(c’88-date) James Johnston (vocals/guitar/keyboards), Mike Delanian (bass) and Nick Combe (drums).
Formed in ’88 by ex-COW members Johnston and Delanian they self-released a single in November that year. The double A-sided Snakepit [GAL 003] with Please Give Me Something on the flipside, co-written by Guildfordian forming members Johnston and Delanian, was only distributed at gigs, the band pressing 400 copies.
By ’90 Combe was recruited and Snakepit had led to signing to Clawfist. They covered The Silver Apples Ruby for their next single in late ’90 with Joe Byfield on maracas. Three singles followed in ’91, with Some Fool’s Mess named ‘Single of the Week’ by the NME and a review in Big Muff called it a ‘piece of genius’. The single was also 13th in John Peel’s Festive Fifty that year. The band recorded one Peel Session on 14 July ’91 which was broadcast on 1 September ’91 and repeated on 17 November and 21 December as part on Peel’s pick of the year programmes, calling their cover of Dick Dale’s Miserlou, “just stupefying” and “surfing for the suicidal.” On 29 October ’91, the band were supporting Lush, with Passing Clouds, at Portsmouth’s Pyramids Centre.
Combe was replaced by Max Décharné before their debut album release, You, the Night…and the Music in ’92. Their second album The Heart of Town was nominated for the Mercury Prize and saw the band sign to Sire Records and tour the U.S with Morrissey. The subsequent UK tour saw Terry Edwards (sax/keyboards) join the live band.
The next tour, of Europe and the US, this time as headliner and supporting PJ Harvey saw Décharné leave. He was replaced by Ian White in ’93. The band played the Phoenix Stage at the Pheonix Festival on 15 July ’95 coming onto the Stratford-Upon-Avon festival’s stage ahead of Faith No More, Public Enemy, Terrorvision, Paradise Lost, Body Count, Ice-T, and EMF, but not bottom of the bill which was reserved for Shootyz, Groove, and Pitchshifter. On 29 October ’96, Gallon Drunk headlined at Dingwalls, Camden. It was on their new label that The Long Still Night LP was released in ’96 and the single To Love Somebody in March ’97. This was the band’s last release before dissolving.
They returned in 2000, but Delanian had been replaced by Jeremy Cottingham.
Founder, frontman and sole consistent member Johnston has also played in Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, who he joined for a Lollapalooza tour in ’94 before becoming a full-timer from 2003—2008, and was also member of Faust from 2006 to 2012.
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