- Sleeper (band)
infobox musical artist
Name = Sleeper
Background = group_or_band
Origin =United Kingdom
Genre =Indie rock ,Britpop
Years_active = 1993 - 1998
Past_members =Louise Wener Jon Stewart Diid Osman Andy MaclureSleeper were a British
Britpop band in the 1990s fronted byLouise Wener . The band had eight UK Top 40 hit singles and three UK Top 10 hit albums. They were also featured in the soundtrack ofTrainspotting .Career
Jon Stewart met
Louise Wener atManchester University in 1987 in a political philosophy class. They played in a number of bands at university, then after graduating they moved to London and advertised for new band members in theMelody Maker ("Bass player and drummer wanted. Influences The Pixies and The Partridge Family.") which is how they met Deed Osman and Andy Maclure.At one point the band called themselves
Surrender Dorothy , after the smoke trail in the sky from the "Wizard of Oz" movie, but they had to ditch this idea after discovering that several other bands had done the same thing. They subsequently chose the name Sleeper after theWoody Allen movie, and because it has a number of different meanings (a spy, an unexpected hit, etc).After moving to Camden and receiving interest from record labels, Sleeper signed to BMG/RCA offshoot Indolent Records in 1993 and released three EPs and singles before their breakthrough release, "Inbetweener".
Certain parts of the promo
video for "Inbetweener" parodied the grocery store-setITV game show Supermarket Sweep and featured the programme's presenterDale Winton .Prior to the release of "Inbetweener" Sleeper had been the opening band for
Blur on their well received tour to promote theParklife album, and they became closely associated with Britpop as a result.Sleeper recorded three studio
albums for Indolent and BMG/RCA: "Smart", "The It Girl" and "Pleased to Meet You"."Smart" was one of the first Britpop albums to hit the charts and won the band a
BPI gold disc for sales of over 100,000 copies. It was followed by the platinum-selling release "The It Girl" which was arguably the band's finest moment and included "What Do I Do Now? ", "Lie Detector", "Sale of the Century" and "Statuesque" as the defining tracks.Sleeper recorded a cover of the Blondie song "Atomic", which was used as in the film "Trainspotting", after Blondie refused to allow the use of the original version. Their track "Statuesque" also features in the movie during one of the bar scenes.
"The It Girl", like the band's subsequent release "Pleased To Meet You", was produced by
Stephen Street who was then famous for his contributions toThe Smiths ,Morrissey and Blur, and is since renowned for his work withKaiser Chiefs and others.Louise Wener was arguably, along with
Elastica 'sJustine Frischmann , Britpop's biggest female star. She was even something of asex symbol , placing highly inMelody Maker 's andNME 's "Sexiest Woman" polls several years running.Wener enjoyed significant media coverage, including an
NME front cover and a slot as guest presenter ofTop Of The Pops . Arguably one of Britpop's stronger lyricists and melody writers, her song "What Do I Do Now? " was covered in a low key version byElvis Costello in 1997.After the band split in 1998 following the demise of Britpop, Wener went on to have a career as a
novelist . She released her fourth book forHodder & Stoughton in 2008. Wener also features prominently as an interviewee in John Dower's definitive feature film documentary on Britpop, "Live Forever" (2003).A
greatest hits compilation, with tracklisting and artwork by the band themselves, was released onSony/BMG in 2007."Sleeperbloke"
The band was the inspiration for the phrase "Sleeperbloke", referring to the disparity between the glamorous singer Wener and the other frequently ignored members of the band (who tended to be far more anonymous and stood at the back).
This pejorative term was used by
music press journalists andmusicians , to refer to any person of limited standing within a band or an especially drab and unremarkable individual.The "Sleeperblokes" themselves were reported to be highly amused by the phrase, and even produced an ironic "Sleeperbloke"
T-shirt to go with Louise's "Just Another Girl Fronted Band"T-shirt , both of which sold well.The
real-life Sleeperblokes were:* Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stewart,
12 September 1966 inSheffield ) — (guitarist )
* Diid Osman (b. Kenadiid Osman,10 April 1968 inWoking ) — (bassist )
* Andy Maclure (b.4 July 1970 inLiverpool ) — (drummer )After Sleeper split Jon Stewart moved to Los Angeles where he played with West Coast band UFO Bro and contributed as a session guitarist to
k d lang 's album "Invincible Summer " (2000) andMel C 's album "Reason". Jon now lectures in music business and music history at theBrighton Institute of Modern Music (where he taught members ofThe Kooks ,The Ordinary Boys , and Kate Walsh) and is a columnist forGuitarist magazine .Discography
Albums
Singles
References
*
Guinness Book of British Hit Singles - 16th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-190-X
* Guinness Book of British Hit Albums - 7th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-619-7External links
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:1adnvwmva9lk Sleeper biography] at
Allmusic
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