Biography
Building on the chiming guitar-driven pop of the Smiths and the hypnotic, ethereal textures associated with groups such as the Cocteau Twins, the Sundays developed a loyal audience within indie rock communities across their home country of England and the United States during the early 1990s. Despite solid commercial performance from their initial pair of albums, the quartet never attained the broad mainstream breakthrough that numerous reviewers and industry observers had anticipated.
The Sundays came together in London, England, during the summer of 1987. The founding pair consisted of vocalist Harriet Wheeler, who had previously performed with the band Jim Jiminee, and guitarist David Gavurin. Once they had composed several original songs, they recruited bassist Paul Brindley and drummer Patrick Hannan to complete the lineup. Their debut live appearance took place in August 1988 at the Falcon “Vertigo Club” in Camden, London, generating immediate industry buzz and sparking a bidding war among record labels. By the close of the year the group had secured a contract with Rough Trade, followed within twelve months by an American distribution agreement with DGC Records.
Issued in January 1989, the Sundays’ debut single “Can’t Be Sure” reached number 45 on the U.K. charts. The band spent the next year completing its first full-length release, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, which appeared in early 1990 to widespread critical acclaim and debuted at number four in Britain. Upon its later U.S. arrival the album achieved modern-rock success, climbing to number 39 on the charts, propelled largely by extensive radio and MTV exposure for the track “Here’s Where the Story Ends,” which topped the American modern-rock chart. The remainder of 1990 found the Sundays touring extensively throughout America, Europe, and Japan.
Financial mismanagement led to the collapse of Rough Trade in 1991. Following the label’s demise the Sundays entered a new arrangement with Parlophone Records in the U.K., leaving Reading, Writing and Arithmetic unavailable in Britain until its reissue in 1996. Despite this disruption, the group took considerable time to compose and record its sophomore effort. Delivered in the autumn of 1992, the album Blind received mixed notices yet achieved immediate commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic; in the United States the songs “Love” and “Goodbye” reached number two and number eleven, respectively, on the modern-rock chart. Although Blind enjoyed strong initial sales, it lacked the longevity of the debut and had fallen from the charts by the summer of 1993. The band supported the release with an international tour.
After Blind the Sundays remained largely inactive for several years. Their sole public trace during this period came in 1994, when their cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses” appeared in an American television commercial. Five years would pass before another album emerged. During the interim Harriet Wheeler and David Gavurin married, welcomed a daughter named Billie, and embraced a more ordinary domestic life, which accounted for their absence from the music scene yet ultimately justified the extended wait. The Sundays returned to mainstream prominence with their third album, Static & Silence, released in 1997 and anchored by the popular single “Summertime.”
The Sundays came together in London, England, during the summer of 1987. The founding pair consisted of vocalist Harriet Wheeler, who had previously performed with the band Jim Jiminee, and guitarist David Gavurin. Once they had composed several original songs, they recruited bassist Paul Brindley and drummer Patrick Hannan to complete the lineup. Their debut live appearance took place in August 1988 at the Falcon “Vertigo Club” in Camden, London, generating immediate industry buzz and sparking a bidding war among record labels. By the close of the year the group had secured a contract with Rough Trade, followed within twelve months by an American distribution agreement with DGC Records.
Issued in January 1989, the Sundays’ debut single “Can’t Be Sure” reached number 45 on the U.K. charts. The band spent the next year completing its first full-length release, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, which appeared in early 1990 to widespread critical acclaim and debuted at number four in Britain. Upon its later U.S. arrival the album achieved modern-rock success, climbing to number 39 on the charts, propelled largely by extensive radio and MTV exposure for the track “Here’s Where the Story Ends,” which topped the American modern-rock chart. The remainder of 1990 found the Sundays touring extensively throughout America, Europe, and Japan.
Financial mismanagement led to the collapse of Rough Trade in 1991. Following the label’s demise the Sundays entered a new arrangement with Parlophone Records in the U.K., leaving Reading, Writing and Arithmetic unavailable in Britain until its reissue in 1996. Despite this disruption, the group took considerable time to compose and record its sophomore effort. Delivered in the autumn of 1992, the album Blind received mixed notices yet achieved immediate commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic; in the United States the songs “Love” and “Goodbye” reached number two and number eleven, respectively, on the modern-rock chart. Although Blind enjoyed strong initial sales, it lacked the longevity of the debut and had fallen from the charts by the summer of 1993. The band supported the release with an international tour.
After Blind the Sundays remained largely inactive for several years. Their sole public trace during this period came in 1994, when their cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses” appeared in an American television commercial. Five years would pass before another album emerged. During the interim Harriet Wheeler and David Gavurin married, welcomed a daughter named Billie, and embraced a more ordinary domestic life, which accounted for their absence from the music scene yet ultimately justified the extended wait. The Sundays returned to mainstream prominence with their third album, Static & Silence, released in 1997 and anchored by the popular single “Summertime.”
Albums
Singles
