The House of Love
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The House of Love are a British rock band that had their biggest hits in the early 90s.
Band history
After Guy Chadwick's first band Kingdoms broke up after only one single, the guitarist and singer from Islington, England , started looking for a new band. The band name was inspired by the novel A Spy in the House of Love by Anaïs Nin . Together with his friend, the drummer Pete Evans, he looked for more musicians through an advertisement in the Melody Maker and found the guitarist Terry Bickers, the New Zealand bassist Chris Groothuizen and the German singer and guitarist Andrea Heukamp. They soon made a name for themselves as a live band in their homeland.
As a big fan of The Jesus and Mary Chain , Chadwick stubbornly stuck with their record boss Alan McGee until the band was finally allowed to record their first single Shine On in May 1987 , which was released on McGee's label Creation Records . The critics' praise was followed by a little-noticed second single, before they secured a larger fan base through enthusiastic concert appearances. Singer Andrea, for whom touring had become too much, took a break from the band before the single Christine and the first album were released in 1988 . Both releases hit the top of the independent charts not only in England, but also in the rest of Europe and the United States.
Although they then graced the front pages of music magazines and were predicted to have a great career, their first single Never started on a new label with a moderate number 41 in the official UK charts. In addition, there were the typical Rock'n'Roll airs such as alcohol and drug abuse and vandalism, negative headlines that led to rather cautious reactions. The next single I Don't Know Why I Love You also stayed at number 41, but was her biggest hit in the US modern rock charts (number 2 in 1990). Shortly afterwards there was an argument between Guy and Terry Bickers and the separation: Terry was replaced by Simon Walker, the guitarist of the Dave Howard Singers.
In February 1990 they re-recorded their very first single Shine On and landed their biggest single hit in Great Britain at number 20. The immediately following album, which, like all early albums, had no title and is usually called the Butterfly album (because of the illustrated, cover-filling butterfly), even reached number 8 on the album charts and sold over 400,000 copies. This was followed by tours of England, where The House of Love even filled the Royal Albert Hall , Europe and the USA.
Then came singles like Beatles and the Stones , The Girl with the Loneliest Eyes , Feel and You Don't Understand, and they were average chart successes , just like the third LP Babe Rainbow . Simon Walker then left the band again in 1992 due to musical differences and was replaced by various guest musicians during the album recordings. Simon Mawby, who had already played guitar for Jimmy Somerville , joined the band on the following US tour.
As a result, took The House of Love as a trio still an album that took them again in the charts, but Pete Evans had already decided to quit the music business, and so the end of the band was in 1993 once arrived.
Guy Chadwick then pursued other projects and eventually tried solo, as did Chris Groothuizen. In 2002, The House of Love finally made a somewhat surprising comeback . First of all, the old brawlers Chadwick and the original guitarist Terry Bickers, who had meanwhile been successful with his band Levitation , formed a duo under the old name. Then drummer Peter Evans returned, bassist Matt Jury joined and they went on tour again. In 2004 they even recorded another album, Days Run Away , with whose single Love You Too Much they hit the UK charts again in 2005.
In 2005 the Norwegian band Apoptygma Berzerk covered their hit Shine On and was very successful in the German charts.
Members
- Guy Chadwick
- Pete Evans
- Terry Bickers (until 1989 and since 2002)
- Chris Groothuizen (until 1993)
- Andrea Heukamp (until 1992)
- Simon Walker (1989-1992)
- Simon Mawby (1992/93)
- Matt Jury (since 2002)
Discography
Albums
- The House of Love [sampler of the first two singles] (1988)
- The House of Love [first album] (1988)
- The House of Love [second album] (1990)
- The House of Love [Third album] (1990)
- Babe Rainbow (1992)
- Audience with the Mind (1993)
- The John Peel Sessions 1988: 1989 (2000)
- The Fontana Years (2004)
- Days Run Away (2005)
- The Complete John Peel Sessions (2006)
- Live at the BBC (2009)
- She Paints Words In Red (2013)
Singles
- Shine On (1987)
- Real Animal (1988)
- Christine (1988)
- Destroy the Heart (1988)
- Never (1989)
- I Don't Know Why I Love You (1989)
- Shine On [re-release] (1990)
- Beatles and the Stones (1990)
- The Girl with the Loneliest Eyes (1991)
- Feel (1992)
- You Don't Understand (1992)
- Crush Me (1992)
- Love You Too Much (2005)
- Gotta Be That Way (2005)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The House of Love in the Official UK Charts (English)
- ^ Official German charts
Web links
- Dave Roberts: "The unofficial homepage of The House Of Love". February 2005, archived from the original on September 30, 2012 ; accessed on May 12, 2016 .
- Album review with biographical details (German)