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129-504: Mansun were an English alternative rock band, formed in Chester in 1995. The band comprised vocalist/rhythm guitarist Paul Draper , bassist Stove King , lead guitarist/backing vocalist Dominic Chad , and drummer Andie Rathbone . It was announced in May 2003 that the band had split up earlier that year, whilst in the process of recording their fourth album, and some of their archival recording of
258-402: A Girl ". Several more singles followed the release of the album, including " Negative " and a re-recording of the album's title track, " Six " produced by Arthur Baker . Draper later admitted to placing the two main singles at the end of the album to be awkward, and tried to avoid having choruses on the album, leaving many of those tracks to be released as b-sides, which he thought would have made
387-522: A better rock album. He described the album as being "commercial suicide". Mansun's third studio album, Little Kix (early working titles included Magnetic Poetry and The Trouble With Relationships,) saw Draper and Chad decamp to the south of Spain in March 1999 where they wrote and demo'd ideas for the album. Draper claimed that following the commercial and critical disappointment of Six , he didn't feel any pressure to follow it up and therefore set out to go in
516-563: A commercial sounding 3rd album". In January 2001, prior to the final single " Fool " being released off Little Kix , Draper informed the NME that the band were set to enter the studio in March or April of that year and that the band wanted to release new material as soon as possible. In April, Draper told fans through the official website that the band had recorded and mixed eight new songs and would continue recording in May. The band were considering their options as to whether to release an EP or to hold
645-484: A confessional tone. Rites of Spring has been described as the first "emo" band. Former Minor Threat singer Ian MacKaye founded Dischord Records which became the center for the city's emo scene. Gothic rock developed out of late-1970s British post-punk . With a reputation as the "darkest and gloomiest form of underground rock", gothic rock uses a synthesizer-and-guitar based sound drawn from post-punk to construct "foreboding, sorrowful, often epic soundscapes", and
774-523: A cynical response to an "authentic" rock movement. Bush , Candlebox and Collective Soul were labelled almost pejoratively as post-grunge which, according to Tim Grierson of About.com , is "suggesting that rather than being a musical movement in their own right, they were just a calculated, cynical response to a legitimate stylistic shift in rock music." Post-grunge morphed during the late 1990s and 2000s as newer bands such as Foo Fighters , Matchbox Twenty , Creed and Nickelback emerged, becoming among
903-521: A decade in the underground, ska punk , a mixture of earlier British ska and punk acts, became popular in the United States. Rancid was the first of the "third-wave ska revival" acts to break. From the mid-1990s to early 2000s, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones , No Doubt , Sublime , Goldfinger , Reel Big Fish , Less Than Jake and Save Ferris charted or received radio exposure. During
1032-472: A different direction with the new album. Prior to the writing trip in Spain, he had decided that the new album would be more "acoustic-guitary" and wanted to prove to himself that he could still write pop songs with choruses. The album was recorded at Astoria , a houseboat-studio owned by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour , with former XTC and Police producer Hugh Padgham , Despite initially admitting that
1161-662: A driver for St. John Ambulance in London. King had reportedly begun a career in Speedway racing . A new official Mansun website was launched in January 2017, honouring the band's back catalogue and legacy. Vinyl reissues and expanded CD sets of ”Attack of the Grey Lantern" and "Six" were released in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music , alt-rock or simply alternative )
1290-636: A late night new wave show entitled "Rock and Roll Alternative". " College rock " was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the college radio circuit and the tastes of college students. In the United Kingdom, dozens of small do it yourself record labels emerged as a result of the punk subculture . According to the founder of one of these labels, Cherry Red , NME and Sounds magazines published charts based on small record stores called "Alternative Charts". The first national chart based on distribution called
1419-496: A live band playing in a room" but also that it had all the "creative sounds that Six had". In October 2001 the Mansun ansaphone service operated by King since the early days of the band went down. In March 2002 and with no sign of new material, it was claimed that the delay in the new album being finished was due to Chad's injuring his hand after falling into a fire grate, keeping him from playing for four to five months, but confirmed that
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#17330847264481548-514: A lot of people interfering, it wasn’t handled properly and it ended in disaster". In March 2023, Dominic Chad announced via social media that "since late 2006 I have tried to have no contact with Paul Draper and he has failed to respect that on numerous occasions. I must state publicly that it is my choice to have nothing to do with him; he is not welcome to engage with me, my family or friends or continue to try contacting me through my place of work". He also revealed that he had requested that Kscope ,
1677-420: A majority of groups that were signed to indie labels drew from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a sharp break from the futuristic, hyper-rational post-punk years. "Alternative music is music that hasn't yet achieved a mainstream audience, Alternative isn't new wave any more, it's a disposition of mind. Alternative music is any kind of music that has the potential to reach
1806-630: A petition was set up on Facebook where fans could show support by 'liking' the page. Draper responded to the petition and spoke of how he and DJ Marc Riley were literally overwhelmed with emails of support and questions about his unreleased project, following an appearance on BBC Radio 6 Music in October. He stated in November 2013 that he was giving the matter of releasing solo material some "very serious consideration". In 2016, Draper released his first solo single, and his debut full album release, Spooky Action ,
1935-414: A wider audience. It also has real strength, real quality, real excitement, and it has to be socially significant, as opposed to Whitney Houston, which is pablum." Throughout the 1980s, alternative rock remained mainly an underground phenomenon. While on occasion a song would become a commercial hit, or albums would receive critical praise in mainstream publications like Rolling Stone , alternative rock in
2064-1036: Is a British record label functioning as an imprint of Parlophone Records . Regal Records was a British record label founded in 1913 as a subsidiary of the UK branch of Columbia Records , known as the Columbia Graphophone Company . The first record issues on the Regal Record label in February 1914 were re-issues of existing records from the Columbia Record Catalogue: G-6105 to G-6559, G-6440, G 6441 (English Catalogue) and G 6560 to G 6639 (Scottish Catalogue). Catalogue numbers starting from G 6000 were used at later dates. In November 1921, 12 inch records were introduced, commencing at catalogue number G-1000. From around 1923 onwards many earlier recordings were re-recorded acoustically and released under
