The Vaselines are an alternative rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. Formed in 1986, the band was originally a duo between its songwriters Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, but later added James Seenan and Eugene's brother Charlie Kelly on bass and drums respectively from the band Secession.
McKee had formerly been a member of a band named The Pretty Flowers with Duglas T. Stewart, Norman Blake, Janice McBride and Sean Dickson. Eugene Kelly had formerly played in The Famous Monsters.
The band formed in 1986, and released two short EPs, Son of a Gun, which featured a cover of Divine's "You Think You're a Man" on its B-side, and Dying for It, which featured the songs "Molly's Lips" and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam," both of which Nirvana would later cover. In 1989 they released their first album, Dum-Dum, on 53rd and 3rd Records. The band broke up shortly after its release.
They briefly reformed in 1990 to open for Nirvana when they played in Edinburgh.
Though they were not widely known outside of Scotland during their short career, their association with Nirvana brought exposure to the band. Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain once described Kelly and McKee as his "most favorite songwriters in the whole world". With their songs "Son of a Gun" and "Molly's Lips" covered on Nirvana's album Incesticide and "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" covered on MTV Unplugged in New York, the band gained a new audience. At the 1991 Reading Festival, Kelly joined Nirvana on stage for a performance of "Molly's Lips." In 1992, Sub Pop released The Way of the Vaselines: A Complete History, a compilation that contained The Vaselines' entire body of work.
Kelly went on to found the band Captain America (later renamed Eugenius after legal threats from Marvel Comics), supporting Nirvana on their U.K. tour. Following solo performances Kelly released the album Man Alive in 2004. McKee founded the band Suckle along with Seenan and released her first solo album, Sunny Moon, in 2006.
In the summer of 2006, McKee and Kelly took to the stage together for the first time since 1990 to perform a set of Vaselines songs, as part of a joint tour to promote their individual solo albums.
The Vaselines reformed (minus the old rhythm section) on the April 24, 2008 for a charity show for the Malawi Orphan Support group at Glasgow's MONO venue. Invitation was by word-of-mouth with no press announcements and the band played to a packed, enthusiastic audience.
The Vaselines performed on May 16, 2008 at Scotland's Tigerfest. Members of Belle & Sebastian supported their live set. The band then played their first-ever U.S. performance at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ on July 9. The band also performed at Sub Pop Records' 20th Anniversary SP20 music festival on July 12 at Marymoor Park just outside Seattle WA.
On March 27, 2009, they played their first London date in 20 years at the London Forum.
On May 5, Sub Pop released Enter the Vaselines. A deluxe-edition reissue of the 1992 Sub Pop release, it includes remastered versions of the band’s two EPs (Son of a Gun and Dying for It), and their sole album (Dum-Dum), as well as demos and live recordings from 1986 and 1988. The band toured the U.S. in May 2009, playing six dates, starting in Los Angeles on May 10, then heading up the west coast to San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. Dates for Chicago, IL and Brooklyn, NY would end the tour on May 18. The band finished their May tour at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.
On 9 October 2009, The Vaselines made a long awaited return to Edinburgh to support Mudhoney at HMV Picture House.
The band were chosen personally by Belle & Sebastian to perform at their second Bowlie Weekender festival presented by All Tomorrow's Parties in the UK in December 2010.
The band have recently announced they will perform a cover version of the Nirvana song "Lithium" as part of a tribute album.
The Vaselines second studio album, Sex With an X, was released in September 2010.
