with a bonus EP containing 8 additional recordings, comprising unreleased demos, b-sides and new recordings including a cover of 'Cars' by Gary Numan and a new single version of 'Save It For Someone Who Cares'. A session for Dermot O Leary was recorded 14.09.09.
