Дом Любви: История Альтернативного Рока

English alternative rock band

The House of Love are an English alternative rock band, formed in London in 1986 by singer songwriter guitarist Guy Chadwick and co founder and lead guitarist Terry Bickers. They rose to prominence in 1987 with their first single "Shine On", released on the independent label Creation. The following year, the band released their critically acclaimed eponymous debut album and built their reputation over the next few years through subsequent releases, constant touring and the support of English press. They signed with Fontana Records in 1989 and met commercial success in 1990 with their second self titled album, which peaked at number 8 in the UK albums chart. Their third album, Babe Rainbow, was favourably met by the critics in 1992 and also reached the top 40 in the UK. The House of Love are best known for their detailed psychedelic guitar sound and for other singles such as "Christine" and "Destroy the Heart". In the US, the songs "I Don't Know Why I Love You", "Marble" and "You Don't Understand" were also popular on alternative rock radio stations, respectively reaching number two, number five and number nine on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. The House of Love disbanded in 1993. After a hiatus of 10 years, they reformed in 2003 with Bickers, who had performed on their two first albums. They have been cited as an influence by shoegaze bands Slowdive and Ride. In 2020, Chadwick announced a change of line up and that he had recruited a new band.

The House of Love were formed in 1986 in Camberwell, London by former Kingdoms singer and guitarist Guy Chadwick: he had been inspired to start a new band after seeing The Jesus and Mary Chain in concert at London's Electric Ballroom. He wrote a new song called "Christine", which gave him ideas for progress: "The idea of the sound of the group and what kind of musicians to look for female vocals a good take on the Velvets' sonics and of course the image." Chadwick teamed up with an old friend, drummer Pete Evans, and recruited the rest of the initial House of Love lineup via an advert in Melody Maker. This brought together an international band of London born lead guitarist Terry Bickers (ex Colenso Parade), German rhythm guitarist/co singer Andrea Heukamp and bass player Chris Groothuizen (from New Zealand). Chadwick opted to name his new band The House of Love after Anaïs Nin's book A Spy in the House of Love. There was a considerable age differential in the band: Chadwick, by now aged 30, was nearly ten years older than Terry Bickers. Signing to Creation Records, The House of Love released their debut single "Shine On" in May 1987 Looking back on the incident two years later, Bickers confessed "That was frustration. I just found at the time that I didn't have the same aspirations as the rest of the band. I was more into exploring music than exploring the exploitation of markets around the globe. They were really into crusading. And winning. I wasn't." It sold worldwide over 400,000 copies.

The delay proved costly for The House of Love, as it ensured that the band lost momentum. It also coincided with the rise of grunge in the United States and the arrival of The Stone Roses on the British music scene, both of which rapidly consumed the attention of the British music press and rock reviewers. In October 1991, The House of Love returned with a new single "The Girl With the Loneliest Eyes". Although this was hailed in the press as another piece of beautiful pop by the band, it failed to chart (amid accusations of record company distribution incompetence). but only sold respectably (peaking at number 34 on the UK Album Chart). From 1994 onwards, Evans began an ongoing collaboration as producer and musician with teenaged singer songwriter Cat Goscovitch. He contributing heavily to her projects Billy Rain (1994) and Nut (1996) as drummer, guitarist and co songwriter, and returned as one of her key collaborators in 2010. Terry Bickers stayed with Levitation for two albums before acrimoniously quitting the band onstage in 1993. He went on to form another short lived space rock band, Cradle, and was involved briefly with other projects during the late 1990s, but never returned to the prominence or consistent work he had enjoyed with The House of Love and Levitation. In the early 2000s, he re established contact with Guy Chadwick. Various re releases and compilations kept the band in the public eye, including 1998's Best of The House of Love and 2000's The John Peel Sessions 88–89. In 2001, PLR reissued the entire set of recordings which the band had made during their most critically acclaimed period (on Creation Records) with the release of 1986–88: The Creation Recordings. In 2004, The Fontana Years was released, covering the turbulent period of the second album.

In 2003, the reconciled Chadwick and Bickers reformed the House of Love In 2009, Live at the BBC featured selections from the band's post Bickers in concert recordings from 1990 to 1992. In November 2012, Cherry Red announced the release of a 3 CD deluxe edition of their debut self titled album, adding all the remaining Creation recordings and a disc of unissued demos and alternative versions.

In 2020, Chadwick announced a new line up for planned concert dates in the United States, with Keith Osborne (lead guitar, formerly of The Past Present Organization, Idlewild, Helicopter Girl and Reuben's Train), Harry Osborne (bass guitar, also of Someone Anyone) and Hugo Degenhardt (drums, previous work with Bryan Ferry, Rod Stewart and Steve Hackett). After Chadwick spoke of a new album in 2021, the first in 9 years, A State Of Grace was released on 16 September 2022. A UK tour was organised in September with eleven dates across the country, followed by the rescheduled 30th Anniversary Tour in North America in October.