Suede are an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989, the group's most prominent early line-up featured singer Brett Anderson, guitarist Bernard Butler, bass player Mat Osman and drummer Simon Gilbert. By 1992, Suede were hailed as "The Best New Band in Britain", and attracted much attention from the British music press. The following year their glam rock-inspired debut album, Suede, went to the top of the charts and became the fastest-selling debut album in almost ten years, helping kick-start the Britpop movement. However, the band's lush follow-up, Dog Man Star (1994), saw Suede distance themselves from their Britpop peers. Although it is often regarded as the band's masterpiece, the recording sessions for Dog Man Star were fraught with difficulty, and ended with Butler departing the band after heated arguments with Anderson.
In 1996 following the recruitment of Butler's replacement Richard Oakes and later Neil Codling, Suede went on to greater commercial success with Coming Up. The album charted at number one in the UK, producing five top ten singles and became their biggest-selling album worldwide. After the release of the B-sides compilation Sci-Fi Lullabies in 1997, Anderson became addicted to crack and heroin. Despite problems within the band, Suede's fourth album Head Music (1999) was a British chart-topper. Suede's final album, A New Morning (2002), their first after the collapse of Nude Records, was a commercial disappointment. In 2003, after the release of the Singles compilation, Suede disbanded. After much speculation Suede reformed in 2010 for a series of concerts.
History
Formation and early years: 1989-1991
Brett Anderson and
Justine Frischmann met in 1989 while studying at
University College London and became a couple soon afterwards. Together with Anderson's childhood friend
Mat Osman, they decided they had a core of a band, and spent hours a day playing covers of
The Beatles,
The Smiths, and
David Bowie. After deciding that neither Anderson nor Frischmann had the skill to be a
lead guitarist, the group placed an advert in
NME seeking to fill the position. The group settled on the name Suede; lacking a drummer, the band initially used a
drum machine. Despite Frischmann's efforts as the group's de facto manager, the group primarily scored small-scale gigs around London's
Camden Town area.
Suede's first breakthrough came with their second demo Specially Suede which they sent to compete in Demo Clash, a radio show on Greater London Radio run by DJ Gary Crowley. "Wonderful Sometimes" won Demo Clash for five Sundays in a row during 1990, leading to a record contract with the Brighton-based indie label RML. The song featured on a cassette compilation in April 1990 representing Suede's first official release. After a series of gigs with an unreliable drum machine, Suede decided to recruit a full-time drummer. Justin Welch briefly fulfilled the role as drummer, though he only lasted six weeks, before joining Crawley band Spitfire. After Welch's departure, Suede placed another advert seeking a replacement. To the group's surprise, the ad was answered by former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce. Joyce reluctantly turned down the role of drummer as he felt Suede still had to forge their own identity. He felt that by being in a band that had similarities to the Smiths, he would have done them more harm than good. Joyce stayed long enough to record two songs with the group, which were set to be released as the "Be My God"/"Art" single on RML Records. The band was dissatisfied with the result, and most of the 500 copies pressed were destroyed. In June 1990 Suede found a permanent drummer, Simon Gilbert, through former manager Ricky Gervais. Both worked at the ULU. After hearing their demo and realising the band were devoid of a drummer, Gilbert asked to audition.
By 1991, Anderson and Frischmann had broken up; Frischmann started dating Damon Albarn of the group Blur. Frischmann believed the group could accommodate the new situation. However the situation grew tense; Butler recalled, "She'd turn up late for rehearsals and say the worst thing in the world - 'I've been on a Blur video shoot.' That was when it ended, really. I think it was the day after she said that that Brett phoned me up and said, 'I've kicked her out.'" After Frischmann's departure, the character of the group changed. "If Justine hadn't left the band", Anderson said, "I don't think we'd have got anywhere. It was a combination of being personally motivated, and the chemistry being right once she'd left." Anderson and Butler became close friends and began writing several new songs together. However, the band's music was out-of-step with the music of their London contemporaries as well as the American grunge bands. Anderson said, "For the whole of 1991, A&R; men wouldn't give us a second look."
