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Twee Pop

Barking, Essex, 1984

McCarthy

McCarthy came out of Barking Abbey Comprehensive in Essex, where Malcolm Eden, Tim Gane and John Williamson met, and Gary Baker joined on drums in 1984. Gane had started as a drummer, and Eden taught him guitar and taught Williamson bass. They named the band after Senator Joe McCarthy. Gane's twelve-string guitar jangled under Eden's satirical Marxist lyrics, and they recorded three Peel sessions. I Am a Wallet reached No. 7 on the indie chart in 1987. Lætitia Sadier sang on their last album in 1990, and after a final gig at the London School of Economics Gane and Sadier formed Stereolab. The Manic Street Preachers covered them three times, and Nicky Wire called I Am a Wallet a Communist manifesto with tunes.

David Christian, 1992

Comet Gain

Comet Gain came together in 1992 around David Christian, who also went by David Feck. Their first tracks came out on a Wiiija double seven-inch shared with three riot grrrl bands, and they supported Bikini Kill and Heavenly. Casino Classics followed in 1995 with sleeve notes by Dan Treacy of Television Personalities. Early in 1997 most of the band left to form Velocette, taking their songs with them, and Christian wrote Magnetic Poetry on his own. A new line-up took shape with Rachel Evans, later joined by Jon Slade of Huggy Bear, recording for Kill Rock Stars and later Fortuna Pop! Edwyn Collins and Ryan Jarman of the Cribs produced Howl of the Lonely Crowd in 2011. They released another album on Tapete in 2025, and Pitchfork counted them among the most underrated indie bands in Britain.

Oxford, February 1986

Talulah Gosh

Talulah Gosh started in Oxford in February 1986, after Amelia Fletcher and Elizabeth Price met at a club because both were wearing Pastels badges. The name came from an NME headline on an interview with Clare Grogan. Amelia's brother Mathew played drums, with Peter Momtchiloff on guitar and Rob Pursey on bass, and Amelia and Elizabeth were nicknamed Marigold and Pebbles. Their singles came out on the Edinburgh label 53rd & 3rd, and a full-page NME piece by Everett True helped them along, though they never charted nationally. Price left at the end of 1986 and Eithne Farry took her place. They split in 1988, and most of them regrouped as Heavenly. Price became a video artist and won the Turner Prize in 2012.

Glasgow, 1996

Camera Obscura

Camera Obscura formed in Glasgow in 1996 around singer Tracyanne Campbell, with John Henderson and Gavin Dunbar. Their first singles came out on Andmoresound in 1998, and Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian produced two tracks on their 2001 debut album. Elefant released them in Europe and Merge in North America, and Swedish producer Jari Haapalainen made their third and fourth albums. They moved to 4AD in 2009, and their 2013 album was recorded in Portland, Oregon, with Tucker Martine, with Neko Case and Jim James singing on it. Keyboardist Carey Lander, who had joined in 2002, died in October 2015, and the band stopped for a few years. They came back on Merge in 2024 with Haapalainen producing again.

Coastal, Factory-style sleeve

The Field Mice

Alongside Sarah, the Field Mice also recorded for Caff, a small label run by Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne. Skywriting, a 1990 mini-album, was their most experimental record, opening with a track of almost nine minutes and ending with a collage of samples. The sleeve of their 1991 compilation Coastal deliberately copied the look of Factory Records, New Order in particular. After the band split in 1991, Bobby Wratten and Annemari Davies, by then a couple, went on to Trembling Blue Stars, whose first album came out on Matt Haynes's new label, Shinkansen. A double compilation in 1998 outsold every Field Mice record. Wratten's later project, Lightning in a Twilight Hour, brought in Hiscock, Davies and Ian Catt again.

Leeds area, Stewart Anderson, 1990

Boyracer

Stewart Anderson started Boyracer in 1990 near Leeds, naming it after the boy racers cruising the high street. They made three EPs for Sarah Records in 1993 and 1994, an album for Slumberland, and a Peel session at Maida Vale in September 1994. An MCA offshoot, Zero Hour, put out their 1996 album and then dropped them in the middle of an American tour. The band split in 1997. Anderson brought it back in 2000 with Jen Turrell on bass. They married in 2001, moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, and ran their own 555 Recordings label. Boyracer has released hundreds of songs on dozens of labels, came back with new albums from 2020, and made its fifteenth album in 2024.

The Collection