Saint Etienne (band)

Saint Etienne
Saint Etienne 1998
General information
origin	London , England
Genre (s)	Indie pop , synth pop , dance pop
founding	1990
Website	saintetienne.com
Current occupation
singing	Sarah Cracknell
Synthesizer , keyboard , percussion	Bob Stanley
Synthesizer , keyboard , sampler , percussion	Pete Wiggs

Saint Etienne is a British band formed in 1990 by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs in London . They are named after the successful French football club AS Saint-Étienne . Sarah Cracknell has been the band's singer since 1991 .

Musically, Saint Etienne move between indie pop and dance , some albums borrow from house , synth pop , downtempo , ambient or lounge .

Band history

Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs both grew up in Croydon , south London, and have been friends since childhood. Bob Stanley worked as a music journalist for the NME, among others .

1990-1994

The original idea when Saint Etienne was founded was to publish cover versions with changing guest singers. In January 1990, Stanley and Wiggs took together with Ian Catt their first two singles: Only love can break your heart by Neil Young (instead of in with singer Moira Lambert 3/4 cycle as the original here in 4/4-stroke played) and Kiss and Make up from Field Mice with singer Donna Savage. It wasn't until 1991 that they became aware of Sarah Cracknell , who sang on the follow-up single Nothing can stop us now , the band's first self-written song. The collaboration worked so well that Sarah Cracknell has been a permanent singer in the band ever since.

In September 1991 their debut album Foxbase Alpha was released. It can be described as "record collection pop" with influences from "house, girl group, soul and dub; lovers rock, indie pop, cocktail jazz and soundtracks". The group processed many samples and sound fragments, such as in This is Radio Etienne the jingle from a football broadcast on Radio France Inter . The album Dazzle ships by OMD served as a template in this context . Sarah Cracknell gave the music a "melancholy flair and a conspiratorial warmth". The album was nominated for the first edition of the Mercury Music Prize in 1992 .

In 1991 they also produced the dance hit 7 ways to love with singer Janey Lee Grace under the name Cola boy , which reached number 8 on the British singles chart in September. They chose the pseudonym because the song sounded "too cheesy for Saint Etienne".

The successor So tough , released in March 1993, reached number 7, the band's best placement in the British album charts to date. Samples are inserted between the individual songs, mainly from English films. At the same time they went on tour, where Pulp was their support act. The third single Hobart paving was covered under the name Catch Me in 1996 for the German film Bandits .

After a collaboration with Tim Burgess from the Charlatans for the Christmas single I Was Born on Christmas Day , the third studio album Tiger Bay followed in June 1994 . It represented a stylistic change as it was influenced by traditional folk music . Bob Stanley described it as "an album of modern folk songs, recorded with 20th century styles such as techno and dub".

1995-2004

Stanley himself described the time from Tiger Bay to 1997 as the "wilderness years" of the band, in which they worked on various projects without a clear goal of a new studio album. From the collaboration with the French singer Étienne Daho , the EP Reserection was created in 1995 under the name St. Etienne Daho , which reached number 12 in the single charts in France. Etienne Daho adapted Saint Etienne titles with French texts, Sarah Cracknell interpreted his hit Week-end à Rome with English texts. In the Eurodance remix this song was named He's on the phone and reached number 11 in the British charts. The remix double album Casino classics included contributions from Andrew Weatherall , Underworld , The Chemical Brothers and Aphex Twin . For some of the remixes, Saint Etienne had not even released an original version before. Two of them were on the compilation Continental , which was only released in Japan , along with other recordings from this period. Singer Sarah Cracknell also released her first solo album Lipslide in 1997 , but without much commercial success.

The fourth studio album Good humor was recorded by Saint Etienne in Malmö with producer Tore Johansson , who had previously worked for The Cardigans , among others . This gave the album a "warmer, more acoustic sound, with piano, vibraphone and saxophone to decorate their bittersweet melodies". They consciously chose the American spelling of the word humor (instead of humor ) in order to break away from the classification as a typically English band.

