SPEARMINT
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SPEARMINT

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"Spearmint"

“One day Spearmint will be hailed as Gods” – NME - Uncut


"Spearmint"

“The glamour that elevates our otherwise mundane existence” – Careless talk Costs Lives

- Mojo


"Spearmint"

“One of the most life-affirmingly brilliant pop records of recent years” – Drowned In Sound
- Bang


"Spearmint"

“If this doesn't put a smile on your face then you should check your pulse. Poptastic” – Flux - Flux


Discography

Albums:
Songs For The Colour Yellow (1998)
A Week Away (1999)
Oklahoma (2000)
A Different Lifetime (2001)
My Missing Days (2003)
A Leopard And Other Stories (2004)
Paris In A Bottle (2006)

Singles:
Somebody
Goldmine
A Week Away
I Can't Sleep
Sweeping The Nation
A Trip Into Space
Nodding
It Won't Be Long Now
We're Going Out
You Are Still My Brother
The Locomotion
Howling Christmas
Happy Birthday Girl
The Flaming Lips
Julie Christie
Last Bus Home EP
Left Alone Among The Living
Say Something Else

Photos

Bio

A Spearmint Biography

2006
• Spearmint complete the follow-up to 2003’s “My Missing Days”… the album is called “Paris In A Bottle” and is to be released 14th August
• It is both the band’s most ambitious and most accessible album, and spawns 3 brilliant Pop singles - “The Competition”, “My Girlfriend Is A Killer” and “Psycho Magnet”
• The album’s narrative spans eleven years, as four strangers who spend one night together gradually live out their lives in Paris and London.
• The singles are released in May, June and July on limited blue, white and red vinyl editions
• Spearmint provide the title track music for the British Romantic Comedy “The Best Man”
• The band play an extensive schedule of shows through 2006

2005
• The band do their first ever acoustic shows - Shirley, Simon and Jim tour Germany in January
• Nine new songs are written for the tour – these are released as a limited edition mini-album “The Boy And The Girl That Got Away” via www.spearmint.net
• A one-off single “Girls With Guitars” & “Thomas” is released on the Canadian Home Sleep label
• The band begin work on the follow-up proper to “My Missing Days”

2004
• Following hot on the heels of “My Missing Days”, Spearmint release “A Leopard & Other Stories”
• The album was made over a 4 year period - singer Shirley explains: “It occurred to us that instead of treating EPs and b-sides as separate projects, we could deliberately, gradually make an album, little by little, whenever we recorded songs which were not to be included on other LPs. Hence a catch-phrase "this is not a b-side: it's a future album track" was born. Each time we've recorded EPs or tracks for compilations since 1999, they have been intended for this album. Some of our favourite songs are on this record”
• A single, “The Whole Summer Long” is released, someone says it’s a bit like a geekier “Gregory’s Girl” set to music.
• The band play their final gig for 18 months at The 100 Club in London in August.

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 album: “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”.
• What the press said about “My Missing Days”:
o “One day Spearmint will be hailed as Gods” – NME
o * * * * - Uncut
o “The glamour that elevates our otherwise mundane existence” – Careless talk Costs Lives
o * * * * - Mojo
o “One of the most life-affirmingly brilliant pop records of recent years” – Drowned In Sound
o * * * * - Bang
o “If this doesn't put a smile on your face then you should check your pulse. Poptastic” – Flux
• The band organise a 3 night hitBACK Festival in August at Water Rats in London.

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 o