cradleyard

cradleyard were one of Sheffield's late 80's / early 90's indie bands that made a name for themselves abroad but gained very little notoriety in their home city of Sheffield. Starting in 1987, various early demos earned some critical interest from a few A&R departments (notably CBS) but none were willing to take a risk on an eccentric guitar outfit in the middle of the acid house scene. In response, cradleyard simple formed their own record label (Purple) and put out an EP called Project Alkaline. The anti establishment / deliberately unfashionable DIY approach seemed to charm influential musical journalists and radio DJ's in France resulting in the creation of a significant underground cult following among French speaking students in particular. Project Alkaline was voted single of the year in 1991 by the French music press, ahead of the band cradleyard shared it's rehearsal room with, Pulp. By the time cradleyard had release their second EP (This is the birth) they were a big enough attraction to headline France's main live band venue, Paris's La Locomotive. REM had played the week before and Radiohead the week after. This is the birth became France's indie single of the year for 1992. The collapse of Rough Trade (who distributed) cradleyard's releases meant that new material never got released. Some of the bands buried tracks emerged on a mini album that came out in 2017 in digital form only (Turning My Mind Off). Band members didn't give up on music and did go on to work in the music business, have hits with other bands, organised major national music festivals and bass player Richard even won a Grammy for work on Radiohead's In Rainbows album (2008). We like to think cradleyard was the spark of other successes even if the band in Sheffield is now largely forgotten.