| 33rd | Top performers on Top of the Pops: 1988 |
| All About Eve | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Swarm |
| Origin | England |
| Genres | Alternative rock Folk rock Gothic rock (early) Shoegazing |
| Years active | 1984 – 1993, 1999 – 2004 |
| Labels | Mercury, Vertigo, MCA, JamTart |
| Former members | |
| Julianne
Regan Andy Cousin Tim Bricheno Mark Price Marty Willson-Piper James Richard Jackson Manuela Zwingman Warne Livesey Rik Carter Del Hood Robin Guy Toni Haimi Ben Savigear |
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All About Eve are a British rock/pop band. The creative core consists of Coventry-born Julianne Regan (vocals) and Andy Cousin (bass guitar), with other members changing over the years.
Contents |
Julianne Regan, a former journalist, played bass in an early line-up of Gothic rock group Gene Loves Jezebel before leaving to join All About Eve, previously known as the Swarm. The initial core of All About Eve was Regan, guitarist Tim Bricheno, and bassist Andy Cousin from Aemotti Crii. As a three-piece (plus a drum machine), they released a series of independent singles in the mid 1980s including "D for Desire", "In the Clouds" and "Flowers In Our Hair". After Regan sang backing vocals for The Mission's God's Own Medicine album, the band received greater attention and were signed to Phonogram. Drummer Mark Price was added around this time.
Their self-titled debut album was produced by Paul Samwell-Smith and released in 1988, it produced the UK hit single "Martha's Harbour".
The album itself reached #7 on the United Kingdom album charts, with much of its lyrical material drawing from hippie ideals, white magic and dreamlike fairy tales, the album's gentle folk rock-inspired pop sound won the band many fans (nicknamed "angels"). Their music is sometimes considered gothic rock by the media, some fans claim the band did not play gothic rock after 1986, though are connected mostly due to the engagements of ex-bandmembers in the musical scene of the time.
In a well known incident, the band later performed a dubbed version of "Martha's Harbour" on the BBC1 television show Top of the Pops, but, owing to a studio technical error, the taped vocals were broadcast without the band being able to hear them, resulting in the TV audience hearing the recorded version of the song, while the band members sat motionless on screen waiting for their cue to begin. By way of compensation the band were invited back on to the show to play live the following week, and this time their performance passed off smoothly.
The following year, their second album Scarlet and Other Stories was released, and the band toured around the UK, it was another top 10 hit for the band. Widely prevalent on this album were Regan's somber, highly melancholic moods. Painful chance encounters with love also appeared on the lyrical front, and it is this motif (and period of time) which was to greatly paint the picture for the future of the band as well.
In 1990, Bricheno left the group (later to join The Sisters of Mercy for their Vision Thing era, and subsequent bands XC-NN and Tin Star) to be swiftly replaced by The Church's Marty Willson-Piper. They went on to record Touched by Jesus in 1991 (which featured David Gilmour of Pink Floyd on guitar on two tracks), before changing record companies and taking a dramatic stylistic change by releasing Ultraviolet the year after.
Going an altogether different way to their previous release, Ultraviolet mellowed the band's sound greatly, revisiting Scarlet's general sorrowful feel with a heavy inspiration from the shoegazing movement and psychedelia to turn the Eve signature sound ever colder, with much downplayed vocals. The album, released by MCA Records was not well supported by the record company, considering the change to be for the worse, and the band subsequently went their separate ways. MCA, shedding no tears, promptly deleted the album from their catalogue. Although the band continued for a couple more months without Regan's input, they disbanded in early 1993, with the album they had been working on at the time eventually seeing the light of day under the group name Seeing Stars.
Regan went on to form Mice and to work with Bernard Butler, but an album with the latter never came to fruition due to personality clashes. Though often quoted that Julianne thought Butler to be "Satan", this quote is in fact not true. Later on, she also teamed up with her old Gene Loves Jezebel acquaintance Jean-Marc Lederman in the highly atmospheric Jules et Jim project.
At the end of the 1990s, old friends The Mission reformed after a short break and started touring. They invited Regan to open for them, and their offer was accepted, starting the second era of the band. Soon after the tour the newly-reformed (Regan, Willson-Piper & Cousin) All About Eve toured for two years, releasing Fairy Light Nights, an acoustic live collection in 2000, with Volume 2 following in 2001, and later followed by two more live albums Live and Electric at the Union Chapel and Cinemasonic (the latter of which was also released as a DVD). A collection of early recordings was also released, entitled Return to Eden, Vol. 1: The Early Recordings (no second volume has yet appeared).
In 2002, Willson-Piper left the band to pursue other projects, to be replaced by new guitarist Toni Haimi, previously of the band Malluka and currently a member of the Sohodolls. Also in 2002, Julianne and Andy released their first studio recordings in a decade, with the EP Iceland – a collection of "winter songs", including reworkings of previous fan-favourite "December" and cover versions of Wham!'s "Last Christmas", Queen's "A Winter's Tale", and a minimalist electronic take on the popular song from the animated short The Snowman, "Walking in the Air".
In mid-2004, shortly after the release of their first single in a decade, "Let Me Go Home", the band split once again. Regan is currently working on projects including The Eden House, a collaboration initiated by Tony Pettitt (formerly of Fields of the Nephilim) and Steve Carey (formerly of This Burning Effigy) and an album of cover versions and new material with Wayne Hussey. The nearly-completed All About Eve studio album that was being worked on remains unreleased: in April 2009, Regan stated on her Facebook page: "All About Eve are dormant and may never happen again. I don't ever like to say never though, but it seems we've all moved on and are exploring other avenues."[1]
A double CD collection entitled Keepsakes, consisting of the singles, key album tracks and previously unreleased rarities, as well as some newly recorded songs, was released in early March 2006, and was initially available with a DVD of the promo videos and TV appearances.
The re-issue of the first four albums, re-packaged to include some previously un-released bonus tracks, was originally scheduled for May 2007; however, the band was unable to commit to a full promotional tour and the record company, considering such publicity to be vital to the successful re-issue of these albums, postponed their release indefinitely. An album of live sessions, The Complete BBC Sessions, is suffering a similar fate.
| Title | Date of Release | US Chart Position | UK Chart Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| All About Eve | 1988 | ??? | 7 |
| Scarlet and Other Stories | 1989 | ??? | 9 |
| Touched by Jesus | 1991 | ??? | 17 |
| Ultraviolet | 1992 | ??? | 36 |
In common with several British bands of the era, there also exist numerous live bootleg recordings and "fanclub only" vinyl records and cassettes of varying quality, the most well known of which is:
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   | Candytree - All About Eve & Julianne Regan main site - all about eve |
| | Unofficial (but approved) All About Eve fansite by 'Goony'. Very comprehensive - All About Eve - Homepage |
| | And another (!) of Julianne's sites, with audio clips of Julianne's solo work and collaborations - Julianne Regan on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads |
| | Another of Julianne's sites, focused on All About Eve & with audio clips - ALL ABOUT EVE on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads |
| | Early history of the band site - Curious Yellow - All About Eve |
| | Ectophiles' site - The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music - All About Eve |
| | http://www.allabouteve.net/ - Web Page Under Construction |
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