Tindersticks

This article is about the band itself. For the first eponymous album, see Tindersticks (1993 album). For the second eponymous album, see Tindersticks (1995 album).
Tindersticks

Tindersticks at the Royal Festival Hall, 3 May 2008
Background information
Origin Nottingham, England
Genres Indie rock,[1] Chamber pop
Years active 1992–present
Website Official Website
Members Stuart Staples
David Boulter
Neil Fraser
Dan McKinna
Earl Harvin
Past members Dickon Hinchliffe
Al Macaulay
Mark Colwill
Thomas Belhom
David Kitt

Tindersticks are an English alternative rock band, formed in Nottingham in 1991. They released six albums before singer Stuart A. Staples embarked on a solo career. The band reunited briefly in 2006, but more permanently the following year. The band have recorded several film soundtracks.

History

Staples, Boulter, Fraser, Macauley and Hinchliffe, all former members of Asphalt Ribbons, formed the band in 1991. The final line-up for the Old Horse mini-LP (1991) was: Stuart Staples (vocals) Dave Boulter (organ and accordion) Neil Fraser (guitar) Dickon Hinchliffe (guitar and strings) Al Macauley (percussion and drums) John Thompson (bass). Mark Colwill was recruited when Thompson left the Asphalt Ribbons, but it is not known if he played any gigs under the Asphalt Ribbons name. They then changed their name to Tindersticks after Staples discovered a box of German matches on a Greek beach.

Tindersticks started recording demo tapes in 1992, and formed their own label Tippy Toe Records to release their first single, "Patchwork", in the same year.[2]

Their self-titled first and second albums established their signature sound and received widespread critical acclaim. Their live performances, often augmented by large string sections and even, on occasion, a full orchestra, were well received. The live album The Bloomsbury Theatre 12.3.95 is a recording of one such concert. By the time of the third album, Curtains, however, it was clear that a change of direction was called for. The lengthy "Ballad of Tindersticks" was a weary swipe at the pressures of being a touring band.

The fourth album, Simple Pleasure, lived up to its title with a series of snappy, direct songs influenced by soul music. The female backing vocals on several tracks, and the respectful cover of Odyssey's "If You're Looking for a Way Out", signalled the band's wish to move towards lighter, more soulful material. However, the inner sleeve's documentation of the number of takes each track went through was evidence that the band continued to adopt a painstaking approach to recording.

The fifth album, Can Our Love..., continued the band's soulful direction, in particular evidence on the tender "Sweet Release" and in the nod to The Chi-Lites in the title of "Chilitetime".

The sixth album, Waiting for the Moon, was more stripped down and introspective in nature, particularly on the harrowing "4.48 Psychosis" (based on the play of the same name by the British playwright Sarah Kane) and "Sometimes It Hurts". Only the bouncy "Just a Dog" lightened the otherwise melancholy mood of the album.

In 2005 Staples embarked on a solo career and there was resultant speculation that the band had split. Staples has so far produced two solo albums, Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04 and Leaving Songs. The title of the second album, and Staples' notes on it, indicated that change was in the air: "These are songs written on the verge of leaving the things I loved and stepping into a new unknown life, both musically and personally. I was always aware that these songs were the end of something, a kind of closing a circle of a way of writing that I started so long ago and I knew I had to move on from."[3]

In September 2006, the band played a one-off concert at London's Barbican Centre, performing their second album in full with a nine-member string section and two brass players, including former collaborator Terry Edwards on trumpet.[4]

Staples later acknowledged that this show, while being a happy triumph, was also "tinged with sadness of the knowledge that the six of us had made all the new music we were going to make together."[5] However, it also rekindled his determination to make a new album.

In 2007, a stripped-down line-up of three of the original band, Staples, Boulter and Fraser, spent time writing and recording in a newly equipped studio in Limousin, France. They were joined by Thomas Belhom on drums and Dan McKinna on bass, with Ian Caple engineering. The resulting album, The Hungry Saw, was released on Beggars Banquet in April 2008. Tindersticks played a number of other European dates during the summer festival season and also announced a winter 2008 European tour.

In 2010, the eighth album Falling Down a Mountain was released on 4AD / Constellation Records with a changed band line-up, with Earl Harvin replacing Belhom on drums and David Kitt, a solo artist in his own right, joining the band on guitar and vocals.

