Farm

One of pop's more improbable ascents belonged to Liverpool's the Farm, a shape-shifting ensemble that lingered in the shadows for years before vaulting into the spotlight with the 1991 release Spartacus, an album that placed them squarely among the leading lights of the baggy movement alongside Happy Mondays, the Soup Dragons, and the Stone Roses, all of whom fused acid house's looping psychedelic rhythms with indie rock's guitar textures. Earlier in the mid-'80s the band had already signaled dancefloor leanings on singles such as "Hearts and Minds" and "Information Man," though those tracks drew more directly from funk and from the politically charged dance-rock of the Redskins. After Spartacus and the breakthrough single "All Together Now," the Farm sustained the baggy aesthetic across the 1992 album Love See No Color and the 1994 album Hullabaloo. The group disbanded in the mid-'90s yet resurfaced in the 2000s for live performances.

The Farm originated in Liverpool, England, in 1983 when singer Peter Hooton, formerly a youth worker, assembled a band to channel his political views. Completing the original lineup were guitarist Stevie Grimes, bassist Phil Strongman, and drummer Andy McVann; this incarnation echoed the Redskins both in leftist stance and in its horn-driven sound, earning the tag "the Soul of Socialism" while Hooton promoted the music through live shows and through his soccer fanzine The End.

A string of independent singles and the later addition of a permanent brass section featuring Anthony Evans, Steve Levy, George Maher, and John Melvin failed to generate significant interest in the band's pop-inflected Northern soul. They persisted nonetheless, surviving the 1986 death of McVann, who was killed in a car crash while attempting to evade police. Roy Boulter replaced McVann on drums, Keith Mullen joined on second guitar, Carl Hunter took over bass after Strongman departed, and the horn section gave way to keyboardist Benjamin Leach (who later joined the band full-time), Bobby Bilsborough, and David Peel. Shifting toward synth pop, the Farm's fourth single overall, 1988's "Body and Soul," achieved modest club success.

The band nonetheless continued to struggle until 1990, when they enlisted dance producer Terry Farley to helm a sample-laden cover of the Monkees' "Stepping Stone." The track climbed just short of the Top 40, aligning the group with the baggy club culture then championed by Happy Mondays and the Soup Dragons. Their follow-up single "Groovy Train" reached the U.K. Top Ten, and the anthemic "All Together Now," which drew on the melody of Pachelbel's Canon, climbed to the Top Five while moving more than 500,000 copies.

Eight years after forming, the Farm finally released their debut album Spartacus in 1991; most of the record was produced by Graham McPherson, better known as Suggs of ska legends Madness, and the LP debuted at number one on the British charts, prompting swift international deals with Sony and Sire. Their spotlight moment proved fleeting, however, as the subsequent singles "Don't Let Me Down" and "Mind" both missed the Top 30, while the hastily recorded 1992 follow-up Love See No Colour disappeared despite four singles pulled from it. Apart from a 1992 Top 20 cover of the Human League's "Don't You Want Me?," the Farm slipped from view, issuing 1994's Hullabaloo to scant attention. After folding in the mid-'90s, the band reconvened in 2004 for touring and issued a fresh recording of "All Together Now" to back the England National Football Team at the Euro 2004 tournament, where the single peaked at number five on the U.K. charts. In 2007 they released All Together with the Farm, pairing live recordings from a 2005 London concert with rehearsal takes from the same year. The collection was reissued in 2019 as All Together Now: That's What I Call the Farm, augmented by a DVD containing footage of the London performance.