The Candyskins

The Candyskins
The Candyskins at Truck Festival 2009
Background information
Origin	Oxford, England
Genres	Britpop, baggy, power pop
Years active	1989–1998 ; 2009 -
Labels	Stuff, Geffen, Ultimate
Website	www.thecandyskins.com
Members	Nick Cope Mark Cope Nick Burton Brett Gordon John Halliday Karl Shale

The Candyskins are a rock band formed in 1989 in Oxfordshire, England. Though early members of the 'Oxford Scene', they enjoyed limited commercial success compared to their contemporaries Radiohead and Supergrass. They were considered by the British music press as one of the seminal early bands of the Britpop era. The band recorded four studio albums over a period of eight years before breaking up in 1998 and reuniting in 2009.

The band owes its origins to Mark and Nick Cope, Nick Burton and John Halliday all living in the same village, Islip, Oxfordshire, and attending the same local secondary school (Gosford Hill School) between around 1974 and 1980. The four Islip members of the band had begun working together by the time they left school and various line-ups and name-changes followed during the 1980s, until "The Candyskins" were formed in 1989, with Richard (mini) Brown on bass and banjo. After the successful release of the single "Submarine Song" in 1990, the band went into the studio to produce their first full-length album Space I'm In. The album included three singles: "Submarine Song", "She Blew Me Away" and "You Are Here". Brown left the band before the album was released.

After a year of touring and the replacement of a stand-in bass player with Karl Shale, the band released their second album Fun? on Geffen Records in 1993. Characteristically, the band attempted to build upon the U.S. success of Space I'm In with an ironic album featuring songs about football and gardening. The poor selling record began an elongated legal dispute between the record company and the band, reportedly due to disagreements over songwriting royalties.