The Bollweevils

The Bollweevils were formed in Sheffield, UK, in November 1985 but the full, gigging band did not come together until 1988.The first line-up saw Sarah Griffiths on lead vocals, Mark Johnson on lead guitar and backing vocals and Dave Lloyd on rhythm guitar. No drummer could initially be found, though, and when they came to play their first gigs a drum-machine had to stand in.Their big break came when music journalist Paul Lester reported on their very first gig in the NME, raving: “This is what electricity tastes like.”The first demo tape made by the new incarnation of the band contained five tracks and was recorded and produced by Mark Johnson: “That Little Red-Headed Girl”, “Mind in Mindless Movie”, “Out of Time”, “Hiding from Lucy” and “It Cheers Me Considerably”. The result was perhaps a little bright and chirpy, not helped by the presence of the drum machine. However, Chris Coyle was found to play drums and the second demo was rather more impressive. It included "Turn Your Head", “Hold Me Up To the Light” and “Bubble of Passion”.For perhaps 18 months the band gigged constantly, travelling around the country, persuading venues to give them support slots on the strength of the demo tapes and reviews. A&R men were persuaded to come to the gigs, but it was not until March 1990 that the band signed a deal with the popular indie label, Vinyl Solution. On their Decoy label they released the first single, the self produced four track "Talk To Me" EP (“Talk to Me”, “Hold Me Up to the Light”, “All the Same” and “It Cheers Me Considerably”). It received airplay from John Peel on Radio One, and sold well.It was not until January 1991 that The Bollweevils were able to get into the studio to record their second single, produced by ABC's Steve Singleton. Despite the delay things were looking very positive. Chris Coyle left and was replaced by Caroline Bodin on drums, who was in turn replaced by Pete Darnborough from Leeds techno-goths MDMA. For various reasons The Life's A Scream EP (Unreasonable/World's Apart/Out Of Time/Crawl Round) was never released.In August 1991, over eighteen months since the release of the first single, the band appointed professional management and added a second guitarist, Mark Shaw formerly of Circus Circus Circus. Another EP was recorded the following month with Jim Beattie (ex Primal Scream) as producer. 'Mouth' was released in November and received radio airplay and apparently made the top 100, but unfortunately Decoy didn't get enough copies into the shops (Mouth/Restrained/Carry On). At the beginning of 1992 a final single, Missing Out/Unreasonable, was recorded for Vinyl Solution, but was never released.The band continued to gig and write songs, eventually getting the interest and money to record an album in March 1993. Sadly, this never saw the light of day...... But fast forward fifteen years and the best of The Bollweevils, "Retrospective" is to be released by the enterprising Plastilina Records. More details to follow in due course. MyGen Profile Generator