Hipsway are a Scottish pop/ new wave band.

History and description

The band was formed in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in 1984 by ex-

Altered Images Altered Images is a Scottish New wave music, new wave/post-punk band who found success in the early 1980s. Fronted by singer Clare Grogan, the group branched into mainstream pop music, having six UK top-40 hit singles and three top-30 albums ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

Johnny McElhone on

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, and featuring Grahame Skinner (

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

), Pim Jones (

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

) and Harry Travers (

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s). Skinner and Travers had been members of the band Kites with Paul McGrath and Ian McGreevy before Hipsway formed. Their music was characterized by Skinner's deep

and Jones' rhythmic guitar style. They were quickly signed up by

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

and by 1985 had released their first, eponymously titled album. The album was a moderate success on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

; while the single " The Honeythief", made number 17 on the UK Singles Chart, and also reached the top 20 on the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

. Another song from the album, "Tinder", became well known in Scotland as the soundtrack to a McEwan's Lager commercial. However the band failed to build on its success; McElhone founded

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and by the time the second album ''Scratch the Surface'' was recorded, Travers had also left (to be replaced by Stephen Ferrera). Released in 1989, the album was not as critically or commercially successful as its predecessor, and the band split up shortly afterwards. Skinner and Jones subsequently went on to found the band Witness, releasing the album ''House Called Love'' (A&M), before Skinner joined former members of Glasgow peers Love and Money in the band, Cowboy Mouth. Pim Jones later formed Big Yoga Muffin with Ange Dolittle, formerly of Eat, releasing one album, ''Wherever You Go, There You Are'' (2000, The Echo Label). In 2011, Grahame Skinner formed the band Skinner with Douglas MacIntyre (Love & Money, Cowboy Mouth and Sugartown), Gordon Wilson (Love & Money and Cowboy Mouth) and Andy Alston (

Del Amitri Del Amitri is a Scottish alternative rock band formed in Glasgow in 1980. They are best known for their 1990 single "Nothing Ever Happens" which reached No. 11 in the UK, and their 1995 hit "Roll to Me", which charted in the top 10 in both Can ...

). In November 2016, Hipsway reformed, playing at Summerhall, Edinburgh then two dates at Glasgow O2 ABC, in support of the 30th anniversary deluxe reissue of their first album. As a result of the positive reception to the re-issue and the 2016 shows, the band played a limited number of gigs in 2017 and 2018, including sell-out shows at the reopened Glasgow Kelvingrove Bandstand and the Barrowland Ballroom. Hipsway's first album for almost 30 years, ''Smoke & Dreams'', was released in late 2018. Post-reformation touring/recording band members have included Jim McDermott (drums), Gary Houston (bass), Stevie Christie (keyboards), Andy May (keyboards), Andy Gillespie (keyboards), David Robertson (percussion) and Louise Murphy (vocals).

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1984 Musical groups disestablished in 1989 Musical groups reestablished in 2016 Musical groups from Glasgow Scottish new wave musical groups Scottish pop music groups