Spearmint

A Spearmint Biography
2003
• Spearmint record a tune for the Pavement tribute album “Everything Is Ending Here” – their original song “This Is A Souvenir” opens the collection and is followed by 35 other bands doing Pavement cover versions.
• The band record “The Last Bus Home” EP for Spanish label Primeros Pasitos.
• Impressed with Rhodri Marsden’s production on the Free French album, the new album is recorded with Rhodri & Andy Lewis producing – the result is their third and best album to date: “My Missing Days”.
• The album has all the vital Pop of “A Week Away” and the emotional depth of “A Different Lifetime”. It is packed full of girl / boy duets, Northern Soul energy, brilliant tunes, haunting instrumentals, some of the best lyrics you’ll ever hear, spoken pieces, ace guitars and saw playing.
• It is also the first album in history where the songs take you through a backwards narrative – starting at the end and ending at the beginning. The songs are about values, possessions, figuring out what matters in this world - songs about what you’d do in a given situation.
• “My Missing Days” is released on 18 August, followed in September by single “Left Alone Among The Living”.
• The band plan their best live shows ever and a London hitBACK Festival from August onwards…

2002
• Spearmint tour a large part of the world promoting “A Different Lifetime”, ending with a three night residency at London’s Borderline – the band play completely different sets each night, with the third show being chosen by the fans via www.spearmint.net.
• Finally the opportunity arises for Spearmint to achieve a long-held ambition - to release records by other artists on their own hitBACK label. This arrives in the shape of Rhodri Marsden’s fantastic band the Free French, who release 2 singles and an album, swiftly followed by HOST whose debut single “Mean Streak” takes the hitBACK roster to 3 acts!
• For the first time since 1995, the band have no definite idea of what their next project will be. They drop out of view & spend the rest of 2002 writing the third album.

2001
• Spearmint complete the writing of their love-story album and record at Matt Johnson’s Garden studio with producer Pete Hofmann
• “A Different Lifetime” is released on 20 August. In the words of Uncut Magazine: “The concept album's back: this time it's personal. Spearmint's second album proper is a flowering, a joy to behold. The "fun" indie-poppers have carried off an extraordinarily ambitious concept, their very own Umbrellas of Cherbourg or End Of The Affair. Fifteen songs chart the rise and fall of a romance, from early tentative tactical manoeuvres, through sweet surrender, to doubt and demise and an ultimate coming to terms. It has the courage to accept that love is finite, and to try to deal with that. All this with Bacharach-sweet tunes, a cameo set at a Flaming Lips gig, a homage to the joys of Scottish pop and an epic, string-sodden title track. Plus the sound of waves crashing on the shore. Any justice and it's album of the year.” Hitback ****1/2
• Uncut and several European magazines make it one of their albums of the year.

2000
• Spearmint release a Stephen Hague remix of 'We're Going Out' and the tiny hitBACK machine is able to fund a wonderful day-glo video co-starring honorary band-member Samanthi. The single gets to #87 in the UK Charts.
• The band decide that their next major project is to be a full-length love-story album. They begin writing this, and realise that it will take a while to get together. As it took 4 years to get their debut album out, they decide to keep the ball rolling by quickly recording and releasing a mini-album set at Christmas in a fictional Northern town: “Oklahoma!” is born - this is recorded in a scorching week in May at Chapel studios in Lincolnshire.
• In April Dickon leaves to form his own band Fosca, and Locomotion / Blow Up DJ Andy Lewis joins on bass. Andy is a long-time fan of the band and the band are long-time fans of Andy. James moves from bass to guitar (which is what he always wanted really).
• The band premier the album at the frighteningly over-crowded Glastonbury Festival and it is released on 2 October with beautiful artwork on CD & across 3 white-vinyl 7”s. Some punters are confused at the apparent “slight” nature of this follow-up to the mighty “A Week Away. The NME praised the band’s refusal to pander to the current trends and The Guardian salutes the “undefinable magic” of the record.
• Spearmint tour Germany, Sweden, UK and Japan and end the year with a special Christmas show at The Wag in London.

1999
• In January the band finally get down to recording their debut album. It is called “A Week Away” and it is Shirley’s intention that is the perfect Pop record, tackling all aspects of someone’s life on Earth in an uplifting, life-affirming way. Songs are chosen from the first 4 years of writing with a couple dating back even longer, to Laverne & Shirley days. It