Hefner: Британдық инди-рок тобының тарихы

British indie rock band

Hefner were a British indie rock band formed in east London in 1995. They were active from about 1996 until 2002; since then they have played together only once, for a tribute to the DJ John Peel, who was a strong supporter of theirs.

Hefner's roots stretch back to 1992, when Darren Hayman and Antony Harding met at art school in Kent. The band started playing live in 1995 and, after several line up changes, became a solo project of Darren Hayman. In 1996 he recorded a tape for Sticky Records (named The Devotion Chamber) on which all instruments were played by Hayman himself. His friend from art school, Antony Harding, assisted, providing backing vocals. The band's first release was in April 1997 when the 7 inch single "A Better Friend" was released by Boogle Wonderland. The single featured Harding on drums and John Morrison (from Rhatigan) on bass. Shortly after the release, the record label Too Pure offered a record deal to Darren, who extended the offer to Antony and John. After a few more singles, Hefner recorded their debut album Breaking God's Heart, which was released in 1998. Their song I Love Only You was featured on the 2015 Craig Cash sitcom After Hours.

In 2005, following a legal dispute between Darren Hayman and Too Pure, the rights to all of the band's Too Pure recordings were reverted to Hayman. As a result, the band has released a best of album, a 2 CD collection of 43 unreleased songs called Catfight and a live album, recorded at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios. All of the band's studio albums have been reissued as 2 CD sets with bonus tracks. Planned for the future is a compilation of BBC session tracks. The band recorded ten sessions for John Peel's BBC Radio One programme, as well as a number of live performances, and eleven of their tracks made it into the Festive 50. Darren Hayman and Jack Hayter played Hefner songs at a number of dates in Europe in June 2008. Despite this, Hayman has said that Hefner will not reform unless it's with the original line up. He has consistently aired his disdain for bands that reform.