Birthday: The Sundays' Harriet Wheeler
Singer Harriet Wheeler is the main ingredient in the
sound of the British jangle-pop band the Sundays.
Her high, lilting voice floating over boyfriend David
Gavurin's guitars enabled the group to stand apart
from the hordes of alternative-rock bands first
making chart headway in the early '90s.
Wheeler was born 36 years ago today in
Maidenhead, England. Before forming the
Sundays, she sang with London band Jim Jiminee.
In 1988 she formed the Sundays with Gavurin,
whom she met at Bristol University and with whom
she had been romantically involved for several
years.
After writing a few songs together, the pair added
bassist Paul Brindley and drummer Patrick
Hannan. After a London club gig generated a lot of
word-of-mouth attention, the Sundays were the
subject of a bidding war among several record
labels, with Rough Trade ultimately signing the
band. For U.S. distribution, the group chose DGC
Records.
The Sundays enjoyed a UK hit with their first
single, 1989's "Can't Be Sure." A year later, their
critically lauded debut LP, Reading, Writing and
Arithmetic, was released. It became a top-five hit in
the UK. The album also was popular in the U.S.,
where "Here's Where the Story Ends" became a
modern-rock hit. With their 1990 world tour, the
Sundays reinforced the critical consensus that
they were headed for major commercial success.
But then Rough Trade went bankrupt and the
Sundays took a long time writing and recording a
follow-up. Still, Blind (1992) was a modern-rock hit
on both sides of the Atlantic, scoring with popular
singles such as "Love" and "Goodbye." It also
featured a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Wild
Horses," which was later used in a commercial.
After another global tour, the Sundays retreated
from the music scene -- Wheeler and Gavurin had
a daughter. Though some fans thought the band
might be through, the Sundays returned in 1997
with Static & Silence, featuring such cuts as
"Summertime" (RealAudio excerpt) and
"Homeward."
"I don't mean to say that we're not ambitious,"
Gavurin said. "We're happy with how many records
we've sold, and we'd like to reach more people --
but not at the cost of who we are. ... We'll never
put out something we didn't believe in just to have
something in the marketplace."
[ Sat., June 26, 1999 3:03 AM EDT ]
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