Revolver were a

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

-based

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

band in existence from 1990 until 1994, comprising

Mat Flint Mat Flint is an English musician, who has been a member of several bands including Revolver (1990–1994), Hot Rod (1993), Death in Vegas (1996–2005), and Deep Cut (2006–present). Biography Flint hails from Coventry, grew up near Peterborou ...

(guitar/vocals), Hamish Brown (bass) and Nick Dewey (drums).Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 942 Flint and Dewey had been in school bands together, and when the two moved to London in the autumn of 1990 met Brown who completed the line-up. The band, after attracting attention from several record labels, including

Dedicated Records Dedicated was a British independent record label that released music between 1990 and 1998 by Spiritualized, Spacemen 3, Global Communication, Beth Orton (in the U.S.), Chapterhouse, Cranes and others. It was based in London and founded by D ...

One Little Indian One Little Independent Records (formerly One Little Indian Records) is an English independent record label. It was set up in 1985 by members of various anarcho-punk bands, and managed by former Flux of Pink Indians bassist Derek Birkett. In ...

, and

Creation Records Creation Records Ltd. was a British independent record label founded in 1983 by Alan McGee, Dick Green, and Joe Foster. Its name came from the 1960s band The Creation, whom McGee greatly admired. The label ceased operations in 1999, although ...

, signed to the

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldw ...

subsidiary

Hut Records VC Recordings trading as Hut Records was a British record label brand which was started in 1990 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Virgin Records. Despite being wholly owned by a major label, it was classed as an independent label for the purposes ...

in the summer of 1991. The band quickly picked up a following, supporting the likes of

Chapterhouse A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole commun ...

Slowdive Slowdive is a British rock band that formed in Reading, Berkshire, in 1989. The band consists of Rachel Goswell on vocals and guitar, Neil Halstead on vocals and guitar, Christian Savill on guitar, Nick Chaplin on bass and Simon Scott on d ...

Teenage Fanclub Teenage Fanclub are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in Bellshill near Glasgow in 1989. The group were founded by Norman Blake (vocals, guitar), Raymond McGinley (vocals, lead guitar) and Gerard Love (vocals, bass), all of whom shared ...

and

Blur Blur may refer to: Optics and images * Bokeh, the aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus parts of an image * Box blur, a graphic-art effect * Defocus aberration, blurring of an image due to incorrect focus * Gaussian blur, a graphic-art effect ...

, and gained a lot of press coverage, most notably in ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'', ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'' and ''The Face''. Their first single, "Heaven Sent An Angel" topped the UK independent charts, as did the follow-up "Crimson", and the third single "Venice". The band specialised in bright, abrasive guitar-pop songs with strong melodies, and were determined (but ultimately failed) to distinguish themselves from the other guitar bands of the era. The UK press lumped them in with the

shoegazing Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with " dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming vol ...

movement, a tag with which the band was not comfortable. A compilation of these first 3 singles was released in the States as "Baby's Angry" on

Caroline Records Caroline Records is a record label originally founded in 1973. Initially founded in the United Kingdom to showcase British progressive rock groups, the label ceased releasing titles in 1976, and then re-emerged in the United States in 1986. ...

, and gained the band airplay on US college radio. The band toured America in the autumn of 1992, on a co-headlining tour with fellow Caroline Records act

Drop Nineteens Drop Nineteens is an American, Boston-based shoegaze band active from 1991 to 1995. They were one of the few U.S.-based bands who styled themselves on England's distinctive shoegaze sound, taking their inspiration from bands such as My Bloody V ...

. In 1993, Revolver released the single "Cradle Snatch", closely followed by the album ''Cold Water Flat''. Although the songs were more sophisticated than their earlier work, the previous sales failed to repeat; Virgin dropped the band after a final single "I Wear Your Chain" failed to make the top 75. The band recorded an album's worth of demos, but failing to sign a deal with another label split up at the beginning of 1994. Mat Flint went on to play bass guitar for

Death In Vegas Death in Vegas are an English electronic music group, for which Richard Fearless serves as frontman. The band was formed in 1994 by Fearless and Steve Hellier and signed to Concrete Records under the name of Dead Elvis. Owing to an Irish record ...

from 1996 onwards, and has released a single "Commodity" with his new band Deep Cut in May 2007, on Club AC30 Records. Nick Dewey played drums for

James Dean Bradfield James Dean Bradfield (born 21 February 1969) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. He is known for being the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. Biography Early life B ...

of the

Manic Street Preachers Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Welsh rock band formed in Blackwood in 1986. The band consists of cousins James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, lead guitar) and Sean Moore (drums, percussion, soundscapes), plus Nic ...

during his solo tour of 2006.

Discography

Albums

*''Baby's Angry'' (1992),

Hut A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hid ...

— Compilation album featuring tracks from the band's first three EPs. *''Cold Water Flat'' (1993), Hut

Singles, EPs

*''45'' EP (1991), Hut *"Crimson" (1991), Hut *"Venice" (1992), Hut *"Cradle Snatch" (1993), Hut *"I Wear Your Chain" (1993), Hut

Music Videos

*"Heaven Sent An Angel" (1991) *"Crimson" (1991) *"Venice" (1992) *"Cradle Snatch" (1993)

References

External links

Revolver MySpace

Deep Cut MySpace

Death In Vegas MySpace
{{Authority control British shoegaze musical groups Musical groups established in 1990 Musical groups disestablished in 1994 1990 establishments in England Musical groups from London 1994 disestablishments in England