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Sad Lovers and Giants

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Labels
  
Midnight Music

Genres
  
Post-punk, Gothic rock

Sad Lovers & Giants SAD LOVERS AND GIANTS interview 2013 PeekABoo Magazine

Years active
  
1980–1983, 1986–1991, 2002–2003, 2009–present

Associated acts
  
The Snake Corps, Above & Beyond, Lovebabies

Past members
  
Tristan Garel-FunkDavid WoodCliff SilverJuliet Sainsbury

Origin
  
Rickmansworth, United Kingdom (1980)

Members
  
Tony McGuinness, Garce Allard, Steve Carter

Albums
  
Epic Garden Music, Feeding the Flame, E‑Mail From Eternity: T, Treehouse Poetry, In the Breeze

Profiles

Sad lovers and giants things we never did


Sad Lovers & Giants are a rock band from Watford, England which formed in 1980. Their sound blends post-punk, atmospheric keyboards and psychedelia.

Contents

Sad Lovers & Giants slicing up eyeballs 80s alternative music college rock indie

History

Sad Lovers & Giants Sad Lovers and Giants39s Best Songs This Is My Jam

The original lineup included vocalist Garçe (Simon) Allard, guitarist Tristan Garel-Funk, bassist Cliff Silver, drummer Nigel Pollard and keyboardist/saxophonist David Wood.

Sad Lovers & Giants Sad Lovers Biography

Following their debut EP Clé and the "Colourless Dream" single, both issued in 1981, they released two studio albums, Epic Garden Music (1982) and Feeding the Flame (1983), before splitting in 1983.

Sad Lovers & Giants httpsiytimgcomvib7faYObi57shqdefaultjpg

During this initial period they recorded a John Peel Session for the BBC, and a live concert for the Dutch Radio Hilversum station in 1983, which was subsequently released as the album Total Sound in 1986. Live performances included headline dates at UK colleges and clubs with occasional trips to Europe, although they did support the Sound at a major London venue on the day Epic Garden Music entered the UK Indie Chart.

Sad Lovers & Giants Sad Lovers And Giants Tour Dates Concerts amp Tickets Songkick

European interest in the band began to grow, and with the release of Feeding the Flame, they toured Germany and the Netherlands, gaining a dedicated fanbase. Tensions within the band caused a split, with Garel-Funk and Pollard leaving to form the Snake Corps.

Sad Lovers & Giants Sad Lovers amp Giants Seven Kinds Of Sin Audio YouTube

During a hiatus, their label Midnight Music released the In the Breeze collection in 1984, which included one of their previously unreleased signature tunes, "Three Lines".

SLAG returned in 1987 with an updated lineup including original members Allard and Pollard along with newcomers Tony McGuinness (guitar), Juliet Sainsbury (keyboards) and Ian Gibson (bass), releasing a new album that year, The Mirror Test.

As interest abroad grew, the band performed extensively in the Netherlands, Spain and France, and headlined at the old Marquee club in London's Soho. Original bassist Silver returned, replacing Gibson, and they released a fourth studio album, Headland, in 1990.

After the 1991 release of Treehouse Poetry, Midnight Music went bust and the band split once again, coming together occasionally for gigs supporting And Also the Trees at the Marquee Club and London's Electric Ballroom.

E-mail from Eternity, a best-of compilation, was released by the record label Cherry Red in 1996 after the company picked up the Midnight catalogue.

In 2000, McGuinness formed progressive trance trio Above & Beyond with Jono Grant and Paavo Siljamäki, also initiating his electronic dance music labels Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep.

In 2002, Sad Lovers & Giants released their sixth album, Melting in the Fullness of Time on Voight-Kampff Records, recorded predominantly by Allard and McGuinness with studio contributions from Sainsbury, Snake Corps bassist Liam McGuinness, drummer Kevin Mathews, and two members of Lovebabies, vocalist Jenny Clark and guitarist Bob Bradley. They played two dates in Italy a year later.

Another reformed lineup (Allard, McGuinness, Pollard, Gibson) played in Italy and Greece in April 2009, coinciding with Cherry Red's rereleases of Feeding the Flame and Epic Garden Music. Current keyboardist Will Hicks joined later in 2009.

During 2010, the band played a handful of successful live dates in Athens and Barcelona (supported by the Snake Corps and the Essence, both previous Midnight bands), reissued The Mirror Test, and recorded a new 7" double A-side single, "Himalaya"/"Happiness Is Fragile". They played at the Purple Turtle in Camden in December 2011, which was their first London gig since the early 1990s. In 2012, they played gigs in Berlin and Salerno and began writing and recording new material for a future album.

An extensive interview feature on SLAG appeared in the autumn 2013 and spring 2014 issues of music magazine The Big Takeover.

In 2014, frontman Allard published an autobiography of the band, Things We Never Did – The Story of Sad Lovers & Giants.

In March 2016, Sad Lovers & Giants embarked on a short tour of North America, performing mainly on the West Coast. They made their U.S. live debut at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

Albums

  • Epic Garden Music (1982, Midnight Music) UK Indie No. 21
  • Feeding the Flame (1983, Midnight Music)
  • The Mirror Test (1987, Midnight Music)
  • Headland (1990, Midnight Music)
  • Treehouse Poetry (1991, Midnight Music)
  • Melting in the Fullness of Time (2002, Voight-Kampff Records)
  • Singles and EPs

  • Clé 7" EP (1981, Last Movement)
  • Colourless Dream 7" single (1982, Last Movement)
  • Lost in a Moment 7" single (1982, Midnight Music) - UK Indie No. 48
  • Man of Straw 7"/12" single (1983, Midnight Music) - UK Indie No. 31
  • Seven Kinds of Sin 12" single (1987, Midnight Music)
  • White Russians 12" single (1987, Midnight Music)
  • Cow Boys" 12 EP (1988, Midnight Music)
  • Sleep / A Reflected Dream split 7" single with The Essence (1988, Midnight Music)
  • Clocks Go Backwards 12" EP (1990, Midnight Music)
  • Himalaya / Happiness Is Fragile 7" single (2010, Voight-Kampff Records)
  • Copacetic - The Part Time Punks Session 12" EP (2016, Voight-Kampff Records)
  • Live albums

  • Total Sound (1986, Midnight Music)
  • La Dolce Vita (Live in Lausanne) (1999, Voight-Kampff Records)
  • Compilation albums

  • In the Breeze (1984, Midnight Music)
  • Les Années Vertes (1988, Midnight Music)
  • E-Mail From Eternity - The Best of Sad Lovers and Giants (1996, Anagram Records/Cherry Red Records)
  • Headland & Treehouse Poetry (2001, Voight-Kampff Records)
  • Lost in a Sea Full of Sighs (2016, Dark Entries Records)
  • Songs

    Things We Never DidEpic Garden Music · 1982
    Colourless DreamEpic Garden Music · 1982
    Your Skin and MineFeeding the Flame · 1983

    References

    Sad Lovers & Giants Wikipedia


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