Caroline Finch - vocals/guitar Paul Jones - guitar Emma Tornaro - bass Dave Nice - drums The story began around 1991 when Caroline and Paul first met while working in a shop on London's Kings Road. However it was a further three years before the pair began writing and playing together with Caroline's friend Dave starting to join in rehearsals as drummer a few months later. Emma was the last to complete the line up in February 95, the rest of the band had met her when they literally tripped over her at the Phoenix Festival the previous year while she was lying on the ground with a broken leg while adorned with green hair and red devil's horns, apparently she broke her leg falling out of a tree on her birthday! As Caroline later said "I thought she would fit in and she did".
With the line up now complete and a handful of gigs behind them at the end of 95 the band had the good fortune to sign up with management company CMO who also manage the likes of Blur and Elastica. A decision was then made to set up their own label "Lino Vinyl" for the first release, the 7-inch only "Dissent/Twisted" recorded in January 96. Limited to 1000 copies the single's sleeve was made from linoleum, some of which came from a skip in north London. The band cut the first few hundred sleeves out themselves on Emma's floor before they found somebody else to finish the job for them. The single was quite a success selling out in three days and going in at number 9 in the indie singles chart.
With the all important debut behind them the band concentrated on touring playing support slots to Drugstore, Scarfo and Placebo as well as dates with 60ft Dolls, the Butthole Surfers and Tiger. In June four live tracks (Marquis, On A Tuesday, She's Sick & Smear) were broadcast on Radio 1's Evening Session closely followed by a stunning performance at the Phoenix Festival which later featured on John Peel's show.
In July second single "Smear" was released, the 7-inch complete with a linoleum sleeve this time limited to 1500 copies which again sold out in a matter of days. Some live dates followed including a support show to the Throwing Muses, an appearance on the NME stage at Reading and a tour with Tiger in September. One of the last shows of 96 was played on the second Camden Crawl with the third track from the "smear" CD single "Cellophane" featuring on the souvenir CD. In December the band were signed by Geffen for the rest of the world with Lino Vinyl marketed by Dedicated handling all future UK releases.
As 1996 drew to a close the band headed for the Fort Apache studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts to record the debut LP "Dissent" with Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade producing whose previous efforts included projects with Radiohead, Hole and the Pixies among others. The album was completed within a month and featured live favourites "Dangerous Shoes","Ray Liotta" and "She's Sick" alongside some more recent material, "Dissent" and "Twisted" from the debut single were also re-recorded. As soon as recording was completed a tour of France was undertaken supporting the Boo Radleys.
After taking a break from touring the band returned in March for a series of support slots to the Sneaker Pimps and Gorkys Zygotic Mynci. The pre album build up continued with "On A Tuesday" the first single for eight months hitting the shops in April. This was closely followed by a gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire on 29th April as part of London Music Week. This performance was broadcast live on Radio 1's Evening Session showcasing six songs (She's Sick, Marquis, Stay Awhile, Dissent, On A Tuesday & Restriction) played with utter confidence in the national spotlight.
A support slot to the Rollins Band came next with a performance at the Essential Music festival in Brighton kicking off the festival season. June saw the band's first headline tour with support from the up and coming Feline. The only hitch on the tour came when they arrived at their hotel after the Manchester gig to be refused entry due to the staff thinking they were protesters from the local airport expansion! The end of June saw the release of "Marquis" a glorious track concerning half a dozen too many the night before. One of the CD's available featured three live tracks from the Black session recorded in Paris at the end of 96 including a fantastic version of "On A Tuesday" in French!
On almost the eve of the album release they played Phoenix joining the Sneaker Pimps among others on the Guardian stage. The LP finally hit the shops on 21st July, the first 2000 each of vinyl and CD seeing the welcome return of the linoleum sleeve.
