About this item

Peel favourites Saloon were a Reading-based folktronica/dreampop band active between 1998 and 2003.

After watching Austin Powers in a Reading cinema in 1997, university friends Adam Cresswell and Michel Smoughton conspired to form a band together. Wanting to do something in the spirit of bands such as Broadcast, Air and the Velvet Underground, the original criteria for Saloon was that its members had to look good in a roll-neck jumper.

The line-up was completed in 1998, with Cresswell and Smoughton being joined by Amanda Gomez on vocals, Alison Cotton on viola and Matt Ashton on guitar.

Saloon quickly became darlings of fanzine writers, with their distinctive and languid lo-fi sound being described as like “Belle and Sebastian in space”. After a run of 7-inch singles on a series of indie labels, they were invited to record their first session for the legendary John Peel in 2001. It was an utterly alien experience for the band, who were most used to recording on four-track tape machines in their bedrooms.

Saloon went on to record a total of three sessions for the BBC (the second was a live session; the other two are collected here). The band also featured in Peel’s Festive 50, including the No.1 in 2002 with the single ‘Girls Are The New Boys’.

Throughout five and a half years together, Saloon gigged relentlessly, travelling up and down the UK in a converted post van (and money pit) named Dave. They played with indie royalty including Laika, Electrelane, Of Montreal, Movietone, Quickspace, Sea Power and American Analog Set – plus the band they were most often compared to, Stereolab.

Saloon released two studio albums on Darla Records in the US and Track and Field in the UK and Europe. The debut (This Is) What We Call Progress (2002) was listed in the Sunday Times albums of the year; the follow-up If We Meet in the Future (2003) received 8/10 in NME. Saloon called it a day in 2004. This Peel Sessions release for Precious Recordings of London is the first Saloon output since the singles compilation Lo-Fi Sounds, Hi-Fi Heart in 2006.

TRACK LISTING

1. Spacer (session) 03:49
2. Bicycle Thieves (session) 05:16
3. Make It Soft (session) 04:31
4. Girls Are The New Boys (session) 05:24
5. Vesuvius (session) 03:17
6. Kaspian (session) 04:21
7. Happy Robots (session) 04:13
8. I Could Have Loved A Tyrant (session) 05:59