Through the end of 1991 and early 1992, Suede received a number of favourable mentions in the music press, garnering them slots at shows hosted by NME and attended by musical figures such as former Smiths singer Morrissey. One of the gigs at the ULU in October 1991, which caught the attention of the media was Frischmann's final gig. John Mulvey of the NME, the journalist who first wrote about Suede was at the ULU gig. He said "They had charm, aggression, and... if not exactly eroticism, then something a little bit dangerous and exciting."
Signing and early singles: 1992
After seeing the group perform at an
NME show in January 1992, Saul Galpern approached the group about signing to his independent record label
Nude Records. Suede eventually signed a two single deal to Nude in February 1992 for the sum of £3,132. Following Nude's offer Suede attracted further interest from
Island Records and
East West Records, who were keen on signing them long term. Suede were being hailed as "The next big thing" and prior to the release of the group's first single, the cover of 25 April issue of
Melody Maker featured the group, with a headline stating "Suede: The Best New Band in Britain".
The band's debut single "The Drowners" attracted excitement because of its sharp contrast to the dying Madchester scene and the U.S. grunge sound of the time. The band were then approached by Geffen Records and although the Geffen deal was very attractive (Galpern described it as "insane"), the band still had plenty of other offers to consider. In September 1992 they released their second single, "Metal Mickey", which charted at number 17. It was the only Suede single to crack the US Modern Rock top 10, peaking at number 7. Shortly after the release of "Metal Mickey", Suede signed to Nude/Sony. Galpern was determined to sign the band long term and struck a deal with Sony - making them a tiny independent label with major muscle backing. The contract gave Suede creative controls such as the artwork on their releases. Impressed by the band's charged sexuality, Suede's first sequence of singles and debut album shocked audiences and critics alike. Suede's sexual lyrics made them a rallying point for the alienated, one of the few British bands since the Smiths who united as much as they divided. Comparisons were being made to David Bowie, though Suede sounded nothing quite like anybody else around at the time, and soon they fell upon what critics quickly deemed was a new movement. The self titled Suede entered the British charts at number one, registering the biggest initial sales of a debut since Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Welcome to the Pleasuredome a decade before. going gold on its second day. The albums release was met with high critical praise and hype. Some notable press at the time was the front cover of the April 1993 issue of Select, which is seen by many as the start of Britpop. The album went on to win the 1993 Mercury Prize. Their debut was the only album released in the U.S. under the name "Suede", where it remains their highest selling release.
Following the success of the album, Suede prepared themselves for their imminent American tour in the summer of 1993. During the tours of 1993, tensions began to develop between Butler and the rest of the group. The tensions grew worse on the second American tour mainly for the fact that Butler's father had died, which forced Suede to cancel the tour prematurely. Their American success was limited as they had already begun to be upstaged by their opening act, The Cranberries, who received the support from MTV that Suede lacked. Moreover, a lounge singer's lawsuit forced the band to stop using the trademarked American name "Suede". For their subsequent releases and shows performed in the United States, the band used the moniker "The London Suede". Anderson wasn't happy about having to change the group's name for the U.S. market, as he stated: "The London Suede is not the name I chose for the band, I didn't change it happily, and I'm not going to pretend I did."
"Stay Together" and Butler's exit: 1994
In February 1994, the band released stand-alone single "
Stay Together", which became their highest charting single at the time, reaching number three in the UK. The single was backed by a collection of strong b-sides; this new pompous sound, however would fracture the band and lead to the departure of Butler. Despite the success of the single the band have since distanced themselves totally from the song, an aversion usually attributed to problems with Butler at the time. In the aftermath of "Stay Together", Anderson isolated himself and wrote songs for Suede's next album. It was at this time that Anderson eschewed himself from what was dubbed the "laddish Britpop movement", which he was seen by many to inaugurate. Bands such as
Blur,
Oasis and
Pulp began to dominate the music scene, whereas Suede became a lot more experimental and introverted. Tensions grew worse during the recording of the album when Butler criticised Anderson in a rare interview, claiming that he worked too slowly and that he was too concerned with rock stardom.
