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Everything But The Girl

Everything but the Girl

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Everything but the Girl

Everything but the Girl (often shortened EBTG) were an English musical duo, formed in Hull in 1982, consisting of lead singer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, and singer Ben Watt. The duo's most successful single was a Todd Terry remix of "Missing" charting in several countries in 1994.

They are currently inactive, although vocalist Tracey Thorn hinted that they may perform again someday. They have not performed publicly since 2000,[1] and as Thorn stated on BBC Radio4 on 25 January 2014, 'for both Ben and me, it would feel like a step backwards'.

Watt and Thorn are also a couple; they are very private about their relationship and personal life. For some time, it was not a publicised fact that they were a couple, or that they had married subsequently.[2] The duo have expressed a strong desire to raise their three children with as much privacy as possible.

Early career

When Thorn and Watt met, they were both attending the University of Hull and both had contracted with the independent record company, Cherry Red Records, as solo artists. Thorn was also a member of the trio Marine Girls, and Watt contributed a photograph to the cover of their second album, Lazy Ways. The pair each had solo album releases through Cherry Red: Thorn's 1982 LP was A Distant Shore, an eight-track mini-album. Watt's LP was entitled North Marine Drive.[1]

They formed a duo and adopted the name "Everything but the Girl" from the slogan of the well-known Hull shop Turner's Furniture[3] on Beverley Road.[1] The store originally built a window sign which read, "for your bedroom needs, we sell everything but the girl",[4] the last part of which was later added to the shop's main signage.

EBTG's debut single, a cover version of Cole Porter's "Night and Day", was released in June 1982.[1] After steady sales and exposure from the Pillows & Prayers compilation album, the single was re-issued in August 1983. Their first album was released in 1984 in the UK as Eden.[1] In 1984, they also released the singles "Mine" and "Native Land" in the UK. Their first UK successful single, "Each and Every One", had a jazzy sound, and EBTG was considered part of the jazz/popular music style known as "sophisti-pop", that included other British acts like Swing Out Sister, Sade, Matt Bianco, and The Style Council, on whose Café Bleu album they guested.[1] EBTG and Sade both worked with record producer Robin Millar and engineers Ben Rogan and Mike Pela for their debut albums.

Although Eden was released in the UK, a different recording, Everything but the Girl, was released in the United States. The US release contained about half the tracks from Eden, along with some different tracks, including "Mine" and "Native Land".

Subsequent releases underscored EBTG's versatility and range. Their 1985 album Love Not Money included a cover version of The Pretenders' song "Kid", which was not on the original UK release.

The next year they released the self-produced Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, an album of original popular music songs recorded with an orchestra.[1] They revealed the album's inspiration by their choices of B-sides for its single releases: songs from Bacharach and Jimmy Webb on the 12" versions (as well as a cover version of Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces"). The first single from the album was "Come on Home," followed by "Don't Leave Me Behind."

During 1988, EBTG released Idlewild, a collection of songs that began a trend towards "middle-of-the-road", adult-oriented contemporary music.[1] A cover version of Danny Whitten's "I Don't Want to Talk About It", previously a success by Rod Stewart, was released as a single. It achieved a strong position in the UK Singles Chart and was added to the latter issues of the album.[1] Around this time, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions asked Thorn to contribute vocals to the song "Big Snake" on their final studio album Mainstream.

Tommy Lipuma produced the band's 1990 album The Language of Life, which featured the single "Driving."[1] Stan Getz contributed a tenor sax solo on the song "The Road".[1] Next was Worldwide and its single "Old Friends" in 1991.

In 1992, they produced another successful UK single with the release of the Covers EP. The lead track was "Love Is Strange", and the EP featured cover versions of Bruce Springsteen's "Tougher Than the Rest"; Cyndi Lauper's "Time after Time" and Elvis Costello's "Alison".[1] These four tracks were included on the US only album, Acoustic.[1] In 1993, EBTG released a cover version of Paul Simon's "The Only Living Boy in New York" as a single in the UK.

The duo was forced to curtail recording and touring for a few years when Watt contracted Churg-Strauss syndrome, an autoimmune disease (he subsequently wrote a memoir, Patient, about his ordeal).[1] The next work of original music was not until 1994, when EBTG released Amplified Heart. Producer Todd Terry remixed the track "Missing", and when EBTG released the remix as a single, it became an international success.[1] It reached the top ten around the world, including the US, where it peaked at No. 2 in the Billboard Hot 100.[1]

The success of that track, along with a collaboration Thorn had with Massive Attack and Deep Dish, influenced them and helped usher the band into a more electronic sound. Having completed contractual obligations to WEA, they were free to shop their recordings and had complete ownership of their future recorded works. They signed licensing deals with Virgin Records for the United Kingdom and Europe, and Atlantic Records for the United States and Canada. Their subsequent albums Walking Wounded and Temperamental, showed the band's musical progress as well as establishing Watt as a dance music producer.[1] Between the two albums he produced "Stars All Seem to Weep" for Beth Orton.

