Astrid

The Glasgow outfit Astrid had yet to reach their twenties when their first long-player, Strange Weather Lately, appeared in 1999, thereby inaugurating the third wave of jangly, ’60s-fixated guitar groups from that city after Primal Scream’s pre-electronic phase and the Pastels’ mid-’80s emergence, followed in the early ’90s by Teenage Fanclub and the Supernaturals. The band put out a modest run of singles and EPs plus three additional studio albums before disbanding in 2004. They reassembled six years later for several concerts and eventually returned to recording, issuing their fourth album, Fall, Stand, Dance, in 2018.

Originally formed on the remote Isle of Lewis in northern Scotland, the group centered on singer William Campbell—the one distinct from the musician who supposedly took Paul McCartney’s place after the Beatle’s fictitious November 9, 1966 car crash—alongside acoustic guitarist Charles Clark and bassist Gareth Russell, all of whom had grown up together there. United since childhood by a shared devotion to the Beatles and other ’60s pop acts, the three played in assorted garage ensembles during their early teenage years. At seventeen Clark relocated to Glasgow for college, and Campbell and Russell accompanied him without other plans. While writing material in the city and frequenting the Halt Bar in the West End despite being underage, they encountered drummer Gary Thom and commenced rehearsals in early 1997. Taking their name from Astrid Kirchherr, the Hamburg-born companion of the late Stu Sutcliffe, the quartet soon attracted notice from Belle and Sebastian, who invited them to support at a local festival and on a short U.K. tour.

A subsequent London date with that act led Astrid to sign with the independent label Fantastic Plastic Records. Their debut EP, No Reason, surfaced in April 1998 and quickly sold through its pressing. The band then entered the studio with fellow Glaswegian and former Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins to cut the follow-up EP Hi-Fi Lo-Fi and the single “It’s True,” both issued later that year. Collins likewise helmed production of the debut album Strange Weather Lately, which avoided any tracks from prior releases. The record achieved both critical and commercial success throughout the U.K. and performed solidly across Europe, although no U.S. licensee emerged. That situation persisted even after the group earned Best New Discovery honors at the April 2000 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. A further EP of original songs, Modes of Transport, appeared in September 2000.

During sessions for the second album, Thom departed and was succeeded by Neil Payne, previously of the Smiles. Play Dead reached stores in the U.K. on March 22, 2001. Astrid’s third studio album, One in Four, arrived in 2004; its title referenced the statistic that “one in four of us will suffer mental health problems at some time in our lives,” and its lyrics adopted a correspondingly somber cast, marking the band’s final new recordings for fifteen years. After dissolving soon after its release, the members pursued separate projects: Neil Payne joined Texas on drums, Gareth Russell took up bass with Idlewild, Charles Clark spent time in the Zephyrs, and both Campbell and Clark launched solo endeavors.

The musicians regrouped in 2016 for regional live dates, and in 2019 they delivered their fourth studio album, Fall, Stand, Dance, on AED Records.