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The Soft Boys

 
Artist: The Soft Boys
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The Soft Boys

Group Members:

Alan Davies, Morris Windsor, Kimberley Rew, Andy Metcalfe, Robyn Hitchcock, Matthew Seligman, Jim Melton

Similar Artists:

R.E.M., XTC, Television, The Teardrop Explodes, Nick Lowe, Bram Tchaikovsky, Desperate Bycycles, Art Objects, Squeeze, The Jam, The dB's, Elvis Costello, The Chameleons UK

Influenced By:

Pink Floyd, The Sex Pistols, The Byrds, The Beatles, Syd Barrett

Followers:

Shecky, R.E.M., The Flaming Lips, The Chameleons UK, Camper Van Beethoven, Mashed Potatoes, Ira Kaplan, Welcome, The Playwrights, Mystechs, The Exploding Hearts

Formal Connection With:

Katrina & the Waves, Robyn Hitchcock
See The Soft Boys Lyrics
  • Formed: 1976, Cambridge, England
  • Disbanded: 1981
  • Genres: Rock
  • Representative Albums: "Underwater Moonlight," "Underwater Moonlight...And How It Got There," "Nextdoorland"
  • Representative Songs: "I Wanna Destroy You," "(I Want to Be an) Anglepoise," "Kingdom of Love"

Biography

The Soft Boys have turned out to be one of the most influential bands in shaping contemporary alternative music, though few are completely familiar with the quirky band's legacy. Formed in Cambridge, England in 1976 on the heels of the punk revolution, the Soft Boys eschewed the three-chord nihilism of punk and opted for a crude version of psychedelic/folk-rock that was well on its way out of fashion, but oddly, just on the cusp of a resurgence.

Robyn Hitchcock recruited Cambridge musicians Morris Windsor on drums, Andy Metcalfe on bass, and guitarist Alan Davies, and recorded Give It to the Soft Boys in Hitchcock's living room in 1976. Davies was soon replaced by guitarist Kimberley Rew. The band released a single, "(I Want to Be An) Anglepoise Lamp," followed by the Can of Bees album in 1979.

While recording the follow-up, Metcalfe left the band and was replaced by Matthew Seligman. The new lineup started fresh and recorded Underwater Moonlight, the album that found the band trading psychedelic jams for a more straight-ahead jangle pop-guitar rock sound. The LP has become extremely influential in the guitar rock canon -- the Replacements, R.E.M., and the L.A. Paisley Underground scene all claimed it as a prime influence. The album launched a thousand bands, but it turned out to be the Soft Boys' swan song. Two more recordings were released posthumously: the 2 Halfs for the Price of One EP in 1981, and some early sessions compiled on Invisible Hits in 1983. The first EP was re-released in 1984 as Wading Through a Ventilator.

Windsor and Metcalfe began to collaborate with Hitchcock again in 1984 as the Egyptians, while Seligman became an in-demand session musician and Rew went on to form Katrina & the Waves. Hitchcock has had a prolific post-Soft Boys recording career, sticking to the unusual style he's forged and finessed since 1976, with 15 albums to his credit. ~ Denise Sullivan, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: The Soft Boys
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia

The Soft Boys were an influential neo-psychedelia and post-punk band from Cambridge, England often associated with the early punk rock movement. The band formed in 1976 as Dennis and the Experts and featured Robyn Hitchcock (main songwriter and singer), who later went on to a distinguished solo career, and later Kimberley Rew (lead guitarist), who went on to be part of Katrina and the Waves.

Original members were Robyn Hitchcock (guitar), Rob Lamb - half brother of Charlie Gillett - (guitar), Andy Metcalfe (bass), and Morris Windsor (drums). Alan Davies replaced Lamb after only four gigs late in 1976, and Rew replaced Davies in just before Christmas 1977, and Matthew Seligman replaced Metcalfe in 1979. The band broke up in 1980 after Underwater Moonlight. They briefly re-formed for a UK tour in 1994 and then again in 2001 for the 20th anniversary of Underwater Moonlight and the release of a new album, Nextdoorland (in 2002). They disbanded once again in 2003.

Contents

Discography

Albums and EPs

  • A Can of Bees (1979)
  • Underwater Moonlight (1980)
  • Invisible Hits (1983)
  • Live at the Portland Arms (cassette, 1983; LP, 1988)
  • Where Are The Prawns (cassette, 1994)
  • Nextdoorland (2002)
  • Side Three (CD EP) (2002)

Compilations

  • Two Halves for the Price of One (1981) (Studio rarities and live tracks)
  • Wading Through a Ventilator (EP) (1984) (Contains Give It To The Soft Boys EP, plus extra tracks)
  • Raw Cuts (EP) (1989) (A retitled version of Wading Through a Ventilator)
  • 1976-81 (2 CD) (1993) (Best-of, plus rarities, out-takes and live tracks)
  • Underwater Moonlight... And How It Got There (2 CD) (2001) (Contains all of Underwater Moonlight, plus an additional disc of demos, rehearsals, and out-takes)

45 RPM Singles & 7" EPs

  • Give It To The Soft Boys 7" EP: "Wading Through A Ventilator" b/w "The Face Of Death" and "Hear My Brane" (1977)
  • "(I Want to Be an) Anglepoise Lamp" b/w "Fatman's Son" (1978)
  • Near the Soft Boys 7" EP: "Kingdom of Love" b/w "Vegetable Man" & "Strange" (1980)
  • "I Wanna Destroy You" b/w "Old Pervert" (1980)
  • "Only the Stones Remain" b/w "The Asking Tree" (1981)
  • "Love Poisoning" (1982)
  • "He's a Reptile" b/w "Song No. 4" (1983)
  • "The Face of Death" b/w "The Yodelling Hoover" (1989)

An album financed by Radar Records was recorded at Rockfield Studios in 1978, at the same time Rush was recording Hemispheres there. The resultant album was never released although one or two of the tracks have had subsequent release as part of compilations.

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Soft Boys".  Read more

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