Juniper

Juniper were a rock band from County Kildare, Ireland, most widely-known today as a precursor to Damien Rice and Bell X1. The band released two EPs, The J-Plane (1994) and Manna (1996) and appeared on a compilation album, Natural Born Elvis (1998).

Career

Early years (1991 - 1996)

The band was founded by Damien Rice, Paul Noonan, Dominic Philips and Brian Crosby in 1991 whilst they were attending Salesian College secondary school in Celbridge as students. In 1994 the band recorded and independently released an EP entitled The J-Plane and began performing in local bars, including The Kildrought Lounge in Celbridge. Guitarist Dave Geraghty joined the band shortly after they left secondary school and contributed to the recording of the band's second EP, Manna, which was released in 1996.

Their first television appearance was on Irish talent show Go For It where they performed a song called "Pillars of Society".

Polygram (1997 - 1998)

Juniper had by this time gained a significant following and the band signed a six-album deal with Polygram in 1997. The band began recording sessions at Windmill Lane for single releases that year. Polygram were highly influential in the choice of the first single and pushed for the band to release their most radio-friendly tracks. "Weatherman" was released in February 1998, reaching #9 in the Irish Singles Chart and remaining in the chart for seven weeks. This was quickly followed by "World Is Dead" in May, which fared less well and entered the Irish Singles Chart at #19 ^[1]. Despite the positve chart standings and unprecedented live popularity ^[2], the critical response to the singles was quite poor ^[3]. Rice claimed in later an interview with Yahoo that he had hoped to release fan-favourite Eskimo as the second single but that he had been effectively over-ruled by the label ^[4]. Bootleg material certainly suggests that a studio version of Eskimo was recorded during Juniper's Windmill Lane sessions along with a work in progress called Volcano. That track was never released by Juniper but instead appeared in two new versions on Bell X1's debut album Neither Am I in 2000 (attributed to Crosby, Geraghty, Noonan, Philips and Rice) and later on Damien Rice's 2002 album O.

The end of Juniper (1998)

At the end of 1998, front man Damien Rice left the band and moved to Tuscany, Italy, to work on solo material. The planned album sessions in southern France were cancelled. The remaining band members continued to play together and eventually reformed as the well-known band Bell X1 with Noonan now as their vocalist. Rice, meanwhile, has become a world-famous folk artist, most noted for his two albums O and 9.

Discography

• The J-Plane (EP) - 1994
• Manna (EP) - 1996
• "Weatherman" (Single) - 1998
• "World Is Dead" (Single) - 1998
• Natural Born Elvis (Compilation album) - 1998

See also

• Damien Rice
• Bell X1

External links

• Juniper at Irish Music Central [5]

References