Swervedriver

Swervedriver
Swervedriver performing at the Perth International Arts Festival, 2011. From left to right: Graham Bonnar, Adam Franklin, and Jimmy Hartridge.
Background information
Origin	Oxford, England
Genres	Alternative rock, indie rock, shoegazing
Years active	1989–1998, 2008–present
Labels	Creation, A&M, Shock, Sony Music Entertainment, DGC, Zero Hour, Sonic Wave Discs, Second Motion, Hi-Speed Soul, Tym, Dine Alone Records (Canada)
Associated acts	Shake Appeal, Toshack Highway, Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody, Magnetic Morning
Website	www.swervedriver.com
Members	Adam Franklin Jimmy Hartridge Steve George Mikey Jones
Past members	Adi Vines Graham Bonnar Dan Davis Danny Ingram Jez Hindmarsh

Swervedriver are an English alternative rock band formed in Oxford in 1989 around core members Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge. Between 1989 and 1998, the band released four studio albums and numerous EPs and singles despite a considerable flux of members, managers, and record labels. By 1993 the band’s lineup had settled with Franklin on vocals/guitar, Hartridge on guitar, Jez Hindmarsh on drums, and Steve George on bass. They had emerged with a heavier rock sound than their shoegaze contemporaries, and over the next five years it evolved to include elements of psychedelia, classic pop, and indie rock. In 2008, the band reunited for touring purposes. They released their first new single in fifteen years in September 2013, and their first full-length album in seventeen years in March 2015.

Swervedriver have their roots in Oxford when schoolmates and aspiring guitarists Franklin and Hartridge along with Franklin's older brother and vocalist, Graham, and drummer Paddy Pulzer formed the band Shake Appeal in 1984. In 1987, bass player Adrian "Adi" Vines, from Yorkshire, joined the band, and the following year they released their solitary single "Gimme Fever" through Notown Records. Shake Appeal were influenced by late '60s garage rock bands like The Stooges and MC5, drawing similar influences from the sights and sounds of the British Leyland car factory Franklin and Hartridge walked past every day on the way to school. When influence turned to emulation, the members felt they needed to develop a sound of their own. They had meanwhile turned their attention to American alternative rock acts Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr., and subsequently were inspired "to push out the boundaries of electric guitar within a pop format."