Tiny Dancers

Tiny Dancers frontman David Kay has stated in multiple interviews that the West Yorkshire quintet took its name from a sinister group of dwarves featured in Roger Corman's 1964 film version of The Masque of the Red Death, rather than from the well-known Elton John track on Madman Across the Water that later appeared in Almost Famous. Although the group is based in the recently fashionable city of Sheffield, its sound bears scant resemblance to that of fellow Yorkshire acts such as the Arctic Monkeys or the Kaiser Chiefs. Their understated, largely acoustic pop instead draws from the Band, the Beach Boys after Pet Sounds, Love, and the Neil Young recordings associated with Harvest, while echoes of the Bees, Cat Power, and the Magic Numbers also surface.

The band came together in 2005 during the members' university years. Singer and acoustic guitarist Kay, lead guitarist Chris Etherington, and drummer Duncan Morrison, already school friends, had lost the bassist and chief songwriter of their prior group. Once Kay assumed primary songwriting duties, the lineup was completed by bassist Dale Wathey and multi-instrumentalist David Glover. EMI's Parlophone imprint signed the newly formed Tiny Dancers almost at once in early 2006, yet the first two limited-edition vinyl singles, "Bonfire of the Night" and "Hannah We Know," appeared on the pretend-indie Russian Doll imprint. The Lions and Tigers and Lions EP followed on Parlophone in late 2006, succeeded by the U.K. Top 40 entries "I Will Wait for You" and a fresh version of "Hannah We Know." Free School Milk, the band's debut album, reached stores in summer 2007.