The five piece consisting of Fred (guitar/vocals), Jelb (guitar), John (bass), Kevin (drums) and Tim (guitar), were a loud and energetic live presence with an unusual 3 guitar line-up that made them stand out from the contemporary shoegazing scene. The debut single, Tom Verlaine, in 1989, was popular amongst the indie crowd and just scraped into John Peel’s festive fifty (at number 48). Following this success, the band rushed out their first album, Tell ‘em We’re Surfin’, on Bad Girl records. An album of 8 solid tracks that were well produced, the album built up a small but dedicated following for the band. The Cats signed onto Dedicated records prior to the release of their second album in 1992, the altogether more professional sounding Furthest From The Sun. Featuring vocals from PJ Harvey on two tracks (Colour Me Grey and River of Diamonds), and favourites from their live set such as Steamroller and Prog One, the album stands out today as their strongest. A third album, Magic Happens, was more polished and was a clear attempt to catapult the band into the charts. Yielding 4 singles - the best of which was the first, Withnail & I inspired, Airplane Gardens - it unfortunately was not the big break they deserved. Without achieving the chart success they craved, the band later split with no reasons given, but the songs’ Remember what it is you love’, ‘Tom Verlaine’ and ‘Steamroller’ will live long in the memory for being uplifting, rousing tunes in the era that shoegazing was cool. Paul Frederick (Fred) went on to form the bands Pure Grain, and in 2004, Jack Adaptor |
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