Asleep at the Wheels of Steel

Saint Etienne
Saint Etienne performing at Fanclub festival in Sweden, 1998
Background information
Origin	Croydon, London, England
Genres	Alternative dance house synthpop indie pop alternative rock
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Heavenly Warner Bros. Creation Sub Pop Mantra Sanctuary
Website	www.saintetienne.com
Members	Sarah Cracknell Bob Stanley Pete Wiggs

Saint Etienne are an English alternative dance band from London, formed in 1990. The band consists of Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs.

Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs were childhood friends and former music journalists. They originally planned that Saint Etienne would use a variety of different lead singers, and their first album, Foxbase Alpha – heavily influenced by OMD's Dazzle Ships – features several vocalists, including Moira Lambert and Donna Savage. However, after working with Sarah Cracknell on "Nothing Can Stop Us", they decided to make her the permanent vocalist, and Cracknell has written or co-written many of the band's songs.

Saint Etienne were associated with the "indie dance" genre in the early 1990s. Their typical approach was to combine sonic elements of the dance-pop that emerged in the wake of the so-called Second Summer of Love (e.g. samples and digitally synthesized sounds) with an emphasis on songwriting involving romantic and introspective themes more commonly associated with traditional British pop and rock music. Early work demonstrated the influence of '60s soul, '70s dub and rock as well as '80s dance music, giving them a broad palette of sounds and a reputation for eclecticism. Years later, The Times wrote that they "deftly fused the grooviness of Swinging Sixties London with a post-acid house backbeat". Their first two albums, Foxbase Alpha and So Tough feature sounds chiefly associated with house music, such as standard TR-909 drum patterns and Italo house piano riffs mixed with original sounds, notable by the use of found dialogue, sampled from 1960s British realist cinema.