Sad Lovers & Giants

Sad Lovers & Giants are a rock band from Watford, England who formed in 1981. Their sound blends post-punk, atmospheric keyboards and psychedelia and the band has been described as 'a pastoral Pink Floyd'.

The band's members have included Garçe (vocals), Tristan Garel-Funk (guitar), Tony McGuinness (now part of the trance trio Above & Beyond) (guitar), Cliff Silver (bass), Ian Gibson (bass), David Wood (keyboards and saxophone), Juliet Sainsbury (keyboards) and Nigel Pollard (drums & percussion).

The original lineup produced two studio albums, "Epic Garden Music" and "Feeding the Flame", but split up in 1983 on the verge of commercial success. During this initial period they recorded a John Peel Session for the BBC and a live concert for the Dutch Radio Hilversum station, which was subsequently released as the album "Total Sound". Initially, live performances included mainly headlining 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 independent charts.

European interest in the band began to grow, and with the release of the second album, "Feeding the Flame", they toured in Germany and Holland, gaining a dedicated fan base. Artistically, "Feeding the Flame" is considered to be their finest work and hints at a potential that could have elevated them to the status of contemporaries such as The Chameleons, The Cocteau Twins and Modern English. But tensions within the band caused a complete disintegration, with Garel-Funk and Pollard leaving to form The Snake Corps.

Not much was heard for a while; a "mopping up" album entitled "In the Breeze" was released by their record company, Midnight Music, which included one of their previously unreleased signature tunes, "Three Lines". Despite the band's absence, European and American interest in the band continued to grow.

Then in 1986 they returned after a personnel change (Tony McGuiness on guitar, Juliet Sainsbury on keyboards and Ian Gibson on bass), with a new album entitled "The Mirror Test". Although stylistically similar to the originalline up, the dark edginess of songs like "In Flux" had, to a certain extent, been replaced by more melodic song writing. On the other hand, the new lineup had a live energy previously lacking, and as they continued to play the best of the old songs, their act developed to produce some truly memorable performances.

As interest abroad grew, the band performed extensively in Holland, Spain and France, headlined at the old Marquee club in London's Soho, and with the release of their fourth album, "Headland", were a featured band in Melody Maker.

They released a further album entitled "Treehouse Poetry" before their label, 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.

Then in 2002, the band released a brand new album called "Melting in the Fullness of Time" and played two dates in Italy a year later.

Discography

Albums

* 1982 Epic Garden Music CHIME 00.01 (Midnight Music)
* 1983 Feeding the Flame CHIME 00.03 (Midnight Music)
* 1984 In the Breeze CHIME 00.07 (Midnight Music)
* 1986 Total Sound CHIME 00.22 (Midnight Music)
* 1987 The Mirror Test CHIME 00.30 (Midnight Music)
* 1988 Les Années Vertes CHIME 00.40 (anthology - Midnight Music)
* 1990 Headland CHIME 01.10 (Midnight Music)
* 1991 Treehouse Poetry CHIME 01.20 (Midnight Music)
* 1996 E-mail From Eternity (The Best of Sad Lovers & Giants) CDMGRAM 104 (Anagram Records, distributed by Cherry Red)
* 2002 Melting in the Fullness of Time (Voigt Kampf)
* 2000 La Dolce Vita (Sad Lovers & Giants Live in Lausanne) VKR001CD (Voight-Kampff Records)
* 2001 Headland and Treehouse Poetry VKR002CD (Voight-Kampff Records)
* 2002 Melting in the Fullness of Time VKR003CD (Voight-Kampff Records)

12" Singles

* Man of Straw (DONG 5) "Man of Straw", "Cow Boys (version)", "Close to the Sea"
* Seven Kinds of Sin (DONG 31) "Seven Kinds of Sin", "The Outsider", "Ours to Kill"
* White Russians (DONG 34) "White Russians", "A Map of My World", "Life Under Glass"
* Cow Boys (DONG 36)
* Sleep / A Reflected Dream (DONG 40) with The Essence
* Clocks Go Backwards (DONG 59)

7" Singles

* Clé LM 003 (Last Movement) "Imagination", "When I See You", "Landslide"
* Colourless Dream LM 005 (Last Movement) "Colourless Dream", "Things We Never Did"Initial copies were pressed with the labels backwards.
* Lost in a Moment DING 1 (Midnight Music) "Lost in a Moment", "The Tightrope Touch"
* Man of Straw DING 5 (Midnight Music0 "Man of Straw", "Cow Boys"

External links

* [http://www.sadloversandgiants.co.uk/ Official website]