~ ~ ~
Felt is a British band formed in the 1979 in Birmingham, England, UK, and it was founded almost single-handedly by Lawrence Hayward (vocals, guitar), who initiated the band as a solo-project, and around 1980 established it as a proper band with Maurice Deebank (guitar) and Nick Gilbert (drums). The initial style was heavily based on Deebank's guitar sound with a clear inspiration in The Byrds jangle folk rock and Lawrence's maybe biggest lyrical source of inspiration: Television / Tom Verlaine (the name Felt apparently comes from the song "Venus" by Television and written by Tom Verlaine). Gilbert switched to handle the bass as the band had Gary Ainge playing drums, and this was the members list when they signed with Cherry Red Records and recorded their first single in '81, and also for the debut album
Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty (1982). Shortly after the first full album, Gilbert was replaced by bassist Mick Lloyd, and with this line-up they released the following two albums
The Splendour of Fear (Feb. '84), and
The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories (Oct. '84). Before recording their fourth studio and last album for Cherry Red,
Ignite the Seven Cannons (1985), Lloyd was replaced by Marco Thomas and keyboardist Martin Duffy became a new member. His role soon became central, as his Hammond organ would characterize the band's sound for the next three albums to follow. After their '85 album, Deebank left the band, which only made even more room for Duffy's keyboard but also meant a turn to a new and more simple style within their jangle pop and in '86 they signed with Creation Records and released the instrumental fifth album
Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death (Jun. '86) and the longer and more traditional jangle pop, pop / rock album
Forever Breathes the Lonely Word (Sep. '86), which is their perhaps best received album ever. In '87 they released the ep
Poem of the River, and the following year the eigth album
The Pictorial Jackson Review (Mar. '88), which is a somewhat special mix of styles. On the A-side of the album, one will find a bunch of recognizable Felt tracks with uptempo pop / rock and jangle pop and the B-side is dominated by an ambient jazz pop instrumental style, which really tell much of the story of this band: on one hand you have a band playing harmonic jangle pop that may appeal to a broader audience but at the same time, they also embrace a certain experimental ascetic originality that one may find in artists like David Sylvian, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and early Everything but the Girl. The ninth album
Train Above the City (Jul. '88) is the only Felt album not to include band leader Lawrence on the musical part, as he only titled the tracks composed and played by Duffy and Ainge only, which makes it difficult to accept as a Felt album. The following year, Lawrence declared that the band would only release one more album to fulfill his [original?] idea of releasing a total of 10 albums and 10 singles in the span of a 10 year period [which may or may not be correct depending on how one counts their releases]. After the release of
Me and a Monkey on the Moon (Nov. '89) on the indie label él (sub-label of Cherry Red) followed by a short tour, Felt disbanded. Lawrence continued in his glam rock [!] project-band Denim [releasing two full albums], which led him to a collaboration work with Terry Miles. When Denim was shelved in '99, the two formed the band Go-Kart Mozart.
~ ~ ~
