Sistene Chapel Ceiling

From the album 'Against Perfection' released 1993 on Creation Records. Just the same as their other song from the album 'Sunshine Smile' also on this website it also made it to NME's 'single of the week'. Both tracks are awesome and the band should have reached greater heights than they did. 

 

This particular track sounding a little bit 'Echo & The Bunnymen' (which in my book is no bad thing!). Evidently they drew influences from them, The Jesus & Mary Chain and The Psychedelic Furs.

 

Can definitely catch the 'shoegaze' and also kind of 'grunge' elements in here, the latter applicable to 'Sunshine Smile'. Almost a band that formed the bridge between those styles and the oncoming 'Brit Pop' sound. Catch the song here.....

 

It's a real shame that the 'Creation Label' didn't take the band on to greater things,☹️ however the band's swagger was soon to be replaced with a whole new level of swagger only this time Mancunian, plus attitude to boot with the at the time newbie's 'Oasis'

They formed in Coventry in the early 1990 and were originally called 'The Candy Thieves'. The songs 'Sunshine Smile', 'I'll Be You Saint' and 'Breathless' were all released on 12" in 1991 on the Money To Burn Independent Label. According to Discogs the cover of the 200 odd discs produced were hand stamped Rob Dillam stated 'We had two ink pads and just sat there randomly stamping'....DIY at its finest!

With strained relations with Creation Records the band announced their split whilst on stage in Brussels. Evidently the band's attitude in the music media came across perhaps with a touch of 'arrogance', obviously loved by McGee as head of Creation (wasn't this echoes of Malcolm McLaren and The Sex Pistols?). Perhaps the attitude made it more difficult to get more positive vibes from the music press. Coupled with this the album 'Fake' was apparently a hurried affair, band tensions also became raw not helping their cause.

 

They still remain my....

 

Kevin Gritton retrained as a teacher and has since become deputy head at a school in Derby. Read that and the story of their re-union gig here: Cornwall Live

 

Pete Fijalkowski - Now known as Pete Fij.  After Adorable split he went on to form band 'Polak' and is currently working with Terry Bickers from 'The House Of Love' on musical projects as well as film directing.

 

Rob Dillam went on to form the band 'The Zephyrs' there is an interview with him and Pete here at Fade Away And Radiate website, as well as that he also became a teacher in computer networking.

 

Wil went on to teach English in South Korea and also became Senior Liaison Officer for Institutional Relations for the University of Warwick. Read an interview with him here at webcutsmusic.com.

...It certainly seemed to be with ska bands such as The Specials and The Selecter, Punk & Post Punk with Hazel O'Connor and The Fly's to Indie bands like The Primitives, Adorable and The Enemy and Metal bands such as Bolt Thrower and Cathedral...The list seems endless

 

 

Photo by Calvin Craig on Unsplash