2193-487: Is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge subgenre in the United States, and the Britpop and shoegaze subgenres in the United Kingdom and Ireland. During this period, many record labels were looking for "alternatives", as many corporate rock , hard rock , and glam metal acts from
2322-474: Is as comatose as alternative rock right now". Despite these changes in style however, alternative rock remained commercially viable into the start of the 21st century. During the latter half of the 1990s, grunge was supplanted by post-grunge . Many post-grunge bands lacked the underground roots of grunge and were largely influenced by what grunge had become, namely "a wildly popular form of inward-looking, serious-minded hard rock."; many post-grunge bands emulated
2451-505: Is often difficult because of two conflicting applications of the word. Alternative can describe music that challenges the status quo and that is "fiercely iconoclastic, anticommercial, and antimainstream", and the term is also used in the music industry to denote "the choices available to consumers via record stores, radio, cable television, and the Internet." However alternative music has paradoxically become just as commercial and marketable as
2580-644: The Billboard 200 album chart. Soundgarden 's album Badmotorfinger , Alice in Chains ' Dirt and Stone Temple Pilots ' Core along with the Temple of the Dog album collaboration featuring members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, were also among the 100 top-selling albums of 1992. The popular breakthrough of these grunge bands prompted Rolling Stone to nickname Seattle "the new Liverpool ". Major record labels signed most of
2709-559: The Billboard charts. Pearl Jam also continued to perform well commercially with its second album, Vs. (1993), which topped the Billboard charts by selling a record 950,378 copies in its first week of release. In 1993, the Smashing Pumpkins released their major breakthrough album, Siamese Dream —which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 4 million copies by 1996, receiving multi-platinum certification by
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#17330847264482838-470: The Indie Chart was published in January 1980; it immediately succeeded in its aim to help these labels. At the time, the term indie was used literally to describe independently distributed records. By 1985, indie had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, rather than simply distribution status. The use of the term alternative to describe rock music originated around the mid-1980s; at
2967-517: The RIAA . The strong influence of heavy metal and progressive rock on the album helped to legitimize alternative rock to mainstream radio programmers and close the gap between alternative rock and the type of rock played on American 1970s Album Oriented Rock radio. In 1995, the band released their double album, Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness — which went on to sell 10 million copies in
3096-495: The hair metal that had dominated rock music at that time fell out of favor in the face of music that was authentic and culturally relevant. The breakthrough success of Nirvana led to the widespread popularization of alternative rock in the 1990s. It heralded a "new openness to alternative rock" among commercial radio stations, opening doors for heavier alternative bands in particular. In the wake of Nevermind , alternative rock "found itself dragged-kicking and screaming ... into
3225-488: The music industry since the split. In the press release for Kleptomania , Draper claimed that he had started writing with Chad again, but later admitted that he had only been helping him build up backing tracks and had stopped turning up to the sessions anyway. In 2005 it was revealed Chad was involved with the Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy charity and was also rumoured to be working in a care home and later
3354-551: The "grunging of America" to the mass-marketing of punk rock, disco , and hip hop in previous years. As a result of the genre's popularity, a backlash against grunge developed in Seattle. Nirvana's follow-up album In Utero (1993) was an intentionally abrasive album that Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic described as a "wild aggressive sound, a true alternative record." Nevertheless, upon its release in September 1993 In Utero topped
3483-553: The 1970s, which served as a progressive alternative to top 40 radio formats by featuring longer songs and giving DJs more freedom in song selection. According to one former DJ and promoter, "Somehow this term 'alternative' got rediscovered and heisted by college radio people during the 80s who applied it to new post-punk, indie, or underground-whatever music." At first the term referred to intentionally non-mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by "heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave" and "high-energy dance anthems". Usage of
3612-479: The 1980s was primarily featured on independent record labels, fanzines and college radio stations. Alternative bands built underground followings by touring constantly and by regularly releasing low-budget albums. In the United States, new bands would form in the wake of previous bands, which created an extensive underground circuit filled with different scenes in various parts of the country. College radio formed an essential part of breaking new alternative music. In
3741-552: The 1980s were beginning to grow stale throughout the music industry . The emergence of Generation X as a cultural force in the 1990s also contributed greatly to the rise of alternative rock. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial rock or pop. The term's original meaning was broader, referring to musicians influenced by the musical style or independent, DIY ethos of late-1970s punk rock . Traditionally, alternative rock varied in terms of its sound, social context, and regional roots. Throughout
3870-463: The 1980s, alternative bands generally played in small clubs, recorded for indie labels, and spread their popularity through word of mouth . As such, there is no set musical style for alternative rock as a whole, although in 1989 The New York Times asserted that the genre is "guitar music first of all, with guitars that blast out power chords, pick out chiming riffs, buzz with fuzztone and squeal in feedback." More often than in other rock styles since
3999-402: The 1980s, magazines and zines , college radio airplay , and word of mouth had increased the prominence and highlighted the diversity of alternative rock's distinct styles (and music scenes), such as noise pop , indie rock , grunge , and shoegaze . In September 1988, Billboard introduced "alternative" into their charting system to reflect the rise of the format across radio stations in
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4128-498: The 1990s. One of the main indie rock movements of the 1990s was lo-fi . The movement, which focused on the recording and distribution of music on low-quality cassette tapes , initially emerged in the 1980s. By 1992, Pavement, Guided by Voices and Sebadoh became popular lo-fi cult acts in the United States, while subsequently artists like Beck and Liz Phair brought the aesthetic to mainstream audiences. The period also saw alternative confessional female singer-songwriters. Besides
