The Telescopes
| The Telescopes | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England |
| Genres | Space rock, shoegazing, psychedelic rock, noise rock |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Labels | Cheree Records, What Goes On Records, Creation Records, Rev-Ola, Double Agent Records, Space Age Recordings, Mind Expansion, Antenna Records, Hungry Audio, Trensmat Records, Dream Machine Records, Bomp! Records, Textile Records, Static Charge, Champion Version, Neon Sigh, Fuzz Club Records, Tapete Records |
| Members | Stephen Lawrie Brian McEwan Jamie Cameron Ross Cameron Martin Kirwan Byron Jackson Nick Keech Jim Beal James Messenger Dan Davis Andrew Liszt Jeff Lee Chris Fifield Sonya Trejo Enrique Maymi John Lynch Dave Gryphon Stuart Gardham JB Mancave Josh Richardson Nat Stensland Vince Caro Jon Menke |
| Past members | Robert Brooks Joanna Doran David Fitzgerald Dominic Dillon Lorin Halsall Daniel Hopkins Bridget Hayden Jerry Hope |
The Telescopes are an English noise, space rock, dream pop and psychedelic band, formed in 1987 by Stephen Lawrie, and drawing influence from artists such as Suicide, The Velvet Underground and The 13th Floor Elevators. They have a total of six released albums since their debut, Taste, released in 1989.
Their debut release was a split flexi disc with Loop on the Cheree label in 1988, which was given away with the Sowing Seeds fanzine. There followed their debut single, "Kick the Wall", and "7th# Disaster" also on Cheree Records. They moved to the American What Goes On Records and released their debut album Taste and "The Perfect Needle" single which is perhaps their most famous song. A live album appeared on Fierce Records and following What Goes On’s bankruptcy they signed to Creation Records. In contrast to Taste's noise-rock, a more laid back sound followed, described by journalist Alexis Petridis as having "an almost fragile sense of elegance and melody", and the band scraped the lower reaches of the UK Singles Chart with the single "Flying", and released The Telescopes, their second album, in 1992. Lawrie explained the change in direction: "Your idea of perfection changes as you move on. I think we still hold the same approach to our music now, we still try just as many mad ideas, it's just a lot more subtle and works to a different end".
In 2002 they made a surprise return with Third Wave on Double Agent Records. In 2005 they released their fourth album #4 on their own Antenna Records. By this time they were a core of just Stephen Lawrie and Jo Doran, with additional member Lorin Halsall (a member of The Dust Collectors), and were a much more experimental band specialising in electronic soundscapes. In 2006 The Telescopes line up again changed to Stephen Lawrie and Bridget Hayden. In July 2011, the band were invited by Portishead to perform at the ATP I'll Be Your Mirror at Alexandra Palace in London, where they performed songs from their debut album. An event repeated at Austin Psych Fest 2012 curated by The Reverberation Appreciation Society.
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Wikipedia