Years active 1995–present Record label Hitback Records | Labels hitBack | |
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Past members Martin TalbotDickon Edwards Albums A Week Away, A Leopard and Other Stories Similar Fosca, Kenickie, The Shop Assistants, The Field Mice, Late of the Pier | ||
Spearmint are a London-based indie pop band, founded in 1995. Their founding members were Shirley Lee (lead vocals, guitar), Simon Calnan (vocals, keyboards), Martin Talbot (bass), and Ronan Larvor (drums). Talbot left soon afterward, to be replaced by James Parsons. Parsons later became a second guitarist, with Andy Lewis joining on bass guitar. The group has received coverage in the NME, Time Out, Melody Maker and Uncut magazines.
Contents
History
Shirley Lee founded Spearmint in London in 1995. Lee played guitar and provided lead vocals, Simon Calnan played keyboard and provided backing vocals, Ronan Larvor played drums, and Martin Talbot played bass guitar. Forming their own label called hitBack, they released their earliest songs as vinyl white labels. When bass player Talbot left he was replaced with James Parsons, who would also design the band's album covers.
They released their first album, Songs for the Colour Yellow, in 1998. In 1999 they released their second, A Week Away, followed by the mini-album Oklahoma! In 2001 they released their fourth album, A Different Lifetime, which featuring Dickon Edwards as guest guitarist. Bass player Parsons soon replaced Edwards on guitar, and Andy Lewis was hired to play bass guitar. In 2003 they A Leopard and Other Stories. The next year the group toured Germany, performing acoustically, and The Boy and the Girl That Got Away, a limited-edition album of songs written specifically for the tour, was released. Their next release was Paris in a Bottle, and in 2014 the band released News from Nowhere.
The band were referenced in the film (500) Days of Summer wherein Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character states “It pains me we live in a world where nobody's heard of Spearmint.”
Albums
Songs
A Trip Into SpaceThe Trip: The Original Soundtrack From the Channel 4 Series · 1999
Start AgainA Week Away · 1999
Scottish PopA Different Lifetime · 2001