Ultrasound (90s UK Indie)

Ultrasound are an English indie rock band. With roots in the British underground psychedelic and experimental rock scenes of the 1980s and early 1990s, the band emerged in 1997 and soon gained attention for their "operatic prog-glam ambitions" and "violent reworking of the idiosyncratic compositions of Captain Beefheart and the staged ambisexual pop idioms of the likes of Marc Bolan and David Bowie". Signing a high-profile deal with Nude Records at the tail-end of the Britpop era, the band released several well-received singles and were tagged as "another big, bright hope for British music" but split up acrimoniously in 1999 following the release of their debut album Everything Picture. Reuniting in early 2010, Ultrasound have gone on to tour and to release two further albums. Future Ultrasound singer/rhythm guitarist Andrew "Tiny" Wood was born in Birkenhead and began his musical career in 1980 (under the pseudonym of "Anna Virgina War") in the experimental/industrial trio Possession with Victor Watkins and Stephen Thrower. Possession released one album on the A-Mission label in 1984 (The Thin White Arms, Obtusely Angled At the Elbow, Methodically Dipping and Emerging) before breaking up, with Thrower moving on to Coil the following year. Wood subsequently played with guitarist and songwriter Paul Hope in a band called Step TLV. By 1989, aged twenty-five, Wood was attending the Popular and Commercial Music course at Wakefield College, Yorkshire, England as a mature student. Here, he met two of the future Ultrasound members - Richard Green (a 16-year-old classical cellist) and drummer Andy Peace. Moving on to a music degree course in Newcastle, they encountered future Ultrasound bass player Vanessa Best. Following a succession of brief-lived bands, Wood, Green and Peace teamed up with Wood's old ally Paul Hope. Joined by Hope's flute-playing wife Rachel Theresa, the five put together a psychedelic rock band called Sleepy People. For the next two years the band toured around the UK playing in various small venues around the UK and gaining underground attention. Wood, Green and Peace all appear on Sleepy People's 1994 cassette album Blunt Nails In A Sharp Wall (originally a cassette release, but reissued on CD in 1999 on ORG Records). Tiny Wood and Richard Green left Sleepy People in 1995, taking keyboard player Pete Haslam with them. Moving to London, they formed a new progressive/art rock band, Pop-A-Cat-A-Petal, which began earning underground attention (in particular after supporting cult band Cardiacs). At this point, Green played bass (as he had in Sleepy People) and Wood doubled on guitar and harmonium as well as lead vocals. Andy Peace (who had left Sleepy People some time earlier than Wood, Green and Haslam) would also join Pop-A-Cat-A-Petal, replacing sometime drummer Steve Gilchrist. Pop-A-Cat-A-Petal released a self-titled cassette EP on Org Records in 1995, but did not prosper. Wood was later to comment that the band "had a bit too much prog-rock about it." Vanessa Best (who had moved to London and was singing as a backing vocalist in a George Michael tribute band) was added to the Pop-A-Cat-A-Petal line-up as bass player, with Green moving to lead guitar. With the subsequent departure of Haslam, the band began to reduce their more obvious progressive rock influences in favour of a stronger element of 1970s glam rock and a more pronounced indie rock outlook. Circa 1996, Pop-A-Cat-A-Petal changed their name to Ultrasound. Despite the more commercially acceptable developments of their sound, the renamed band was initially no more successful. Following a year of struggling to keep going (during which time Matt Jones was brought into the band on keyboards to expand the sound), Ultrasound released their first single "Same Band" on Fierce Panda in July 1997. It brought them some favourable press in NME, who described it as "(sounding) like The Who's Tommy - in its entirety - squeezed into four-and-a-half minutes... utterly heroic and bizarrely, by some distance, their most understated moment." This led to the band performing in the NME sponsored Unsigned Showcase event. In turn, the Unsigned Showcase appearance led Ultrasound to a recording contract with Nude Records, following a bidding war between various record labels excited by the band's powerful live presence. The band's first two singles for Nude were "Best Wishes" and "Stay Young" (1998), the latter of which reached No. 30 in the UK Singles Chart. The band received favourable reviews for their recorded output, while receiving a good deal of press attention for their energetic live gigs, unusual appearance and determined outsider appeal. Wood, in particular, became a frequent interviewee and subject of attention in the British weekly music press, making a virtue of subjects usually avoided or discouraged in pop music discourse (such as his relative older age as a rock star debutante, his imposing physique, and his unfashionable enthusiasm for progressive rock). In October 2011, NME placed "Stay Young" at number 109 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". The band compounded their 1998 success by playing a string of music festivals, culminating in a critically acclaimed performance at the Glastonbury Festival during a torrential downpour. One more single followed in October 1998, "I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours" (about a relationship gone sour), and the band toured with Placebo. During 1998, Ultrasound worked in the recording studio on their debut album, Everything Picture. The band released their fifth single, "Floodlit World" (a re-recording of a B-side from the "Same Band" single) in March 1999. It was both a Melody Maker 'Single of the Week' and a modest chart success reaching number 39. Everything Picture was released in April 1999 as a double album CD, or triple vinyl, release. The album received poor reviews for its length and lack of focus. In spite of the negative critical response, Everything Picture reached number 23 in the UK Albums Chart. Ultrasound maintained their high media profile via a guest appearance at London Fashion Week, at which Wood contributed to the Red or Dead fashion house display by posing as a model, and flashing his substantial stomach (on which the word "Unique" had been scrawled in makeup). This particular opportunity gained an appearance on the front page of The Independent newspaper. Peace and Jones also carried out a naked catwalk streak, which was captured on live TV. During the summer, the band cancelled a set of live dates during the festival season, including one at the T in the Park festival in Scotland, although they did fit in a second Glastonbury appearance. The album track "Aire & Calder" was selected as the next single, although the band clashed with record label Nude regarding the editing of the track for airplay. The single was not released. In the autumn of 1999, severe existing tensions within Ultrasound reached breaking point and Richard Green walked out on the band. With their main songwriter gone (and continuing dissension among the remaining members), the band foundered. Ultrasound officially split up on 12 October 1999. While the other band members went their separate ways to pursue new projects, Tiny Wood remained in London and briefly attempted to reform Ultrasound with a new line-up. This included drummer Andy Peace, ex-Sleepy People bassist Bill Bailey, keyboard player Carly Graham and guitarist Adam Taylor. The new version of Ultrasound recorded an EP which never saw the light of day and performed their only live show at the Newcastle Arts Centre in the spring of 2000 but disbanded shortly afterwards due to the 5 members being located so far from one another. Wood returned to Newcastle and formed a new band called Siren with Carly Graham, Jayne Pearson, Leon Tighe and Pete Moffat. Wood also took on the role of lead singer in Blue Apple Boy (featuring his former Sleepy People bandmates) and performed on