The Bathers (band)
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The Bathers are a Scottish chamber pop band.
Formed in Glasgow in 1985 after the band Friends Again split up, they are essentially the vehicle for singer-songwriter, Chris Thomson. They have released seven albums.
Thomson secured a deal with Go! Discs Records and released the debut album Unusual Places To Die in 1987. The album gained an enthusiastic reception, but label politics limited its success.[citation needed] Thomson went back to the drawing board and produced the follow-up Sweet Deceit. The album was released in 1990 by Island Records and was, again, critically acclaimed. A flirtation with two key members of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions followed in the form of the Bloomsday album Fortuny.
The Bathers then signed to the German label Marina Records and three albums were released – Lagoon Blues (1993), Sunpowder (1995) and Kelvingrove Baby (1997) – by a new band that now included string players and arrangers Mark Wilson and Iain White, keyboard player Carlo Scattini and percussionist Hazel Morrison. Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins recorded several tracks with the band on 1995's Sunpowder, and performed live with them in Glasgow.
Thomson enjoyed a good relationship with Marina, but felt that a label nearer home would be preferable. The Bathers' sixth album, Pandemonia appeared on Wrasse Records in 1999. The label also released Desire Regained in 2001, a compilation of twenty re-recordings of the band's best known work.
In 2005 The Scotsman put Sweet Deceit as one of their five lost Scottish classic albums.[1] In 2003, the same newspaper listed Kelvingrove Baby at number 42 in its 100 Best Scottish Albums.
The last known configuration of the group featured Thomson on lead vocal and guitar, Callum McNair on electric guitar, Hazel Morrison on drums and vocals, Iain White (violin, viola), Barry Overstreet (saxophone), Robert Henderson (trumpet), and Ken McHugh (bass). The band reformed to play two shows at Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow in January 2016.
Discography
Albums
- Unusual Places To Die (Go! Discs) 1987
- Sweet Deceit (Island Records) 1990
- Lagoon Blues (Marina Records) 1993
- Sunpowder (Marina Records) 1995
- Kelvingrove Baby (Marina Records) 1997
- Pandemonia (Wrasse Records) 1999
- Desire Regained (Wrasse Records) 2001
Singles
- "Fancy Dress" (Go! Discs) 1987
- "Tweeny-Two" (Wrasse Records) 1999
References
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