4257-736: The 2000s with multi-platinum acts such as Fall Out Boy , My Chemical Romance , Paramore and Panic! at the Disco . Bands such as the White Stripes and the Strokes found commercial success in the early 2000s, influencing an influx of new alternative rock bands that drew inspiration from garage rock , post-punk and new wave , establishing a revival of the genres. In the past, popular music tastes were largely dictated by music executives within large entertainment corporations. Record companies signed contracts with those entertainers who were thought to become
4386-555: The British indie scene through the end of the decade, as various bands drew from singer Morrissey 's English-centered lyrical topics and guitarist Johnny Marr 's jangly guitar-playing style. The C86 cassette, a 1986 NME premium featuring Primal Scream , the Wedding Present and others, was a major influence on the development of indie pop and the British indie scene as a whole. Other forms of alternative rock developed in
4515-700: The British music press at the end of the decade along with the Madchester scene. Performing for the most part in the Haçienda , a nightclub in Manchester owned by New Order and Factory Records , Madchester bands such as Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses mixed acid house dance rhythms with melodic guitar pop. The Amerindie of the early '80s became known as alternative or alt-rock, ascendant from Nirvana until 1996 or so but currently very unfashionable, never mind that
4644-532: The Britpop phenomenon culminated in a rivalry between its two chief groups, Oasis and Blur, symbolized by their release of competing singles " Roll With It " and " Country House " on the same day on 14 August 1995. Blur won " The Battle of Britpop ", but they were soon eclipsed in popularity by Oasis whose second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), went on to become the third best-selling album in
4773-561: The Killers , and Yeah Yeah Yeahs , found commercial success in the early and mid 2000s. Owing to the success of these bands, Entertainment Weekly declared in 2004, "After almost a decade of domination by rap-rock and nu-metal bands, mainstream alt-rock is finally good again." Arctic Monkeys were a prominent act to owe their initial commercial success to the use of Internet social networking , with two UK No. 1 singles and Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006), which became
4902-631: The Lyrical Trainspotter", proclaiming (reportedly sarcastically) that "the lyrics aren't supposed to mean that much". The album knocked labelmates Blur 's self-titled album from the top spot of the UK album chart after only being released the week before. During the early days of the band, Mansun were noted and sometimes derided for their constantly changing fashion styles. Such styles ranged from punk , new romantic , baggy " Madchester " clothes, army fatigues, A Clockwork Orange style boiler suits and even women's clothing. Draper admitted that it
5031-775: The Mean Fiddler. Following the split of Grind, Draper, funded by a grant from The Prince's Trust , set up a music company called "Ambiance Productions" producing relaxation tapes to be sold in "hippie shops" across the north west of England. In early 1995 Draper and King enlisted Maidstone expat Dominic Chad, who was the bar manager at the Fat Cat pub on Watergate Street in Chester opposite the office where Draper would go and see former Grind member Steve Heaton. Chad had previously played with "Floating Bear" formed whilst at Bangor University in 1990, where he had been studying French and Russian but
5160-664: The Replacements upended a number of underground scene conventions; Azerrad noted that "along with R.E.M., they were one of the few underground bands that mainstream people liked." By the late 1980s, the American alternative scene was dominated by styles ranging from quirky alternative pop ( They Might Be Giants and Camper Van Beethoven ), to noise rock ( Sonic Youth , Big Black , the Jesus Lizard ) and industrial rock ( Ministry , Nine Inch Nails). These sounds were in turn followed by
5289-465: The Slips". In 2007 Draper began working with singer-songwriter Catherine A.D, he has produced and co-written songs on her debut album which was due for release under the name The Anchoress in 2014. In 2013, Draper said that he was working on solo material since the band split and was not opposed to releasing the songs he has recorded as a solo artist if people are interested in hearing them. In light of this,
Mansun - Misplaced Pages Continue
5418-580: The Top 40 and spawned a number of jangle pop followers. One of the many jangle pop scenes of the early 1980s, Los Angeles' Paisley Underground revived the sounds of the 1960s, incorporating psychedelia, rich vocal harmonies and the guitar interplay of folk rock as well as punk and underground influences such as the Velvet Underground . American indie record labels SST Records , Twin/Tone Records , Touch and Go Records , and Dischord Records presided over
5547-502: The UK after drop kicking a statue of the Venus de Milo . Ex- Kinky Machine drummer Julian Fenton was temporarily drafted in for gigs and featured in the promo videos for " Take It Easy Chicken " and " Stripper Vicar ". In August 1996 Andie Rathbone joined, a well known drummer in Chester who had been playing regularly with several bands including DNA Cowboys, The Wandering Quatrains and Jonti. Having auditioned several drummers without success,
5676-459: The UK during the 1980s. the Jesus and Mary Chain 's sound combined the Velvet Underground's "melancholy noise" with Beach Boys pop melodies and Phil Spector 's " Wall of Sound " production, while New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band Joy Division and experimented with disco and dance music . The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr. , C86 and the dream pop of Cocteau Twins , were
5805-424: The UK's history. Long synonymous with alternative rock as a whole in the U.S., indie rock became a distinct form following the popular breakthrough of Nirvana. Indie rock was formulated as a rejection of alternative rock's absorption into the mainstream by artists who could not or refused to cross over, and a wariness of its "macho" aesthetic. While indie rock artists share the punk rock distrust of commercialism,
5934-526: The US alone, certifying it as a Diamond record. With the decline of the Madchester scene and the unglamorousness of shoegazing, the tide of grunge from America dominated the British alternative scene and music press in the early 1990s. As a reaction, a flurry of British bands emerged that wished to "get rid of grunge" and "declare war on America", taking the public and native music press by storm. Dubbed " Britpop " by
6063-577: The US by a more pop-oriented focus (marked by an equal emphasis on albums and singles, as well as greater openness to incorporating elements of dance and club culture) and a lyrical emphasis on specifically British concerns. As a result, few British alternative bands have achieved commercial success in the US. Since the 1980s, alternative rock has been played extensively on the radio in the UK, particularly by disc jockeys such as John Peel (who championed alternative music on BBC Radio 1 ), Richard Skinner , and Annie Nightingale . Artists with cult followings in