The group's ninth album The Something Rain was released in February 2012. The following tours in spring, summer (festival concerts) and autumn, showed the band now touring in their again reduced 5-member core line-up (Stuart Staples, David Boulter, Neil Fraser, Dan McKinna and Earl Harvin), supported at selected gigs by Terry Edwards on horns.

In October 2013, after missing the band‘s 20th anniversary the years before, the band released their 10th studio album, the retrospective Across Six Leap Years, with re-recorded 10 songs from their back-catalog and from Stuart A. Staples solo album period. In the autumn of 2013 they toured several European capital cities in their A6LY anniversary tour, supported by Terry Edwards on saxophone & horns and Gina Foster on backing vocals.

2016 saw their 11th studio album The Waiting Room, followed by an extensive tour in February to May 2016.

Soundtrack work

Musical style

Their sound is characterised by orchestral backing, lounge jazz, and soul; the orchestrations of multi-instrumentalist Dickon Hinchliffe (who left the band in 2006) and the baritone of lead vocalist Stuart A. Staples are the band's hallmarks.[6] Tindersticks augment their instrumentation with Rhodes piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone, violin, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, bassoon, Hammond organ, and many more.

Discography

Studio albums

List of studio albums, with selected chart positions
Title and details Peak chart positions
UK
[7]		 BEL (FL)
[8]		 BEL (WA)
[9]		 DEN
[10]		 FRA
[11]		 NLD
[12]		 NOR
[13]		 POR SPA SWE
[13]		 SWI
[14]		 US
Tindersticks
  • aka First Album
  • Year released: 1993
  • Record label: This Way Up
 56 — — — — — — — — — — —
Tindersticks
  • aka Second Album
  • Year released: 1995
  • Record label: This Way Up
 13 — — — — — — — — — — —
Curtains
  • Year released: 1997
  • Record label: This Way Up
 37 26 — — 34 — 33 — — 41 — —
Simple Pleasure 36 37 — — 71 — 33 — — 43 — —
Can Our Love... 47 — — — 76 — — — — — — —
Waiting for the Moon
  • Year released: 2003
  • Record label: Beggars Banquet
 76 32 — — 77 89 — 11 — — — —
The Hungry Saw 81 14 53 24 61 44 — — — — — —
Falling Down a Mountain
  • Year released: 2010
  • Record label: 4AD/Constellation Records
 90 21 56 40 52 55 — — — — 77 —
The Something Rain
  • Year released: 2012
  • Record label: Lucky Dog/City Slang/Constellation
 59 21 48 20 37 25 — 22 70 51 37 —
Across Six Leap Years
  • Year released: 2013
  • Record label: Lucky Dog/City Slang/Constellation
 — 26 76 — 87 50 — 22 — — 96 —
The Waiting Room
  • Year released: 2016
  • Record label: Lucky Dog/City Slang
71 13 44 — 49 24 — — — — 30 —

Soundtracks

List of studio albums, with selected chart positions
Title and details Peak chart positions
FRA
[11]
Trouble Every Day
  • Year released: 2001
  • Record label: Naive Records
 133

Singles

[2]

Other albums

Original soundtracks

Solo albums and side projects

Videos and DVDs

References

  1. ↑ Tindersticks at Allmusic.com
  2. 1 2 Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. pp. 994–995. ISBN 1-84195-017-3.
  3. ↑ Leaving Songs, on stuartastaples.com
  4. ↑ Barbican Centre set list
  5. ↑ Tindersticks.co.uk
  6. ↑ Roberts, Chris "UNCUT ALBUM REVIEW: TINDERSTICKS - FALLING DOWN A MOUNTAIN", Uncut, retrieved 2011-06-17
  7. ↑ "Tindersticks" (select "Albums" tab). Official Charts Company. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  8. ↑ "Tindersticks". ultratop.be. Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  9. ↑ "Tindersticks". ultratop.be. Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  10. ↑ "Tindersticks". danishcharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  11. 1 2 "Discographie Tindersticks". lescharts.com (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  12. ↑ "Discografie Tindersticks". dutchcharts.nl (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  13. 1 2 "Tindersticks". norwegiancharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  14. ↑ "Tindersticks". hitparade.ch. Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 October 2013.

External links

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