Date: Nov 93
Lush is four people: Emma Anderson (guitar [email protected] (Brian Keeley) vocals), Miki Berenyi (vocals & guitar), Chris Ackland (drums), and Steve Rippon (bass). The band came together in Camden (North London) in 1989 while Miki, Steve, & Chris were finishing up their degrees at London Polytechnic. (Emma was Miki's school-chum from way back. The two had put together a 'zine of sorts called "Alphabet Soup" that was apparently mostly just rude!). Steve left the band in Feb. 1992, after recording the B-sides the _For Love_ e.p. He was replaced with former NME employee Phil King. Also, it should be noted that way back at the beginning, Muriel (now of Pale Saints fame), was the lead vocalist, before she moved onto her present band.
The band began playing around London clubs, and had a general reputation of being rather atrocious live (a fact they admit). They finally got the attention of a 4AD A&R person who travelled to see them one night, but as luck would have it, he ended up signing the Pale Saints instead, who were opening for Lush. 4AD finally got their act together and had Lush come into the studio to do a three-song demo. Label owner, Ivo, liked these enough to ask them them back to do three more. These six songs were put out as Lush's debut mini-lp, _Scar_. Tours of Britain ensued, as did more EPs, which in turn led to more touring. With all this touring, they were bound to get better playing live, and by most accounts, they are quite good now (though don't expect much variation &From the sound of their studio work). They have made several trips outside Britain, including a tour of the States with Ride, which included several side-dates with the Sisters of Mercy. In Europe, they have toured with the Pale Saints, and opened for the Cure at their Crystal Palace show in the summer of 1990, opened the Glostenbury Festival that same summer. Since these early tours, they have toured Europe and North America many times, including the opening slot of Lollapalooza II in the States.
Due to the fact that Emma & Miki do all the song-writing, Lush have been occassionally dubbed a "girl-band," a fact that especially iritates them, since they have done much to avoid the exploitation of the female members of the band (with the exception of the infamous "topless- bodypaint" poster done for NME in 1989). The ever label-happy Brit press corps have dubbed Lush "bliss rock," indicating their sonic allegiance to other etherial wall-of-swirly-guitar groups spawned by My Bloody Valentine and their former label-mates and occassional producers, the Cocteau Twins.
Side projects include guest appearances of some of the members on the first release by Moose, and a one-off collaboration with some Moose members, and Cocteau Twins called "The Lillies".