The group curated compilations of their material in 2002 and 2005, but there have been no new recordings as Everything but the Girl since 1999. According to Thorn, the group is "currently mothballed".[5] Watt played guitar and other instruments for some filmed performances of Thorn's solo material in 2010, which have appeared on YouTube. John McKenzie and Martin Ditcham were session musicians for them. They also recorded videos at the Forum, London, which later appeared on compilations.

In an April 2011 interview, Thorn was questioned about whether she would work together with Watt, and do more Everything but the Girl. Thorn responded, "Yes, we do keep saying we are nearly ready to maybe do some work together again. There are certain obstacles, some practical, some psychological, that we would need to overcome. But it may well happen."[6]

In October 2011, Thorn released a cover version of The xx's Night Time, on which Watt played guitar and sang backing vocals. This was their first recording together in a decade, although it was not an Everything but the Girl release.[7]

In 2012, the band's first four albums Eden, Love Not Money, Baby, the Stars Shine Bright and Idlewild were reissued by Demon/Edsel as "deluxe" double CDs, with demo recordings and other additional material. In an interview with The Observer, Watt said that he and Thorn saw the re-issue program as a way to maintain some control over their back-catalogue: "Warners own the rights to those albums, and our big fear was that one day we'd wake up and they'd have reissued them, without telling us."[8] A second tranche of Demon/Edsel re-issues, covering the four albums released between 1990 and 1994, was announced in September 2013. According to the EBTG website, "Once again, Ben and Tracey have helped at every stage of the process, sourcing demos, rarities and memorabilia for the releases."[9]

Collaborations and other work

  • Protection (with Massive Attack)[1]
  • Batman Forever Soundtrack "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" (with Massive Attack)
  • Back to Mine tracks selected by Everything But the Girl
  • She's Having a Baby soundtrack Apron Strings
  • In 1996, EBTG contributed to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization, performing "Corcovado" (Quiet Night of Quiet Stars).
  • Watt has concentrated on being a DJ and producer/remixer, finding success as one half of Lazy Dog with partner Jay Hannan, before going solo and launching Buzzin Fly records and The Neighborhood (a dance club). He has helped to produce two albums for Beth Orton. His latest tracks, "Guinea Pig", and "Bright Star" came out in 2008 and 2010 respectively and were collaborations with the acclaimed British singer/songwriter Julia Biel who also features on lead vocals.
  • During late spring 2005, Thorn recorded her first vocals in three years, on the song "Damage" on the album, Eat Books, for the German band Tiefschwarz, for which she also wrote the lyrics and melody.
  • Thorn's second full solo album, Out of the Woods was released in March 2007. Her third solo album, Love and Its Opposite was released in 2010. Thorn's collection of Christmas songs, Tinsel and Lights, combines covers of Christmas traditionals with two new originals; it was released in October 2012.

Their most recent release is a double album of remixes, highlighting their electronica-influenced music including a trio of newly commissioned remixes.

Discography

Main article: Everything but the Girl discography
  • Eden (1984)
  • Everything but the Girl (1984, US only)
  • Love Not Money (1985)
  • Baby, the Stars Shine Bright (1986)
  • Idlewild (1988)
  • The Language of Life (1990)
  • Worldwide (1991)
  • Acoustic (1992)
  • Amplified Heart (1994)
  • Walking Wounded (1996)
  • Temperamental (1999)

References

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 [Everything but the Girl at All Music Guide Biography by Jason Ankeny]. Allmusic.com. Retrieved on 17 July 2009.
  2. Salon.com
  3. Beverley Road, Kingston upon Hull, United Kingdom Google Maps. Maps.google.com (1 January 1970). Retrieved on 11 May 2012.
  4. Amazon.com
  5. Tracey Thorn. Facebook (12 April 2012). Retrieved on 11 May 2012.
  6. Tracey Thorn: I Dont Obsess Over Sleeves Or Vinyl | Interviews | DIY. Thisisfakediy.co.uk. Retrieved on 11 May 2012.
  7. Listen: Everything But the Girl Reunite to Cover the xx's "Night Time" | News. Pitchfork (18 October 2011). Retrieved on 11 May 2012.
  8. Laura Barnett (17 June 2012). Everything But the Girl: 'You feel like you're listening to a different person' | Music | The Observer. Guardian. Retrieved on 1 February 2013.
  9. "Deluxe re-issues of EBTG albums 1990-1994 imminent", 24 September 2013, Everything But the Girl Website. Retrieved 2 October 2013.

External links

This page was last modified 29.03.2014 16:39:15

This article uses material from the article Everything but the Girl from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.