The Lovelies

(c’89-’97) Andrew “Bug” Gregory (bass), Simon Gray (drums), and Tobin Thomson (vocals/guitar)

In July ’90 a three-piece band from Ramsdean, near Petersfield, self-released on their own Ephemeral Records “Potatoes for Pleasure”, a limited edition of 200 cassette EP demos, carrying four tracks: “Money Grabbing Fools”, “I Don’t Want to Be”, “Stop Being Silly”, and “Friends”; and so, we discovered The Lovelies. This was followed by the “Happy Wednesday” cassette EP in April ’91. Also limited, this time to 300 with the first 50 signed, in carried another four indie pop tracks: “Happy Wednesday”, “Trippy Hippy”, “Tell Me If I’m Going Too Slow”, and “Don’t Listen”.

Spanish indie label, Elefant Records, picked up on the band in ’92 compiling The Lovelies demo tapes onto the “Growing Up in a Small Town” [ER-011] cassette LP. Although, this did skip the whole of “Potatoes for Pleasure” and the closing track from “Happy Wednesday”; this compilation did include “Stupid Habit”, “Forever”, “November” and “Them and Us” from other sessions recorded at Watershed Studios, Portsmouth. The band rarely appeared live and remained relatively unknown in the UK, although they did headline The George, Ash Vale on 9 September ’92.

The afore mentioned tracks from sessions recorded at Watershed would later appear on the 300 copies of “Grown Up and Gone – The Shed Sessions” along with “Bright New Day”. Victoria Park”, “The Right People are Hard to Find”, and “Bow Down”; which was released in January ’94. By this point Thomson was the only original member; Ben Lower was on bass, Matt Williams on drums, and Chris Thiessen provided violin/viola. The band had also moved south to Portsmouth.

In ’93, Elefant Records put out the 7″ vinyl EP “Nothing La-Di-Da” [ER-104]. All the tracks: “Bright New Day”, “Spanish Girl on T.V.”, “Forever”, and “Bow Down” were all recorded at Watershed and engineered by James Perrett, as had all the previous sessions. It sold out, becoming, according to Elefant, an underground hit. The band were back at Watershed again, with Perrett, in ’94 to record the “Somer Runner” EP. Geoff Smith had replaced Lower on Bass within the band; co-writing the “Troublehead” track which was included on the EP that they licensed to German label Meller Welle Produckte [MEL08], which also featured “Floor 17”, “Tack Magnet”, along with the title track.

The following year the band released their first single: “Love-Lack” on Seattle based Cher Doll Records [CHER 08] in the United States. They recorded and mixed the title track and the b-side’s “Troublehead (pt.two)” and “The Tuff of the Tracks” at Watershed again. A video was shot by C.J. Howes and directed by Robin Skinner, for the release, and this was released in ’97 on VHS.

In ’97, two years after “The Tuff of the Tracks” was on the b-side of “Love-Lack” it became the title track for The Lovelies CD album on Elefant Records [ER 1026]. In addition to all three tracks from “Love-Lack” the band included 11 new tracks. The video for “Weekenderman” appeared on the “20 Framed Beats” film which accompanied the release of Tony Rollinson’s book “Twenty Missed Beats” also issued in ’97. Elefant’s work to promote the band secured them a live session on the Spanish National Radio show “Viaje a Los Suenos Polares”. The four tracks played in Madrid were recorded and released as a promo cassette in ’98, titled “Live Radio Session .016”. At some point the band signed to UK based R2 Management.

A DIY CD-R release followed in early ’99 called “Sampler”. This was chased, that same year, by a CD EP titled “Haircut EP” on Tuff Track Records [TT109]. This was again recorded and mixed at Watershed but engineered by Drew Hamilton. The next year “Country Turn” a CD single was issued, again on Tuff Tracks [TT112]; which was followed by the CD single “Bottles and Stones” in 2001.

Over the years The Lovelies music has appeared on over 30 compilations. Thomson reportedly could occasionally be seen presenting on TV. He would appear again under the name Tobin Prinz in Reading / Portsmouth based pock punk duo Prinzhorn Dance School.

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