Denim

Due to Lawrence Hayward’s repeated clashes with his colleagues throughout the ten-year lifespan of Felt, his earliest and most celebrated group, it was hardly unexpected that his follow-up venture would place him not only as undisputed leader but as the lone unchanging participant. Denim operated less as a conventional ensemble than as a fluid assembly of supporting players recruited for individual recording sessions and occasional stage dates. Hayward also abandoned the ornate yet taut guitar-driven pop that had defined Felt, choosing instead a fresh approach shaped by glam rock, seventies chart fare, and lesser-known branches of early new wave; the resulting stylistic range was unified by his characteristically laconic wit and frequently caustic satirical observations.

The project’s first release arrived in 1992 with Back in Denim, issued by Bows Own Records after two years of recording. On the album Hayward paid tribute to the seventies through the track “The Osmonds” while expressing disdain for the subsequent decade in “I’m Against the 1980s.” Although reviewers responded favorably, commercial returns remained modest. A second album, the expansive and stylistically varied Denim on Ice, did not appear until 1996 on The Echo Label, a British subsidiary linked to Japan’s Pony Canyon Records. To support the record Denim undertook an extensive tour as opening act for Pulp, whose own lyrical portraits of British existence bore a noticeable kinship to Hayward’s dry, gin-sharp storytelling, yet once more critical praise outstripped public interest.

In early 1997 Denim moved to EMI, where their initial offering was Novelty Rock, a compilation of B-sides and previously unreleased material. By late summer the group was preparing Denim Take Over; EMI scheduled the advance single “Summer Smash” for early September and distributed promotional copies to radio and press. Early responses indicated the possibility of a breakthrough, but the death of Princess Diana in a car crash on 31 August 1997 abruptly halted those plans. EMI deemed the title inappropriate under the circumstances, withdrew the single, destroyed remaining stock, and permanently shelved the album. Hayward subsequently disbanded Denim, though he later revisited several songs intended for the unreleased Denim Take Over in the work of his next project, Go-Kart Mozart.