Allo Darlin'

Elizabeth Morris, an Australian who relocated to London in 2005, initially launched Allo Darlin' as a platform for her own songwriting after earlier issuing recordings under the Darlings name. That project yielded only one release, the three-track The Photo EP on U.K. indie pop label WeePOP!, which appeared in late 2007. The name shifted to Allo Darlin' the next year. Morris traced its origin to her Soho workplace in a 2010 Spinner.com interview, noting, "I used to work near the market sellers. Every day I'd walk past and the old guys would yell out "Allo darlin'" as they ashed into their fruit bowls." She self-released the holiday EP Merry Christmas from Allo Darlin' near the end of 2008. Early the following year the lineup grew with the arrival of Hexicon members guitarist Paul Rains—who had first teamed with Morris on a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City"—and drummer Michael Collins, joined on bass by Moustache of Insanity's Will Harrison, soon succeeded by Bill Botting. The new quartet issued its debut single, "Henry Rollins Don't Dance," on WeePOP! Records that summer. Fortuna Pop signed the band shortly afterward, resulting in the 2009 single "The Polaroid Song" and the 2010 release "Dreaming," which featured a cameo from the Pipettes' Monster Bobby. Produced by Simon Trought, the self-titled debut album arrived on Fortuna Pop in summer 2010 and received strong notices, among them endorsement from former Go-Between Robert Forster and ranking as EMusic's number two album of the year. Morris, who had joined Amelia Fletcher's Tender Trap in early 2009, left that group after the album's release to focus solely on Allo Darlin'. Aside from the self-released "Darren"/"The Wu-Tang Clan" single, 2011 stayed quiet, yet spring 2012 brought the second album, Europe, issued by Fortuna Pop in the U.K. and Slumberland in the U.S. A year of touring followed before the band entered the studio for its third record, We Come from the Same Place, which surfaced in October 2014.