In the following years, Saint Etienne turned to more electronic music with influences from ambient : first on the EP Places to Visit , then on the album Sound of Water , which was released in June 2000. It contains arrangements by the post-rock trio To Rococo Rot , in whose Berlin studios it was recorded, as well as by Sean O'Hagen . The album was co-produced by Gerard Johnson . One outstanding song is How we used to live , a "multi-part little masterpiece" that also retained the entire playing time of 9:02 minutes as a single.

In 2002 the sixth studio album Finisterre followed . Similar to So tough , the individual pieces are interrupted by spoken text fragments by the English actor Michael Jayston . These passages are part of the documentary Finisterre , which describes a "journey from the London suburbs to the heart of the city ​​in a fictional day". It was shown in selected English cinemas, excerpts from it were shown at concerts of the band. The film was directed by Paul Kelly , Sarah Cracknell's brother-in-law, and Kieran Evans . Paul Kelly subsequently directed three further documentaries about London, each with music by Saint Etienne, most of which were written especially for the soundtrack.

Since 2005

In June 2005 the concept album Tales from Turnpike House was released about the fictional residents of a house of the same name. The real Turnpike House is in London on Goswell Road. The early editions of the album were accompanied by the bonus EP Up the Wooden Hills with nursery rhymes (Sarah Cracknell has two children of her own, born in 2001 and 2004). The second single A Good Thing can be heard in the film Volver - Returning by Pedro Almodóvar .

A special feature of Saint Etienne is the regular release of compilation albums and singles, which are only available to members of their fan club and contain previously unreleased material. In 2008, Boxette was released in this way, a 4-CD box with all the fan club CDs since 1995.

After a best-of compilation London Conversations: The Best of Saint Etienne in 2009, the title of which underscores the strong bond the band has with their hometown, the next studio album, Words and Music by Saint Etienne, was not released until 2012. According to the company Band is about "how music touches your life, how it defines, how you see the world as a child, how it brings you through bad times in unexpected ways". It can be described as a "trendy and seductively poppy nostalgic work" and a "declaration of love for the blessings of pop".

Her ninth studio album Home Counties is due to be released in June 2017 .

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		DE	UK
1991	Foxbase Alpha	-	UK34 (3 weeks) UK
1993	So tough	-	UK7 (7 weeks) UK
1994	Tiger Bay	-	UK8 (4 weeks) UK
1995	Too Young to Die - The Singles	-	UK17th gold (14 weeks)UK	Singles compilation
1996	Reserection	-	UK50 (2 weeks) UK	with Étienne Daho as St. Etienne Daho
	Casino Classics	-	UK34 (3 weeks) UK	compilation
1998	Good humor	-	UK18 (4 weeks) UK
2000	Sound of Water	-	UK33 (2 weeks) UK
2001	Smash the system	-	UK84 (1 week) UK	Singles compilation
2002	Finisterre	DE92 (1 week) DE	UK55 (1 week) UK
2005	Tales from Turnpike House	-	UK72 (1 week) UK
2009	London Conversations - The Best Of	-	UK79 (1 week) UK	Best of album
2012	Words and Music by Saint Etienne	-	UK26 (2 weeks) UK
2017	Home Counties	-	UK31 (1 week) UK

More albums

• You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone (1993)
• Fairytales from Saint Etienne (Japan, 1995)
• Continental (Japan, 1997)
• Fairfax High (US, 1998)
• Interlude (2001)
• Travel Edition 1990–2005 (USA, 2005)
• Foxbase Beta (2009)
• Saint Etienne on 45 - Part One (Box of 6 vinyl singles, 2011)

Soundtracks

• The Misadventures of Saint Etienne (1999)
• What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day? (2006)
• How We Used to Live (by Pete Wiggs called Saint Etienne presents , 2014)