6192-610: The US received greater exposure through British national radio and the weekly music press, and many alternative bands had chart success there. Early American alternative bands such as the Dream Syndicate , the Bongos , 10,000 Maniacs , R.E.M. , the Feelies and Violent Femmes combined punk influences with folk music and mainstream music influences. R.E.M. was the most immediately successful; their debut album, Murmur (1983), entered
6321-562: The United States by stations like KROQ-FM in Los Angeles and WDRE-FM in New York, which were playing music from more underground , independent, and non-commercial rock artists. Initially, several alternative styles achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands, such as R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction , were signed to major labels . Most alternative bands at the time, like the Smiths , one of
6450-473: The Velvet Underground , which influenced many alternative rock bands that would come after it. Eccentric and quirky figures of the 1960s, such as Syd Barrett have influence on alternative rock in general. The Dead Kennedys formed the independent record label Alternative Tentacles in 1979, releasing influential underground music such as the 1983 self-titled EP from the Butthole Surfers . By 1984,
6579-553: The advent of Boston 's Pixies and Los Angeles' Jane's Addiction. Around the same time, the grunge subgenre emerged in Seattle , Washington, initially referred to as "The Seattle Sound" until its rise to popularity in the early 1990s. Grunge featured a sludgy, murky guitar sound that syncretized heavy metal and punk rock. Promoted largely by Seattle indie label Sub Pop , grunge bands were noted for their thrift store fashion which favored flannel shirts and combat boots suited to
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#17330847264486708-526: The aforementioned Liz Phair, PJ Harvey fit into this sub group. In the mid-1990s, Sunny Day Real Estate defined the emo genre. Weezer 's album Pinkerton (1996) was also influential. Post-rock was established by Talk Talk 's Laughing Stock and Slint 's Spiderland albums, both released in 1991. Post-rock draws influence from a number of genres, including Krautrock , progressive rock , and jazz . The genre subverts or rejects rock conventions, and often incorporates electronic music. While
6837-664: The album later released on their final album, Kleptomania (2004). Paul Draper and Stove King met in the early 1990s, whilst working in the printing industry as photo retouchers for rival companies situated opposite each other on the same industrial park in Little Stanney on the outskirts of Chester . Through their shared love of David Bowie and 1980s new wave bands including Duran Duran and ABC they started socialising together at weekends, going to gigs in Liverpool and playing along to drum loops together in their bedrooms with
6966-409: The album led to the album stalling at #14 in the charts. He later admitted that whilst they were trying to make a "timeless record", he "just don't think we realised the record we were making until towards the end" and Chad also later stated that the album "just didn't sound like us because there was lots of keyboards". Several years following the split of the band, Draper claimed that he was demoted as
7095-404: The album prior to Rathbone joining, they went back into the studio to record new songs " Taxloss " and "Mansun's Only Love Song" and re-record several drum tracks. The album appeared to contain a conceptual storyline, which Draper referred to as "small town weirdo observations" and was influenced by comedies The Goon Show and Monty Python , whilst ending with a hidden track, "An Open Letter to
7224-471: The album sessions for release, he tried to reform the band to properly finish it but no one else was interested. Legacy - The Best of Mansun was released in September 2006, with a limited edition CD/DVD release also issued containing promo videos for every single plus a documentary and other bonus material. The CD also provided access to download the previously unreleased "South of the Painted Hall", which
7353-444: The album was "all about 'What do you want out of your life, what do you want out of a relationship?' And I didn't want to make another disillusioned, really dark record", and that "anyone who gets Little Kix knows it's a good album" Draper refused to tour or promote the album. " I Can Only Disappoint U " gave the band their biggest selling single to date and second highest charting single after " Legacy ", but Draper's refusal to promote
7482-466: The album, as if it was a vinyl record, but Chad later stated he regretted putting it on the album. The original idea was to package the CD version of the album in a 12" gatefold sleeve to replicate the vinyl experience, but was abandoned due to possible issues with getting it stocked by retailers. The album was preceded by the singles " Legacy ", which provided the band with the highest-charting single, and " Being
7611-576: The alternative rock community" including Henry Rollins , Butthole Surfers , Ice-T , Nine Inch Nails , Siouxsie and the Banshees (as second headliners) and Jane's Addiction (as the headlining act). Covering for MTV the opening date of Lollapalooza in Phoenix in July 1991, Dave Kendall introduced the report saying the festival presented the "most diverse lineups of alternative rock". That summer, Farrell had coined
7740-437: The alternative/independent scene and dryly tore it apart." David Lowery , then frontman of Camper Van Beethoven, later recalled: "I remember first seeing that word applied to us... The nearest I could figure is that we seemed like a punk band, but we were playing pop music, so they made up this word alternative for those of us who do that." DJs and promoters during the 1980s claim the term originates from American FM radio of
7869-455: The band had so far finished 15 songs. Draper later revealed that he had been diagnosed with cancer during recording sessions at Rockfield Studios , after a blister appeared on his left hand middle finger that kept bleeding. He visited a local doctor who took a sample of tissue from the finger. It was confirmed that it was malignant and was known as a "Bowenoid malignancy," and Draper responded positively to five cycles of chemotherapy. However, he
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#17330847264487998-462: The band in January 1996. As a four piece, the band continued touring including support gigs with Cast, Audioweb and Shed Seven until Hibbert was sacked from the band in May 1996 following a series of rows with an inebriated Chad that resulted in a bizarre incident that involved a pineapple being thrown at Chad's face in Cambridge , where the band were supporting Shed Seven. Throughout the early days of
8127-435: The band several times following the release of Little Kix . He stated that Chad "didn’t want me to be the producer or the songwriter and he wanted me replaced by another singer and for the band to be more like The Seahorses , remember that band with John Squire ? He wanted the songs to come out of jams in rehearsal rooms". Further commenting on the band's split, Draper claimed that "one or two members did way too many drugs and
