Sidewinder

Formed in Canberra during 1990, the Australian group Sidewinder featured Nick Craft on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Martin Craft on bass, Pip Branson on guitar, and Giri Fox on drums. Emerging alongside other local acts devoted to alternative guitar pop, the quartet never matched the commercial reach of contemporaries such as Pollyanna, Jebediah, or Something for Kate. Several EPs appeared through the mid-nineties, among them the T-Star EP and the Yoko Icepick EP in 1993 plus the Gentle Art of Spoonbending EP in 1995. Their first album, Atlantis, surfaced late in 1995 and spawned a pair of minor singles. Greater traction arrived with the 1997 follow-up Tangerine, which yielded the hit single "Titanic Days." Both that track and "Not Coming Home" from Atlantis were included on the soundtrack to the Australian film Blackrock. After Mercury/Polygram merged with Universal Music in 1999, the band lost its recording contract and disbanded the following year.