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I've found 2 very good bios on the net. The first
one is from AMG and the second from Yahoo. I happen to like the second one better,
just because it sounds like the guy was a fan.
Formed in 1990 in Hull, North Humberside, England
Disbanded in 1995
Genre - Rock
Styles - Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Pop
Teenage schoolmates in Hull, England, Loz Hardy (guitar/vocal) and Myles Howell (bass)
placed a want-ad for a drummer and met John Andrew. The rocking Brit-poppers began
playing and touring together, gradually picking up a following around Great Britain.
After signing a record deal, the band released Eat Yourself Whole, later landing
an American deal with Chrysalis. Sleepwalking, their sophomore album, was released
in 1993. The group called it quits after the 1995 release of Best Possible Taste,
their commercially disappointing third album.
~ John Bush, All-Music Guide
Indie rock band founded in Hull, North Humberside, England, by Loz Hardy (b. Lawrence
Paul Hardy, 14 September 1970, Manchester, Lancashire, England; vocals, guitar) with
Myles Howell (b. 23 January 1971, Rugby, Warwickshire, England; bass) and John Andrew
(b. John Ricardo Andrew, 27 May 1963, Hull, North Humberside, England; drums).
The group was formed by Hardy and Howell during their year off after school, eventually
recruiting the significantly older Andrew, an ex-travelling puppeteer, to complete
the unit. The band made their debut with The Celebrated Working Man EP, after which
they signed to Chrysalis Records for a second EP, Idiots At The Wheel. They were
immediately courted by the press, who invented a niche category for the group: New
Cool Rock. At one time tipped by many as a potential next big thing, Kingmaker rapidly
fell out of favour with the fashionable climate of their genre. Paul Heaton of local
stars the Beautiful Southwent so far as to accuse them of being middle-class pretenders,
living in castles on the outskirts of Hull. Nevertheless, Hardy's songwriting prowess
seems to have grown in inverse proportion to their stature. The songs on 1992's Sleepwalking,
primarily located in Hardy's bitter world view, far surpassed anything on the debut
album and the early singles that won them most attention. Tucked away on the b-side
to the BRIT Awards-baiting 'Armchair Anarchist', 'Everything's Changed Since You've
Been To London' and 'Kissing Under Anaesthetic' stood head and shoulders above many
of their peers. The band's lyrical austerity, much ridiculed by some critics, was
matched by strong musical craft (particularly Andrew's forceful, accomplished drumming)
and an emotive resonance not confined to the young audience the band seemed to attract.
In The Best Possible Taste emerged, in 1995, within one month of the death of disc
jockey Kenny Everett, who had popularized the phrase, adding an unconscious irony
to its use. Tracks such as 'One False Move' revealed a shift towards urban rockabilly.
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