They came. They conquered (a bit). They went away. They came back again (briefly). They disappeared again (possibly indefinitely)....
This is the story of the Sundays; a band who in some ways didn't seem to want to exist in the first place, even though they were very good at it, and then disappeared after less than a decade and three albums, with barely a whisper.
The reluctant indie darlings:
Harriet Wheeler met David Gavurin at Bristol University in the mid-1980s and fell in love. Wheeler had sung a bit in a band called Jim Jiminee, but beyond that neither seemed that interested in forming a 'proper' band and making the big time.
The two wrote a few songs, and moving back to London, hooked up with drummer Patrick Hannan (who had also been at Bristol Uni, and whose brother played in Jim Jiminee) and bassist Paul Brindley. The Sundays were born - seemingly the only name they could agree on - based around Gavurin's jangly guitar and Wheeler's angelic voice.
The story goes that they eventually got themselves a gig at a London club supporting a band, The Caretaker Race (remember them?). The Sundays were so captivating, that the various music journalists there to see the main act, forgot about them and devoted their reviews to the support act.
Writer David Obuchowski notes about Gavurin and Wheeler at this time; "Neither having had any previous interest in playing in bands or doing anything serious in music" - but they now found themselves at the centre of a bidding war between record labels. The legendary Rough Trade (The Smiths, The Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera) won the war, and by January 1989 debut single, Can't Be Sure (which just missed out on the UK Top40), was out, followed by a session for the illustrious John Peel show.
Can't Be Sure (Official music video)
Two albums and out:
The band had not been building up for years, as was common at the time, so they didn't have much material ready to go. This meant the process for the first album took a long time. This was added to by the bands tinkering and perfectionism. Gavurin would later tell the Toronto Star, "We can't write to deadline. You can't force a whole load of songs out quickly." Wheeler would add, "We're far more critical of ourselves than anyone else, and that's more a concern to us than what the press think."
Reading, Writing & Arithmetic would eventually come out the following year, reach number four in the UK and just break the forty in the US, selling around half a million copies in the process. Not bad considering it seems that the label weren't pushing the record all that much, something the band seemed to have been happy about, with Gavurin telling The Heights in 1990, "I have a fear of what that kind of success does to the music."
Here's Where The Story Ends (Official music video)
With Rough Trade in financial trouble, the band were forced into a move, this time to Parlaphone. Second album, Blind, followed in October 1992, a slightly less jaunty number, but no less packed with great songs than the first. But the cracks were showing. The touring schedule was gruelling and the label wanted the hit records to keep flowing, while the band wanted to focus on taking their time to grow the fanbase. The Blind tour of the US ended up being cut short due to fatigue and homesickness.
Goodbye (Official music video)
Love (Official music video)
The band needed a breather and they slipped out of view for a while. Gavurin and Wheeler built a home studio, and then had their first child in 1995. As ever, there was little fuss or intrigue, they just walked away for a bit.
Static & total Silence:
They slipped back into focus in 1997 with Static & Silence, less critically well received, but full of shimmering pop tunes like their one last hit, Summertime. Although the musical landscape had moved on some in the last five years, plenty of people were still happy to have the Sundays light up their lives again. The album hit the UK Top10 and once again got them into the US Top40, while Summertime gave them their highest charting UK song (#15) and a Top10 on the US Alternative chart.
Summertime (Official music video)
And that was it.
What has happened since? Well, Brindley now works in music tech with the company Music Ally, while Hannan kept up with the drumming, working with acts like Theaudience, Robyn Hitchcock and The Kitchens Of Distinction, and also doing some sound engineering and tour managing.
Wheeler and Gavurin had a second child and... well, who knows? It seems clear that they kept their hand in the music world, making use of their home studio. The two scraps of information that came out around ten years ago, gave fans hope.
In 2014, they randomly agreed to a brief interview with, of all things, the in-flight magazine for American Airlines! They told editor, and huge fan of the band, Adam Pitluk, "First let's see if the music we're currently writing ever sees the light of day, and then we can get onto the enjoyable globe trotting-meets-concert-planning stage." Comedian, author and friend of the couple, David Baddiel, also mentioned in an interview around that time, that "they are doing music, but whether they ever put that out there, I've no idea."
So, two brief moments of hope.... and a decade more of silence.
As Dickie Felton notes, "They should be allowed to disappear. We don't own them. There's something quite rock n roll about vanishing into thin air."
This is echoed in a long piece by Obuchowski in Longreads. He explains his desire to set out and get one definitive set of interviews with the band. He had been a massive fan since childhood and felt that, if he got the opportunity, he could do some deep dive interviews about their experiences inside and out of the band, fill in all of the gaps, and move away from the usual trite, obvious lines of questioning.
As he says, "The story's too simple. It's also too unremarkable for such a remarkable band. It had never crossed my mind that this is the story they, as a band, probably wanted out there."
He messaged Hannan on LinkedIn, he emailed Brindley via Music Ally - the former ignored him, but the latter did reply. Politely, Brindley told him he was not interested in being interviewed, but that he would pass a message on to Gavurin and Wheeler. Obuchowski held out hope that he would get an invite to go and see them during his planned trip to the UK. When that hope faded, he considered pitching up at their door - until his wife, horrified, pointed out, 'what if they hate you for doing that?' He realised that could leave him, every time he listened to their music, being reminded that this is the band that hates you. So he didn't.
In the end, we can leave it to Harriet Wheeler to sum it all up in a nutshell. "There was never a time I wanted to be incredibly famous, or in a pop group. It just seemed a great thing to do to spend time working on something that's your own."
Ah well, maybe next decade.....
Hideous Towns (Live in Seattle 1993 - not the greatest quality, but there aren't many live performances of them on video)
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