Shed Seven

Shed Seven embodied the swagger of Britpop, courtesy of brash guitar-rock anthems imbued with funky grooves and swooning, yearning melodrama. The band coalesced in 1990 in York, around a lineup that featured vocalist Rick Witter and bassist Tom Gladwin. Guitarist Paul Banks, who had played in a band with Witter when both were teenagers, joined Shed Seven as they signed a record deal in 1993. Their Smiths-esque debut single, “Mark”, made a small dent on the charts, and the group’s career took off with a pair of soon-to-be classics on their first album, 1994’s Change Giver: the noisy “Dolphin” and the chiming anthem “Speakeasy”. The 1996 follow-up, A Maximum High, was an even bigger success, becoming their first Top 10 album and producing hits including the horn-peppered “Getting Better”. After continued success through the turn of the century, the band launched a farewell tour in 2003 before reconvening four years later. They’ve been together since, releasing a new studio album in 2017 (Instant Pleasures) and a live album in 2020 (Another Night, Another Town) while also touring.