MP3 Splendid - New Improved

Breezy, Jangling, guitar POP, with hooks you could hang your hat on, and songs you'll be humming for the rest of the day.

16 MP3 Songs
POP: British Pop, POP: Power Pop



Details:
Splendid formed in 1995 when Alan Windram was at Jewel and Esk Valley College in Edinburgh studying for the Diploma in Modern Music. At the time, Alan (vocals and rhythm guitar) and Stuart Veitch (lead guitar) were in a band called Jacob's Ladder where Alan had just begun writing songs.

At the college Alan met a couple of simpatico musicians in Steve Watt (bass) and Annemarie Walsh (drums) who were also studying for the diploma. They soon found that their musicality coupled to Alan's new songs was very satisfying; with the vocal harmony blend of Alan, Steve and Annemarie they were on to something special. So Alan encouraged Stuart to leave Jacob's Ladder and join forces with Steve and Annemarie to form Splendid.

The band started playing live regularly in Edinburgh and Glasgow and found their feet with support slots for Fish, Catatonia and Horse among others; the songs and arrangements were starting to sound really good, so in late 1996 at the end of the college course Splendid went to Heaven Studios in Dalry (the town, not the district of Edinburgh) with the thought of making a three track demo recording.

It wasn't long before the plan for a three track demo was abandoned - the band realised that even at this early stage they had a good album in them. After some more recording and gigging, the eponymous Splendid album was finished and released at the end of 1997.

It was a breath of fresh air - ten concise pop songs showing a love of melody, harmony and the Fender bridge pickup. There was the opening blast of Broken Heart, the power-pop of Star, even the country-rock tinged Icicles all in a well-packaged and promoted, self-financed album.

A good few local record stores stocked and sold the album and the band got a distribution deal with MAC in Glasgow. More significantly, the album sold well through the band's burgeoning mailing list and more gigs (including supports for China Crisis and The Mutton Birds among others). Radio and press interest helped to ensure that Splendid sold out its first pressing in about a year, quite an achievement for a band at this level. It was a well-deserved payoff for the band's hard work and spirit of self-determination.

By the start of 1999, the band were resident at Edinburgh's Blind Poet and were able to regularly try out in front of an audience the new songs Alan was writing. This experience was the genesis of the second Splendid album "Pull Me In" which was released in summer 1999 and is still available from CD Baby. It is well worthy of your attention.

Part of the promotional activity for the second album was the recording of a "Live In The Studio" mini album comprising acoustic versions of five songs from the album and a new unreleased song (it couldn't really wait) called I Found You. As the purpose of this recording was as a promotional item for radio stations it has never been available to the public... Until now. Splendid and RealRecords.co.uk are please to present this remastered reissue of the much sought after Splendid album augmented with "live acoustic session" tracks