At the time Suede were said to be a band who were "unafraid to be out of step with its peers", Anderson recalled that Butler and the rest of the group largely recorded their parts separately. The guitarist then clashed with producer Ed Buller, who he insisted should be sacked as he wanted to produce the record himself. Butler then gave Anderson an ultimatum: fire the producer or I’m leaving. "I called his bluff," says Anderson. Days after Butler's wedding, he returned to the studio to find he was not being allowed in and his guitars were left out on the street. According to John Harris's Britpop history The Last Party, the final words Butler uttered to Anderson were "you're a fucking cunt". Butler left the band leaving parts of the record incomplete.
Dog Man Star, new line up and Coming Up: 1994-1997
Led by the single "
We Are the Pigs", Suede's second album
Dog Man Star finally appeared in late 1994. The album was well-received by critics receiving rapturous press across the board. It entered the
UK Albums Chart at number three, The singles from the album charted poorly, though they are still regarded as Suede's best output. Especially "
The Wild Ones", which is considered by many to be Suede's finest hour.
In September 1994, Suede announced their new guitarist, 17-year-old
Richard Oakes, who after reading about Butler's departure, sent a demo tape to the band's fanclub. When Simon Gilbert heard Anderson playing back the tape whilst going through audition tapes, he mistakenly believed it to be an early Suede demo. Oakes made his video debut on "We Are the Pigs" and co-wrote the b-sides to "
New Generation". Suede embarked on a long international tour during late 1994 and the spring of 1995, before disappearing to work on their third album. In 1995, the group contributed a track to
The Help Album charity compilation, covering
Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding". In January 1996, the band was joined by new member
Neil Codling, a cousin of Simon Gilbert who handled keyboards and played second guitar. He made his debut at a fanclub gig at the Hanover Grand, which turned out to be one of Suede's most important gigs of their entire career. A short set devoid of Butler songs was well received by critics, "...A set that says. 'No Need'," observed Steve Sutherland in
NME.
Suede released their third album Coming Up in 1996. Anderson said that in contrast to the group's previous albums, which he felt "suffered at certain times from being quite obscure," he intended Coming Up to be "almost like a 'greatest hits'". Due to the success of the album, Suede secured top billing at the 1997 Reading Festival. Suede's next venture was Sci-Fi Lullabies, a collection of b-sides, which reached number nine on the UK Album Chart. Despite being backed by their second-highest charting single "Electricity", Suede's fourth album, Head Music divided both fans and critics, though it once again took the band to number one on the UK Albums Chart. Others, however praised the album highly feeling that the group were again taking a different direction and charting new territory.
The next three singles released from the album failed to crack the top 10, breaking a run stretching back to the 1996 single "Trash". Anderson also began being criticized more by fans for his often use of redundant vocabulary and limited lyrical themes. The track which received the most attention and criticism was "Savoire Faire". Speaking of his addiction, which plagued him for two and a half years, Anderson said: "Anyone who has ever tried crack will know exactly why I took it. It's the scariest drug in the world because the hit you get from it is so, so seductive. I wanted to experience that, and I did - repeatedly." For the whole of 2000 Suede retreated themselves from the pubilc and only played one gig, which took place in Reykjavik, Iceland. The band premiered several new songs that would eventually make it onto their final album.
