help identify British band...

Cafe Society
1

I’m going crazy trying to remember this name - so I’m turning to the SDMB since I know that someone here will know the answer. The back story - I was just in England and talking to some friends about going into a music store to buy stuff I couldn’t find in the States- as part of the conversation I was trying to remember the name of a band I’d heard about but never really heard. Anyway, I suddenly went blank and couldn’t think of the name, and neither could my friends, based on the little I could remember. It was driving us all up the wall -

Here’s what I know (it’s not much). I first heard this band a year or so ago on one of the Internet radio channels on sonicnet.com (now part of vh1.com) - the British 80’s station, I think. I thought “hey, I like this” and looked them up on allmusic.com, but never bought an album.

From allmusic.com, they apparently were fairly popular in England with numerous albums and singles that charted (I think in the top ten?) but never really came over to the US.

They were around during the mid-late 80’s (they may still be around). The sound was similar to the whole Manchester thing that became popular around then - the Smiths, that style of music. That’s how I remember it, at least. I do know that it was definitely 80’s alternative/college. Something similar to Cure, Housemartins, Beautiful South the La’s, Charlatans UK, the Sundays, Depeche mode etc.

I know that they’re listed on allmusic.com and I remember that I checked cdnow.com and another music-buying site (maybe Amazon?) and they were listed there too - so it’s not a band that’s so obscure that you can’t find the albums here in America.

I know the name of the band was at least two words. Would remember it if I heard it.
Someone help me - this is really driving me crazy that I can’t remember it.

By the way, for all the artists listed above, I did check the “related artists” column on allmusic.com to see if the band I’m thinking of was listed - it wasn’t. Maybe that means that the style of the band is something completely different from what I remember…
Cricket

2

Was there a male or female singer/s?

3

Maybe The Stone Roses? They were more late '80s early '90s but if I’m correct they were hugely popular in the UK but only made a minor splash in the US.

Or if I’m incorrect here’s a bump so maybe someone else can guess.

4

Yeah, it would have helped to mention whether it was a male/female/mixed group, eh? Chalk it up to jet lag. ( I just got home last night).

As it happens, as soon as I posted this, I thought of one more way to figure it out - and as a result of an obscure Google search for what I thought was a song name, managed to solve the mystery. The band I was thinking of was The Divine Comedy. And looking at the allmusic.com entry I can see I was way off. They’re early-to-mid 90’s, not 80’s and the similar artists list doesn’t include any of the bands I mentioned. Sigh. So much for my memory. I only hope I don’t forget it again.

Thanks to anyone who took a moment to think about it based on my obscure information…

Cricket

5

The Happy Mondays?
808 State?