Fan club albums

• I Love to Paint (1995)
• Built on sand. Rarities 1994–1999 (1999)
• Asleep at the Wheels of Steel. Music for Lost and Other Films (2002)
• Nice Price (2006)
• Boxette (box with four CDs, 2008)
• A Glimpse of Stocking (2010)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	CH	UK	US
1990	Only Love Can Break Your Heart Foxbase Alpha	-	-	UK39 (5 weeks) UK	US97 (2 weeks) US	Original / Author: Neil Young (1970) highest ranking UK September 1991, chart entry US March 1992
	Kiss and Make Up Foxbase Alpha	-	-	UK80 (3 weeks) UK	-
1991	Nothing Can Stop Us / Speedwell Foxbase Alpha	-	-	UK54 (3 weeks) UK	-
1992	Join Our Club / People Get Real So Tough / Foxbase Alpha	-	-	UK21 (3 weeks) UK	-
	Avenue So Tough	-	-	UK40 (2 weeks) UK	-
	The Fred EP (Saint Etienne, Flowered Up & the Rockingbirds )	-	-	UK26 (3 weeks) UK	-	Split EP
1993	You're in a Bad Way So Tough	-	-	UK12 (5 weeks) UK	-
	Hobart Paving / Who Do You Think You Are So Tough	-	-	UK23 (5 weeks) UK	-
	I Was Born on Christmas Day Xmas 93	-	-	UK37 (5 weeks) UK	-
1994	Pale Movie Tiger Bay	-	-	UK28 (4 weeks) UK	-
	Like a Motorway Tiger Bay	-	-	UK47 (2 weeks) UK	-
	Hug My Soul Tiger Bay	-	-	UK32 (2 weeks) UK	-
1995	He's on the Phone Too Young to Die - The Singles	-	-	UK11 (10 weeks) UK	-	feat. Étienne Daho
1998	Sylvie Good Humor	-	-	UK12 (3 weeks) UK	-
	The Bad Photographer Good Humor	-	-	UK27 (2 weeks) UK	-
2000	Tell Me Why (The Riddle) ( Paul van Dyk feat. Saint Etienne)	DE45 (7 weeks) DE	CH82 (3 weeks) CH	UK7 (7 weeks) UK	-
	Heart Failed (In the Back of a Taxi) Sound of Water	-	-	UK50 (2 weeks) UK	-
2001	Boy Is Crying Sound of Water	-	-	UK34 (2 weeks) UK	-
2002	Action Finisterre	-	-	UK41 (2 weeks) UK	-
2003	Soft Like Me Finisterre	-	-	UK40 (2 weeks) UK	-
2005	Side Streets Tales from Turnpike House	-	-	UK36 (2 weeks) UK	-
	A Good Thing Tales from Turnpike House	-	-	UK70 (1 week) UK	-
2009	Method of Modern Love London Conversations - The Best of Saint Etienne	-	-	UK56 (1 week) UK	-

More singles

• Angel / Burnt Out Car (1996)
• Lose That Girl (Austria, 1998)
• Lover Plays the Bass (France, 1999)
• 52 pilot (US, 1999)
• Saturday (France, 1999)
• How We Used to Live (2000)
• Shower Scene (Spain, 2002)
• Stars Above Us (US, 2006)
• Burnt Out Car (Remix, 2008)
• Tonight (2012)
• I've Got Your Music (2012)

Web links

• Official Homepage (English)
• Saint Etienne at laut.de
• Complete discography (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Liner notes from Foxbase Alpha , Deluxe Edition, 2009
2. ↑ chartrigger.blogspot.de: Throwback: Cola Boy
3. ↑ www.acrylicafternoons.com Gigography by Pulp
4. ↑ Bob Stanley in an interview with Melody Maker
5. ^ Liner notes from Nice price , 2006
6. ↑ Rolling Stone album review Good Humor, 1998 (English)
7. ↑ Pitchfork The expanded 2xCD reissues of the St. Etienne catalog continue with 1993's terrific So Tough and 2000's Sound of Water (English)
8. ↑ IMBD: Finisterre - Plot Summary
9. ↑ http://www.saintetienne.com : Words And Music By Saint Etienne
10. ^ Evening paper: Saint Etienne: declaration of love to pop
11. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE CH UK US
12. ↑ Gold / Platinum Awards in UK (database search)