Commercial disappointment and breakup: 2001-2003
Not long after the release of
Head Music, Nude Records effectively ceased to exist. Like many of their labelmates, Suede ended up signing to Nude's parent company/distributor
Sony to record their fifth album,
A New Morning. Between the release of
Head Music and
A New Morning, Suede wrote and recorded "Simon" as the title theme for the film
Far From China. The long and troubled gestation of the new album saw keyboardist
Neil Codling leave the band, citing
chronic fatigue syndrome, to be replaced by Alex Lee, formerly of
Strangelove. In concert, Lee played keyboards, second guitar,
backing vocals and occasionally
harmonica. The album title, according to Anderson, referred to "a fresh start, a new band and a new fresh outlook" – the singer had been addicted to
heroin and
crack cocaine, which was having an increasingly deleterious effect on his health. Anderson claimed that
A New Morning "...was the first ever Suede record that wasn’t influenced in its making by drugs."
Although the group began work with Tony Hoffer producing, the album was produced by Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur). Overall, seven different recording studios and four producers were used during the two year recording span for A New Morning, and costs estimated at around £1 million. The album was a commercial disappointment which failed to crack the top 20, and ultimately was never released in the U.S. A New Morning was considered a solid enough outing by fans of the band, but critical reaction was decidedly lukewarm and the mainstream public interest had long disappeared. Only two singles, "Positivity" and "Obsessions", were released from the album, the fewest singles taken from any of the band's albums, and neither charted particularly well. Anderson has since stressed his disappointment with Suede's final album, stating "We made one Suede album too many. 'A New Morning' is the only one I don't believe in as much as the other Suede records and I totally believed in the first four, even 'Head Music' which divided the fans." In October 2003, Suede released their second compilation album Singles, and accompanying single "Attitude", which charted at number 14 in the UK. The group had begun working on a follow-up album to A New Morning, which was planned to be released after the Singles compilation. Anderson said that "Most of the new material is more aggressive and less song based than A New Morning." He added, "We're spending a lot of time working on tracks that sound nothing like traditional Suede." On 5 November the band announced there would be no more projects under the Suede name for the foreseeable future – effectively announcing the end of the band, as they stated on their website: "There will not be a new studio album until the band feel that the moment is artistically right to make one." Their last concert at the London Astoria on 13 December 2003 was a two-and-a-half hour marathon show, split into two parts plus encore. Anderson made an announcement, saying: "I just want you to know. There will be another Suede record. But not yet."
Other projects: 2004-2009
Immediately after the Astoria gig, Anderson asked Suede's manager Charlie Charlton for Butler's phone number, who soon informed the former guitarist to expect a call. The pair who had not spoken to one another since 1994, were spotted drinking in London just four days after Suede's final gig. In 2004 the pair resurfaced with a project named
The Tears. The following year they released the album
Here Come the Tears, which received favourable reviews, however, failed to generate popular interest beyond the duo's hardcore fanbase. One review remarked that the record was not "far from the records Suede made without their errant guitarist". The band have been on indefinite hiatus since 2006.
Anderson has released three solo albums, which received mixed reviews, with the possible exception of his third effort, Slow Attack. Butler has been working as a producer, collaborating with artists such as 1990s, Black Kids, Sons and Daughters, Duffy and Kate Nash. Matt Osman has toured with Brett Anderson, while Simon Gilbert is in the international band Futon. Richard Oakes is recording an album with singer, writer and producer Sean McGhee under the name Artmagic.
In late 2009 there was increased speculation of a Suede reunion. The press appeared to be sensing an imminent reunion, such that one journalist wrote in a review of Anderson's third solo album in October, "Roll on a Suede reunion". Anderson insisted that he still stays in contact with his former bandmates and has not ruled out a reunion. Performing at the Jack Daniel's birthday set at London's Village Underground venue, Anderson admitted "I'd quite like to make a band record again, my last few have just been me in the studio with a piano. I can't say whether I'd get back with Suede or not."
Reunion and subsequent events: 2010-present
Following persistent rumours, the boss of the band's former label, Nude Records' Saul Galpern officially announced on 15 January 2010 that Suede would be playing together again. "It's [for] a one-off gig," he explained of the show, which featured the band's second incarnation. The band played London's
Royal Albert Hall as part of the 2010 Teenage Cancer Trust shows on 24 March 2010. Despite the gig initially being billed as a one night only reformation, when questioned on German radio station MotorFM in early February, Anderson refused to confirm that the band would not continue. The band subsequently announced two UK 'warm up' gigs prior to the Royal Albert Hall show, at the 100 Club in London and the Ritz in Manchester. The trio of gigs were very well-received by critics, including a glowing two-page review in the
NME.