8256-563: The band through their rehearsal room door. The band were offered a publishing contract with Polygram Music Publishing four days after reluctantly handing over a demo tape of 4 songs that cost £150 to record featuring " Take It Easy Chicken ", " Skin Up Pin Up ", "Moronica" and " She Makes My Nose Bleed ". The band were initially called Grey Lantern, after Draper's DC Comics influenced alter ego which he created to help overcome his nervousness on stage, but soon changed their name to "Manson", after
8385-437: The band took a break at a local pub where "there was the best rock drummer we'd ever seen, playing with this really dodgy band", but the drummer, who was also working as an Audi car salesman at the time, initially rejected the bands pleas to join the band, as he thought the band played "Britpop shite". He changed his mind after King played him a demo of one of the band's latest songs, " Wide Open Space ". Rathbone's first gig with
8514-512: The band was performing " Stripper Vicar " live on TFI Friday , having missed the previous nights gig in Brighton due to getting a train to Bristol Temple Meads by mistake and having to check the gig guide in the NME to find out where the gig was. February 1997 saw the release of the band's critically acclaimed debut album Attack of the Grey Lantern . Although the band had finished recording most of
8643-468: The band were set to reunite in 2012 with a new album planned, but was later denied by official sources and confirmed to be a mistake by the article's author. Following the split, Draper worked with ex- Skunk Anansie singer Skin on songs for her Gordon Raphael produced album Fake Chemical State , and recorded demos for artists such as Komakino and Catherine A.D. In 2009 he worked with The Joy Formidable on their free download-only single "Greyhounds in
8772-436: The band's producer as the rest of the band were no longer comfortable with him producing and the label reportedly wanted to ensure the band didn't go off on another tangent as with Six , and was forced to work with an outside producer for the first time, stating that "the management wanted a soft rock album made behind my back for some reason and I got manipulated into releasing it" and that the band were "steamrollered into doing
8901-562: The band, Chad was involved in a string of violent alcohol fuelled incidents. These included punching his own reflection in a hotel mirror, being thrown out of a pub after attempting to drop kick the bar, throwing pint glasses out of a window in Sheffield , getting himself banned along with the rest of the band from every outlet of the now defunct roadside restaurant chain Happy Eater , all Hard Rock Cafes worldwide and every Holiday Inn hotel in
9030-626: The catalogue by 'MR', commencing at MR1. In 1932, it was merged with the British Zonophone label and became Regal Zonophone , following the merger of those labels' respective parent companies, the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone Company , to form EMI . A listing of records produced by Regal in this era is available from the CLPGS . In 1995, the Regal label was revived by EMI as
9159-485: The centre of a record label bidding war. This resulted in the band signing to Parlophone , with whom they released the follow-up single " Skin Up Pin Up / Flourella " in November 1995 on sublabel Regal Recordings , although this time under the new moniker "Mansun" as they were forced to change the spelling due to threatened legal action from the Charles Manson Estate. The band gave several false accounts of this at
9288-400: The cult leader Charles Manson . The band's self-financed debut release " Take It Easy Chicken " in September 1995 on their own "Sci-Fi Hi-Fi Recordings" label soon attracted the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJs Steve Lamacq and John Peel and the band found themselves, despite not having played a single gig and later admitting that they couldn't play together as a band very well at the time, at
9417-459: The decisions were business people dealing with music as a product, and those bands who were not making the expected sales figures were then excluded from this system. Before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sorts of music to which it refers were known by a variety of terms. In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups he was writing about. In 1979 Dallas radio station KZEW had
9546-611: The desire of forming a band together. Whilst King was a relative newcomer to playing bass, Draper had previously formed and fronted the electronic duo Grind whilst studying at Thames Polytechnic (now University of Greenwich ), with programmer-keyboard player Steve Heaton, and were often accompanied live by school friend Carlton Hibbert on drums. Grind released one 12" single in 1991 on the small "Whats in It For Me Records" label and gigged around London at venues such as The Rock Garden and The Brain and also supported Beverley Craven at
9675-520: The disbanding of both the Cranberries and Stone Temple Pilots in 2003. Britpop also began fading after Oasis ' third album, Be Here Now (1997), was met with lackluster reviews. A signifier of alternative rock's changes was the hiatus of the Lollapalooza festival after an unsuccessful attempt to find a headliner in 1998. In light of the festival's troubles that year, Spin said, "Lollapalooza
9804-453: The early 2000s, when indie rock became the most common term in the US to describe modern pop and rock, the terms "indie rock" and "alternative rock" were often used interchangeably; while there are aspects which both genres have in common, "indie rock" was regarded as a British-based term, unlike the more American "alternative rock". The name "alternative rock" essentially serves as an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in
9933-499: The early 21st century, many alternative rock bands that experienced mainstream success struggled following the suicide of Nirvana 's Kurt Cobain in April 1994, Pearl Jam 's failed lawsuit against concert venue promoter Ticketmaster , Soundgarden 's break-up in 1997, the Smashing Pumpkins losing its original members in 2000, L7 's hiatus in 2001, the death of Layne Staley and the subsequent disbanding of Alice in Chains in 2002, and
10062-512: The fastest-selling debut album in British chart history. By 2000 and on into the new decade, emo was one of the most popular rock music genres. Popular acts included the sales success of Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World (2001) and Dashboard Confessional 's The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (2003). The new emo had a much more mainstream sound than in the 1990s and a far greater appeal among adolescents than its earlier incarnations. At
10191-429: The formative influences for the shoegazing movement of the late 1980s. Named for the band members' tendency to stare at their feet and guitar effects pedals onstage rather than interact with the audience, shoegazing acts like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive created an overwhelmingly loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback. Shoegazing bands dominated
10320-430: The foundation for its large cult following. The key British alternative rock band to emerge during the 1980s was Manchester 's the Smiths . Music journalist Simon Reynolds singled out the Smiths and their American contemporaries R.E.M. as "the two most important alt-rock bands of the day", commenting that they "were eighties bands only in the sense of being against the eighties". The Smiths exerted an influence over
