Echobelly

With their silky melodies and romantic indie rock, Echobelly were one of Brit pop's more elegant and soulful acts. In stark contrast to the gangs of boozy, 1990s, lad-rockers, the band were led by front girl Sonya Madan, with her shy nature and Indian background, and thrashed out literate, sassy, guitar pop influenced by the likes of The Smiths, R.E.M. and Blondie. Formed in London in 1992, their well-received debut album Everyone's Got One (1994) reached Number 8 in the UK and won admiring acclaim from Morrissey, Madonna and Michael Stip - and they were talked about in the same breath as contemporaries Blur, Sleeper and Pulp. Singles Great Things, King Of The Kerb and Dark Therapy became part of the Brit pop landscape as the band went on to perform at the Glastonbury and Reading festivals; and second album On (1995) shot to Number 4 in the charts. As the decade came to end the bubble burst and the scene imploded, and Echobelly turned to a more experimental sound on Lustra (1997), while Madan suffered health problems and legal issues. They self-released later albums People Are Expensive (2001) and Gravity Pulls (2004) to little reaction, before Madan and guitarist Jono Buchanan reformed as duo Calm of Zero.

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