In August the band played at the Skanderborg Festival in Denmark and Parkenfestivalen in Bodø, Norway. They will then play a short European tour covering Spain (Razzmatazz, Barcelona, 26 November), France (Elysee Montmartre, Paris, 28 November), Belgium (Cirque Royal, Brussels, 29 November), Sweden (Cirkus, Stockholm, 1 December), the Netherlands (Paradiso, Amsterdam, 2 December) and Germany (Columbiahalle, Berlin, 3 December). The band will finish the tour on 7 December at the O2 Arena in London. It has been reported in the press that a new record deal with Warner Music Group is on the table. The band have announced that they will release The Best of Suede on 1 November 2010. The compilation curated by Anderson will consist of Singles, album tracks and b-sides. Suede were recently asked whether they would produce any new material and Anderson has said, "Unless we were all convinced it would be an amazing record, I think we’d rather just leave it alone. It’s not like we have to at the moment, it has to feel special and that’s always been our criteria."
It was subsequently announced on 13 December that the band would be playing that wednesday (15 December) as the special guests at XFM London's Winter Wonderland Although this was changed to an acoustic session with Simon not being able to play due to suffering from flu.
Legacy
Suede's legacy is largely in inspiring the Britpop scene which eventually overshadowed the band's own achievements.
Alexis Petridis wrote in 2005, "These days, rock historians tend to depict Suede's success as a kind of amuse bouche before the earth-shattering arrival of Britpop's main course".
The year following the Melody Maker cover saw Suede captivate a pop phenomenon of critical praise and hype. Suede are regarded by many as the first British band to break into the mainstream from the new wave of alternative rock in the '90s. With their glam rock style and musical references of urban Britain, Suede paved the way for acts such as Blur and Pulp to enter the British mainstream. They were influential in returning some of the creative impetus to English guitar music in a scene increasingly dominated by Madchester, Grunge and Shoegazing. Since the Britpop movement ceased to exist, like many bands associated with it, Suede's popularity sharply declined. As one writer put it at the end of Suede's career, "Suede slid from zeitgeist into a smaller, pocket-sized cult band."
"It's not in my nature to be bitter. We may have been overlooked somewhat, but all you need to do is listen to the music. Our legacy speaks for itself." He added, "...Fate dealt us this card, and I don't think we've done particularly badly with it. Music today seems so very worthy, so very dull. Nobody wants to stick their neck out any more, and I think that is a great pity. We did, and we left our mark."
Members
Brett Anderson - vocals (1989–2003; 2010-present)
Mat Osman - bass (1989–2003; 2010-present)
Simon Gilbert - drums (1991–2003; 2010-present)
Richard Oakes - lead guitar (1994–2003; 2010-present)
Neil Codling - keyboards, synthesisers, rhythm guitar (1996–2001; 2010-present)
Former members
Bernard Butler - lead guitar, piano (1989–1994)
Justine Frischmann - rhythm guitar (1989–1991)
Alex Lee - rhythm guitar, keyboards (2001–2003)
Discography
Suede (1993)
Dog Man Star (1994)
Coming Up (1996)
Head Music (1999)
A New Morning (2002)
References
Bibliography
Harris, John. Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock. Da Capo Press, 2004. ISBN 0-306-81367-X
Barnett, David. Love and Poison. Carlton Publishing Group, 2003. ISBN 0-233-00094-1
External links
Suede Official Website
Suede Online
Category:1990s music groups
Category:2000s music groups
Category:2010s music groups
Category:English rock music groups
Category:Britpop musical groups
Category:Musical groups from London
Category:Musical groups established in 1989
Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2003