10449-418: The genre does not entirely define itself against that, as "the general assumption is that it's virtually impossible to make indie rock's varying musical approaches compatible with mainstream tastes in the first place". Labels such as Matador Records , Merge Records , and Dischord , and indie rockers like Pavement , Superchunk , Fugazi , and Sleater-Kinney dominated the American indie scene for most of
10578-411: The gist of the books and then forming lyrics based on them. Many of the musical ideas were assembled during soundchecks on the previous US tour. Chad admitted that the band "had all these ideas that we came up with on tour, but we didn't have any complete songs. For the album, we simply recorded all the musical snippets, and then figured out key and tempo changes that would link the sections together". With
10707-457: The instigation of the grunge music phenomenon". Helped by constant airplay of the song's music video on MTV, their album Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week by Christmas 1991. Its success surprised the music industry. Nevermind not only popularized grunge, but also established "the cultural and commercial viability of alternative rock in general." Michael Azerrad asserted that Nevermind symbolized "a sea-change in rock music" in which
10836-422: The key British alternative rock bands during the 1980s, remained signed to independent labels and received relatively little attention from mainstream radio, television, or newspapers. With the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream, and many alternative bands became successful. Emo found mainstream success in
10965-443: The label that currently owns the rights to the Mansun catalogue, remove his image and name from any and all future Mansun releases and that the label had confirmed they will do their best to comply with his request. With news of the split being confirmed and with the knowledge that most of the fourth album, which was set to be self titled, had already been recorded, an online petition was set up by fans to persuade Parlophone to release
11094-481: The lack of complete songs going into the album sessions, Draper set out to put together enough material at the weekends in the band's rented accommodation in Barnes so that there was enough material each week for the band to work on. Through constant touring, the band were now confident to record as a band in the studio and set out to replicate their live sound and make the album heavier and more guitar based in contrast to
11223-506: The late 1990s and early 2000s, several alternative rock bands emerged, including the Strokes , Franz Ferdinand , Interpol , and the Rapture that drew primary inspiration from post-punk and new wave, establishing the post-punk revival movement. Preceded by the success of bands such as the Strokes and the White Stripes earlier in the decade, an influx of new alternative rock bands, including several post-punk revival artists and others such as
11352-420: The local weather. Early grunge bands Soundgarden and Mudhoney found critical acclaim in the U.S. and UK, respectively. By the end of the decade, a number of alternative bands began to sign to major labels. While early major label signings Hüsker Dü and the Replacements had little success, acts who signed with majors in their wake such as R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction achieved gold and platinum records, setting
11481-602: The main Parlophone label and released several EPs, including an expanded re-release of the debut single. The first lineup of the band alongside Draper, King and Chad had featured former Grind drummer Carlton Hibbert and drum machine programmer Mark Swinnerton . Following five months of touring, starting with the band's first gig in August 1995 at The Lomax in Liverpool and support gigs with Heavy Stereo and The Charlatans , Swinnerton left
11610-489: The mainstream rock, with record companies using the term "alternative" to market music to an audience that mainstream rock does not reach. Using a broad definition of the genre, Dave Thompson in his book Alternative Rock cites the formation of the Sex Pistols as well as the release of the albums Horses by Patti Smith and Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed as three key events that gave birth to alternative rock. Until
11739-559: The mainstream" and record companies, confused by the genre's success yet eager to capitalize on it, scrambled to sign bands. The New York Times declared in 1993, "Alternative rock doesn't seem so alternative anymore. Every major label has a handful of guitar-driven bands in shapeless shirts and threadbare jeans, bands with bad posture and good riffs who cultivate the oblique and the evasive, who conceal catchy tunes with noise and hide craftsmanship behind nonchalance." However, many alternative rock artists rejected success, for it conflicted with
11868-494: The mainstreaming of rock music, alternative rock lyrics tend to address topics of social concern, such as drug use, depression, suicide, and environmentalism . This approach to lyrics developed as a reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and United Kingdom of the 1980s and early 1990s. Precursors to alternative rock existed in the 1960s with proto-punk . The origins of alternative rock can be traced back to The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) by
11997-478: The material back for a full album. In August, Chad posted on the band's official website to inform fans that the band had abandoned plans for an EP and were now halfway through recording their fourth album, which would be "harder" than Little Kix and that they planned to release a single in December. The band's aim for the record was to make it as representative of Mansun as a live band as possible, that it sounded "like
12126-405: The material. The tracks intended for the album were then released in September 2004, along with the non-album singles and a selection of B-sides (compiled by Draper from a top 20 voted for by fans on the band's official website) and rarities in a 3 CD box set entitled Kleptomania . Draper later claimed that after Parlophone contacted him to ask whether he wanted to be involved in putting together
12255-490: The media, and represented by Pulp , Blur , Suede , and Oasis , this movement was the British equivalent of the grunge explosion, in that the artists propelled alternative rock to the top of the charts in their home country. Britpop bands were influenced by and displayed reverence for British guitar music of the past, particularly movements and genres such as the British Invasion , glam rock , and punk rock . In 1995,
12384-502: The mid-1980s, college station KCPR in San Luis Obispo, California , described in a DJ handbook the tension between popular and "cutting edge" songs as played on "alternative radio". Although American alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians and laid the groundwork for their success. On September 10, 1988, an Alternative Songs chart
12513-408: The mid-1990s. In comparison to post-rock, math rock relies on more complex time signatures and intertwining phrases. By the end of the decade a backlash had emerged against post-rock due to its "dispassionate intellectuality" and its perceived increasing predictability, but a new wave of post-rock bands such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós emerged who further expanded the genre. In
