Salad

Occupying the melodic fringe of the mid-1990s Brit-pop surge, Salad set themselves apart from the sharper guitar-driven acts typified by Elastica and Sleeper through their blend of rock guitars and pop instincts. Following several successful years the band dissolved, only to reform in 2017 and release The Salad Way in 2019.

The quartet came together in 1992 when MTV presenter Marijne Van Der Vlugt, who handled vocals and keyboards, joined bassist Pete Brown, drummer Rob Wakeman, and guitarist Paul Kennedy. In 1993 they issued the self-released Kent EP and Diminished Clothes before signing with Island’s indie subsidiary Island Red. A series of singles paved the way for their 1995 debut Drink Me, which reached number 15 on the U.K. albums chart and whose indie-pop tone aligned neatly with the prevailing Brit-pop climate. Their follow-up, Ice Cream, appeared in 1997; by then shifting tastes had sidelined the Brit-pop sound, prompting Island to drop the band, who split a year later.

Each member pursued separate work until Van Der Vlugt and Kennedy reconvened in 2016 under the name Salad Undressed. Initially an acoustic duo, they later recruited Donald Ross Skinner (Julian Cope, Prolapse) to record Good Love Bad Love, issued in 2017 and containing both fresh and older material. The same year also saw the release of the archival collection Salad: The Lost Album, Vol. 1. After scheduling concerts and restoring bassist Pete Brown and original live guitarist Charley Stone, the group returned to full-band status. Their first single in 21 years, The Selfishness of Love, surfaced at the close of 2018, followed in 2019 by the third studio album, The Salad Way.