The Sundays: История британской альтернативной рок-группы

English rock band

The Sundays were an English alternative rock band, formed in the late 1980s, who released three albums throughout the 1990s. The band's beginnings came with the meeting of singer Harriet Wheeler and guitarist David Gavurin while attending Bristol University. Wheeler had played gigs with Cruel Shoes, an early incarnation of the band Jim Jiminee. The duo soon augmented the band with bassist Paul Brindley and drummer Patrick Hannan. The Sundays secured a recording contract with Rough Trade Records. Their debut single was "Can't Be Sure". Their first album, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, was released in 1990 and became a UK top 5 hit. The album's lead single "Here's Where the Story Ends" was a number one hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States. With Rough Trade's financial troubles and the band's decision to manage themselves, the Sundays' next single, "Goodbye", did not emerge until 1992. Their next album, Blind, arrived the same year, reaching the UK top 15. The single "Love" reached number 2 on the US Modern Rock charts. The band toured in support of these recordings. In 1997, their third album, Static & Silence, was followed by the release of their most successful single, "Summertime", which made the UK top 15. The album itself reached the UK top 10. However, the band has been on a lengthy hiatus since those releases, with Wheeler and Gavurin focusing on raising their two children; Wheeler and Gavurin married after the band breakup.

Vocalist Harriet Wheeler and guitarist David Gavurin met as students at Bristol University in the mid 1980s. Wheeler was from Reading, the daughter of an architect and a teacher, and studied English literature. Gavurin was from Wembley and actively pursued a degree in the Romance languages, The two fell in love and began living together. Following graduation they wrote music in their free time while collecting unemployment benefits. the couple had no musical background. The group subsequently became the focus of a record label bidding war. They eventually signed with Rough Trade Records and had a distribution deal signed for the United States with DGC Records. It went on to sell over half a million copies worldwide. alongside their lighter than air guitar pop, influenced the nascent Britpop scene, notably impacting bands like Sleeper. The hit single "Here's Where the Story Ends" also gained considerable success in the USA, propelled by extensive radio play and MTV rotation. The Sundays eventually released a new single, "Goodbye", a minor hit, in Autumn 1992. The release came almost three years after their last UK show. Despite Blind's initial appeal with audiences, it drifted off the charts by the summer of 1993. Although the band retained much of the same sound that they developed on previous albums, they added horns to a number of tracks for Static & Silence. The album was not as successful as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic; however, the single "Summertime" became their most successful hit to date on the UK chart and achieved a top 10 spot on the US Alternative Rock chart. It was The Sundays' third most successful single in the US, behind "Here's Where the Story Ends" (which made it to number 1 on the US Alternative Rock chart) and "Love" (which made it to number 2).

In April 2014, Adam Pitluk, the editor of American Airlines' magazine American Way, tracked down and conducted an interview with Wheeler and Gavurin in which he put forward the idea of a reunion. They responded, "First let's see if the music we’re currently writing ever sees the light of day, and then we can get on to the enjoyable globe trotting meets concert planning stage." On 10 October 2014, during an interview on BBC Radio 6 Music's Radcliffe & Maconie radio programme, David Baddiel described Dave Gavurin as his "oldest mate" and stated that "they [Dave and Harriet] are doing music, but whether they ever put that out there, I’ve no idea. They're the most paranoid people about actually putting stuff out there". In an interview with the C86 Show Podcast released on August 18, 2020, Patrick Hannan revealed that Wheeler and Gavurin had "never stopped making music" and that he had played drums on a number of their tracks. Hannan added that these recordings may never be released.