12642-495: The more commercial sounding drum loop and synthesiser based sound of the debut. On the Chad penned "Witness to Murder Part II", the band enlisted former Doctor Who actor Tom Baker to perform the monologue, with King admitting that "the whole band are big fans of Doctor Who and Tom Baker, so we thought he'd be ideal. Tom heard the track and immediately agreed to perform on it". The track was intended as an interlude between two sides of
12771-460: The more melodic, diverse music of college rock that emerged. Azerrad wrote, "Hüsker Dü played a huge role in convincing the underground that melody and punk rock weren't antithetical." The band also set an example by being the first group from the American indie scene to sign to a major record label, which helped establish college rock as "a viable commercial enterprise". By focusing on heartfelt songwriting and wordplay instead of political concerns,
12900-468: The most popular rock bands in the United States. At the same time Britpop began to decline, Radiohead achieved critical acclaim with its third album OK Computer (1997), and its follow-ups Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), which were in marked contrast with the traditionalism of Britpop. Radiohead, along with post-Britpop groups like Travis , Stereophonics and Coldplay , were major forces in British rock in subsequent years. After almost
13029-448: The most popular, and therefore who could generate the most sales. These bands were able to record their songs in expensive studios, and their works were then offered for sale through record store chains that were owned by the entertainment corporations, along with eventually selling the merchandise into big box retailers . Record companies worked with radio and television companies to get the most exposure for their artists. The people making
13158-720: The most successful tour in North America in July and August 1991. For Dave Grohl of Nirvana who attended the festival at an open-air amphitheater in Southern California , "it felt like something was happening, that was the beginning of it all". The tour helped change the mentalities in the music industry: "by that fall, radio and MTV and music had changed. I really think that if it weren't for Perry [Farrell], if it weren't for Lollapalooza , you and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now". The release of Nirvana's single " Smells Like Teen Spirit " in September 1991 "marked
13287-409: The music is still there. By the start of the 1990s, the music industry was enticed by alternative rock's commercial possibilities and major labels had already signed Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dinosaur Jr. In early 1991, R.E.M. went mainstream worldwide with Out of Time while becoming a blueprint for many alternative bands. The first edition of the Lollapalooza festival became
13416-542: The name of the genre was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in 1994 referring to Hex by the London group Bark Psychosis , the style of the genre was solidified by the release of Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996) by the Chicago group Tortoise . Post-rock was the dominant form of experimental rock music in the 1990s and bands from the genre signed to such labels as Thrill Jockey , Kranky , Drag City , and Too Pure . A related genre, math rock , peaked in
13545-443: The new year, they would be dropped. In January 2003, a posting on the band's official Yahoo list claimed that a member of the band had left "amid massive animosity", later elaborating that "a member of the band had quit, did not want to rejoin and the remaining members did not want him back" and that as a result of this, the band had split up. Following months of speculation, the band's split was officially announced on 2 May 2003, with
13674-421: The press release stating that the band decided to call it a day after realising that "the life of the group had come to an end". Chad commented on the split, that "there's nothing sinister behind it, it was completely amicable. We all just want to be able to do other things". It was later revealed that the announcement had been delayed as Draper had unexpectedly fled to the US with no fixed date of return and that it
13803-418: The prominent grunge bands in Seattle, while a second influx of bands moved to the city in hopes of success. At the same time, critics asserted that advertising was co-opting elements of grunge and turning it into a fad. Entertainment Weekly commented in a 1993 article, "There hasn't been this kind of exploitation of a subculture since the media discovered hippies in the '60s." The New York Times compared
13932-427: The rebellious, DIY ethic the genre had espoused before mainstream exposure and their ideas of artistic authenticity. Other grunge bands subsequently replicated Nirvana's success. Pearl Jam had released its debut album Ten a month before Nevermind in 1991, but album sales only picked up a year later. By the second half of 1992 Ten became a breakthrough success, being certified gold and reaching number two on
14061-452: The same catalogue number as the originals. For catalogue numbers below G-7963 (released July 1923) these may usually be identified by a matrix commencing with an 'A', rather than being completely numeric. The Western Electric electrical process of recording was introduced in February 1926. Those records re-recorded using this process invariably have their catalogue number suffixed by 'R'. From March 1930, all new releases were prefixed in
14190-429: The same time, the use of the term "emo" expanded beyond the musical genre, becoming associated with fashion, a hairstyle and any music that expressed emotion. Emo's mainstream success continued with bands emerging in the 2000s, including multi-platinum acts such as Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance and mainstream groups such as Paramore and Panic! at the Disco . Regal Recordings Regal Recordings
14319-421: The shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging. Minneapolis bands Hüsker Dü and the Replacements were indicative of this shift. Both started out as punk rock bands, but soon diversified their sounds and became more melodic. Michael Azerrad asserted that Hüsker Dü was the key link between hardcore punk and
14448-478: The sound and style of grunge, "but not necessarily the individual idiosyncracies of its original artists." Post-grunge was a more commercially viable genre that tempered the distorted guitars of grunge with polished, radio-ready production. Originally, post-grunge was a label used almost pejoratively on bands that emerged when grunge was mainstream and emulated the grunge sound. The label suggested that bands labelled as post-grunge were simply musically derivative, or
14577-622: The split, stating that the guitarist "wasn’t happy with the working method of writing and recording, but didn’t want to implement his own writing and recording method so we simply had to go home and end the band". Rathbone described the album as being "the first album that captured an essence of the live sound", but also that the sessions were frustrating and revealed that towards the end, the band had split into two camps - himself and King who still resided in Chester, and Draper and Chad who had moved to Weybridge , Surrey . In September 2015, Draper went on to further claim that Chad tried to sack him from
