Biography
Formed during the early '90s in Nottingham, England, British indie rock outfit Six by Seven assembled around singer/guitarist Chris Olley together with guitarist Sam Hempton, organist James Flower, bassist Paul Douglas, and drummer Chris Davis. Their self-released autumn 1997 single "European Me" sold out inside seven days after the NME hailed it as "one of the all-time great debut singles," prompting Beggars Banquet to sign the group and issue the full-length The Things We Make the following spring. A blend of post-rock, psychedelia, and shoegaze generated widespread attention, yielding a first appearance on John Peel's BBC program later that year plus tours supporting Manic Street Preachers, Ash, and the Dandy Warhols. John Leckie produced the 2000 follow-up The Closer You Get, which drew strong critical notice, yet Hempton exited soon after its release. Six by Seven pursued a more streamlined pop direction on 2002's The Way I Feel Today before parting with both Douglas and Beggars Banquet. The remaining trio of Olley, Flower, and Davis then cut two albums for their own Saturday Night Sunday Morning Records label—04 in 2004 and Artists Cannibals Poets Thieves in 2005. An unofficial sixth album, Club Sandwich at the Peveril Hotel, appeared in limited form in early 2006, after which the band disbanded. The split proved short-lived: Olley and Flower returned in 2007 with If Symptoms Persist, Kill Your Doctor under the Six by Seven name. Performances followed with a revised early lineup, and the CD/DVD anthology Any Colour So Long as It's Black (All the Way from Forest Fields and Back...) surfaced in 2008 before Olley departed to pursue other work. A new configuration featuring Olley, Flower, and Placebo drummer Steve Hewitt resurfaced in 2013 to release Love and Peace and Sympathy. Four years later the group reconvened to mark the 17th anniversary of their second album. Beggars Banquet reissued The Closer You Get in deluxe form that March, appending bonus tracks from the band's Peel Sessions. Olley also reassembled the original lineup that same month for full performances of the album throughout the U.K.