Supermarionation are a three-piece alternative rock band formed in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
in January 2008 by David Curry, Samuel Stevenson and Steven Tonge. Following their live début in Edinburgh in July 2009, their first release, ''On the Fly'', arrived in December 2010 on their own Six Take No Records
imprint with a second EP, ''Amongst the Northern Lochs'', following in October 2011.
History
The band were formed when Steven and David, acquaintances from their university days, met up in January 2008 at a
James Yorkston
James Yorkston (born James Patrick Yorkston Wright; 21 December 1971) is a Scottish folk musician, singer-songwriter and author from the village of Kingsbarns, Fife. He has been releasing music since 2001. As well as recording as a solo artist ...
gig in Edinburgh with a mutual friend and, feeling they could do better than one of the support acts, decided to form a band with David on drums and Steven on guitar and vocals.
Steven then recruited Samuel, with whom he'd studied for a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
, as a bass player and rehearsals began in March 2008. Initially covering songs by artists such as
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...
,
Ben Kweller
Benjamin Lev Kweller (born June 16, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.
A former member of Radish, Kweller has released six solo albums and appeared on several collaborations.
Early life
Ben Kweller was born in S ...
and
Matthew Sweet
Sidney Matthew Sweet (born October 6, 1964) is an American alternative rock/power pop singer-songwriter and musician who was part of the burgeoning music scene in Athens, Georgia, during the 1980s before gaining commercial success in the 1990 ...
, the band played their first gigs over the summer of 2009 and quickly realised they needed to develop some original material.
Song writing duties were taken up by Steven and new material started emerging over the winter of 2009–2010 to critical acclaim.
The band then played further shows around
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
and
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 ...
through the spring and summer of 2010 including appearances during the
Edinburgh Festival
__NOTOC__
This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...
. Following this string of well received gigs, the band began working on their first release. The result, a 5-track
EP entitled ''On the Fly'', was recorded in Edinburgh at Windmill Sound Recording Studios. ''On the Fly'' was released on 6 December 2010 to a small but warm
reception and over the succeeding months, it began to gain notice amongst the Scottish indie scene.
Following the release, the band played further shows to promote ''On the Fly'' including an appearance at The
Grassmarket
The Grassmarket is a historic market square, market place, street and event space in the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. In relation to the rest of the city it lies in a hollow, well below surrounding ground levels.
Locati ...
Festival in April 2011.
The group also began to broaden their sound by adapting some of their songs to stripped back acoustic arrangements, playing several acoustic gigs and sessions for
Leith FM. The group's song ''Those Home Girls'' was featured as the lead track on
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
student radio
Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...
station
Fresh Air's charity album ''The Inside Track, Vol. 2''
for Waverley Care
released on 2 July 2011. Tracks from the band's radio sessions were to be released as a live
EP on Six Take No Records in October 2011 but fell foul of the conditions of
Leith FM's radio license from
Ofcom
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom.
Ofcom has wide-rang ...
and so replacement tracks was rapidly recorded in the band's own studio to fill the already booked launch schedule and ''Amongst the Northern Lochs'' was released as a free download on 3 October 2011. Tracks from this EP, ''The Ballad of Little Beef Cramps'' and ''The Paris Express'', were featured on ''Kowalskiy's Free Monthly 5-track Scottish EP No. 16''
and the ''Scottish Fiction October EP''
respectively through October 2011.
Critical response
Although the band have gained a largely positive response
for ''On the Fly'', some critics expressed reservations over both the band's sound and material.
Discography
Extended plays
* ''On the Fly'' (CD and digital download, 6 December 2010, STNR001)
* ''Amongst the Northern Lochs'' (Free download, 3 October 2011, STND002)
Compilations
* ''The Inside Track, Vol. 2'' (Digital download, 22 July 2011) Charity album for Waverley Care featuring ''Those Home Girls''
* ''Kowalskiy's Free Monthly 5-track Scottish EP No. 16'' (Digital download, 16 October 2011) Free EP of unsigned Scottish music featuring ''The Ballad of Little Beef Cramps''
* ''Scottish Fiction October EP'' (Digital download, 31 October 2011) Free EP of Scottish music featuring ''The Paris Express''
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Scottish indie rock groups
Scottish alternative rock groups