14706-514: The stage for alternative's later breakthrough. Some bands such as Pixies had massive success overseas while they were ignored domestically. In the middle of the decade, Hüsker Dü's album Zen Arcade influenced other hardcore acts by tackling personal issues. Out of Washington, D.C.'s hardcore scene what was called "emocore" or, later, " emo " emerged and was noted for its lyrics which delved into emotional, very personal subject matter (vocalists sometimes cried) and added free association poetry and
14835-513: The subgenre's lyrics often address literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and supernatural mysticism. Bands of this subgenre took inspiration from two British post-punk groups, Siouxsie and the Banshees , and Joy Division . Bauhaus ' debut single " Bela Lugosi's Dead ", released in 1979, is considered to be the proper beginning of the gothic rock subgenre. The Cure 's "oppressively dispirited" albums including Pornography (1982) cemented that group's stature in that style and laid
14964-644: The term Alternative Nation . In December 1991, Spin magazine noted: "this year, for the first time, it became resoundingly clear that what has formerly been considered alternative rock —a college-centered marketing group with fairly lucrative, if limited, potential—has in fact moved into the mainstream." In the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific. In 1997, Neil Strauss of The New York Times defined alternative rock as "hard-edged rock distinguished by brittle, '70s-inspired guitar riffing and singers agonizing over their problems until they take on epic proportions." Defining music as alternative
15093-514: The term would broaden to include new wave , pop, punk rock , post-punk , and occasionally " college "/" indie " rock, all found on the American "commercial alternative" radio stations of the time such as Los Angeles' KROQ-FM . Journalist Jim Gerr wrote that Alternative also encompassed variants such as "rap, trash, metal and industrial". The bill of the first Lollapalooza , an itinerant festival in North America conceived by Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell , reunited "disparate elements of
15222-407: The time, one being that they were named after The Verve B-side "A Man Called Sun", and that "Manson" was simply a spelling mistake which accidentally went through to production. It was later reported that Charles Manson had started spelling his name with a "u", to which Draper joked that they should sue him in return. Following the release of " Skin Up Pin Up / Flourella ", the band were moved up to
15351-522: The time, the common music industry terms for cutting-edge music were new music and postmodern , respectively indicating freshness and a tendency to recontextualize sounds of the past. A similar term, alternative pop , emerged around 1985. In 1987, Spin magazine categorized college rock band Camper Van Beethoven as "alternative/indie", saying that their 1985 song "Where the Hell Is Bill" (from Telephone Free Landslide Victory ) "called out
15480-420: The tour would be the band's last, although this was denied at the time. In the following October, Chad revealed that a planned studio session for that month had been abandoned as they had wanted to continue writing. Following extended delays in the band delivering the new album to Parlophone, rumour spread in December 2002 that the band had been given an ultimatum that if they didn't complete the album by early in
15609-405: The wake of punk rock since the mid-1980s. Throughout much of its history, alternative rock has been largely defined by its rejection of the commercialism of mainstream culture, although this could be contested since some of the major alternative artists have eventually achieved mainstream success or co-opted with the major labels from the 1990s onward (especially into the 2000s, and beyond). In
15738-630: Was "probably overenthusiasm, seeing people like Bowie's different guises and thinking, 'Great! Let's try that.'" Following the release of the standalone " Closed for Business " EP in October 1997, the band found themselves short of songs going into the studio sessions at Olympic Studios for second album Six . Suffering from writer's block , Draper took inspiration from books Chad had taken out with him on tour, such as 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade , The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne , and Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard , by quickly scanning them to get
15867-404: Was Stove King's departure from the band that had resulted in the band splitting. Despite Chad having proclaimed the new material to be their best work yet, incorporating elements of all the band's previous albums and praising Draper's writing as being better than ever, Draper later claimed that when working on the new album, none of the band's hearts were in it and in 2008 went on to blame Chad for
15996-476: Was a "pity the three others couldn't stop dramatising the problems and get out again, as we'd be phenomenal". In 2011 Rathbone again confirmed his and Draper's desire to reform the band, but added that a reunion would have to include all four band members and that neither King nor Chad were interested. An article in The Guardian on 24 December 2011, entitled "The Guide's guide to the next 12 months", claimed that
16125-520: Was created by Billboard , listing the 40 most-played songs on alternative and modern rock radio stations in the US: the first number one was " Peek-a-Boo " by Siouxsie and the Banshees . By 1989, the genre had become popular enough that a package tour featuring New Order , Public Image Limited and the Sugarcubes toured the US arena circuit. Early on, British alternative rock was distinguished from that of
16254-479: Was kicked off the course due to lack of effort. Chad would later admit that his routine during university was "get up at three, go down to the union bar at four and stay there until it shut". With the aid of a drum machine, the trio began rehearsing at Crash Rehearsal Studios in Liverpool , where the band were quickly discovered by passing A&R scouts Mark Lewis and Alan Wills (who later went on to form Deltasonic Records ) who were there to see Cast and overheard
16383-422: Was originally set for release on Kleptomania , but the multitrack was incomplete, missing the lead vocal. The free download version is sourced from a reference CD-R which featured a rough mix with a guide vocal. In March 2008, on the prospect of a Mansun reunion, Draper stated that whilst he and Andie Rathbone were interested, "Dominic Chad would never do it, so it can't happen". In 2010, Rathbone commented that it
16512-399: Was released in August 2017. Rathbone formed the short-lived Seraphim with Jonti Thackray with whom he was in a band with prior to joining Mansun and has continued working with bands including The Jokers, Amsterdam, Blondie tribute band "Into The Bleach" and Chester supergroup World Upside Down. Rathbone also set up a mobile drum teaching service. Neither Chad nor King have been involved in
16641-414: Was unable to play for several months after his finger swelled up following treatment In April and May 2002 the band embarked on a low-key UK tour, which was initially planned to be secret and promoted under the pseudonym The Masons. The band played short ten song sets on the tour, one half old songs and the other half new songs set to appear on their forthcoming album. One website prophetically reported that
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