Origin Bristol, England Years active 1980–1983 | Genres Post-punk, funk | |
Labels Fried Egg
Bristol Recorder
Recreational
Stiff
Naive
Bristol Archive Website Electric Guitars at Bristol Archive Records Past members Neil Davenport
Richard Hall
Andy Saunders
Matt Salt
Dick Truscott
Sara & Wendy Partridge | ||
Electric Guitars were an English band formed early in 1980 by Neil Davenport (vocals, lyrics) and Richard Hall (bass, vocals) who were both studying English at Bristol University. The band soon increased to a five-man line-up, with Andy Saunders (guitar, vocals), Matt Salt (drums) and Dick Truscott (keyboards), they also later added two backing singers: Sara and Wendy Patridge. Their first single "Health" / "Continental Shelf" was released on local label Fried Egg Records in 1980.
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They contributed four live tracks to the first edition of the The Bristol Recorder in 1980, and in 1981 released their second single "Work" / "Don’t Wake the Baby" on Recreational Records, which reached No. 45 on the UK Indie Chart. They toured as support to The Thompson Twins, which brought them to the attention of Stiff Records, who promptly signed them up. The band's first single for Stiff was "Language Problems" in 1982, and this was followed by an EP in the same year, from which Toni Basil recorded "Beat Me Hollow" for her TV special. Bert Muirhead in his 1982 book about Stiff Records, said about the band, “The combination of Stiff, Martin Rushent and Worldchief Management (OMITD etc) seems unstoppable. They will undoubtedly be very big in the mid 1980’s.” However, after the "Wolfman Tap" single on Naive Records, they disbanded in August 1983.
Trivia
The band sang and performed in a Japanese advert for Royal Dutch Shell, called Shell, We Shall.
Sarah and Wendy Partridge went on to sing with Shriekback.