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Biography
Infobox musical artist| name = The Soup Dragons| image = The Soup Dragons.jpg| caption = The Soup Dragons| background = group_or_band| origin = Bellshill , Lanarkshire , Scotland| genre = Indie pop , alternative rock | years_active = 1985–1995| label = The Subway Organization , Raw TV , Sire Records|Sire , Big Life , Mercury Records|Mercury | associated_acts = BMX Bandits (band)|BMX Bandits , The High Fidelity , Future Pilot AKA , Superstar (band)|Superstar , Teenage Fanclub , The Primary 5 | past_members = Sean Dickson Jim McCulloch Ian Whitehall Sushil K. Dade Ross A. Sinclair Paul Quinn (singer)|Paul Quinn The Soup Dragons were a Scottish alternative rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Named after a character in the 1970s children's television show Clangers , the group is best known for its cover of the Rolling Stones ' song " I'm Free (The Rolling Stones song)|I'm Free ."
History
The Soup Dragons formed in Bellshill , a town near Glasgow , in 1985.Thompson, Dave (2000) Alternative Rock , Miller Freeman, San Francisco, ISBN 08793060706 Please check ISBN|reason=Invalid length., p.646-647 The line up was Sean Dickson ( singing|vocals , lead guitar ), Jim McCulloch ( guitar , second voice) who replaced Ian Whitehall and Sushil K. Dade ( bass guitar|bass ). The original drummer , Ross A. Sinclair, left the group after the first proper album, This Is Our Art , to pursue a career in art, and was replaced by Paul Quinn. Most of their songs were written by Dickson, while some were co-written with McCulloch.
The band recorded their first demo tape , You Have Some Too , after playing a few local gigs, and this was followed by a flexi disc single "If You Were the Only Girl in the World". Originally inspired by Buzzcocks and lumped in with the C86 (music)|C86 movement, along with fellow members of the Bellshill Sound , such as the BMX Bandits (band)|BMX Bandits and Teenage Fanclub , they went through a number of stylistic changes in their career.
The band signed to The Subway Organization in early 1986 and their first proper single ( The Sun in the Sky Extended play|EP ) was Buzzcocks-inspired pop punk . The band's big breakthrough came with their second single for Subway, "Whole Wide World", http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=IH7yf0ttsBc Video for Whole Wide World, the band's first, showing an indisputable Buzzcocks sound which reached #2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1986.Lazell, Barry (1997) Indie Hits 1980 - 1989 , Cherry Red Books, ISBN 0-9517206-9-4, p.213 Dickson and McCulloch also moonlighted in BMX Bandits at this time. The band were signed by former Wham! co-manager Jaz Summers' label Raw TV with further indie hits (and minor UK Singles Chart hits) following during 1987 and 1988.Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography , Canongate, ISBN 1-84195-335-0, p.515-6 Over the course of six single (music)|singles (the first three collected in 1986 on a U.S. only compilation, Hang Ten ), they gradually developed a more complex rock music|rock guitar sound, which culminated in their first album proper This Is Our Art , now signed to major label Sire Records . After one single from the album "Kingdom Chairs" failed to chart, the band were dropped by Sire and returned to Raw TV.
In the year following This Is Our Art their sound underwent a change from an indie rock sound, to the rock-dance crossover baggy sound, popular at the time with the release of the album Lovegod . This change mirrored that of fellow Scottish band Primal Scream , and can be attributed to the rise of the methylenedioxymethamphetamine|ecstasy -fueled acid house rave scene in the UK. In 1990, they released their most successful hit single in the UK, " I'm Free (The Rolling Stones song)|I'm Free ", an up-tempo cover of a Rolling Stones song with an added Deejay (Jamaican)|toasting overdub by reggae star Junior Reid , which reached number five. This single featured on the Happy Daze (Madchester album)|Happy Daze compilation.
Subsequent albums continued the rock-dance crossover sound. In 1992 they enjoyed their biggest U.S. hit with "Divine Thing" which reached number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100| Billboard Hot 100 . It also hit number three on the Modern Rock Tracks|Modern Rock chart and its video was nominated by MTV as one of the year's best, http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=hjWsoct-uSo Divine Thing video though beaten by Nirvana (band)|Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit . http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=7RO7ONkc8PU MTV Music Awards 1992 Best Alternative Video category
The band split in 1995 with Quinn joining fellow Bellshill band, Teenage Fanclub . Sushil K. Dade formed the experimental post rock group Future Pilot A.K.A. , and singer Sean Dickson formed The High Fidelity . Jim McCulloch joined fellow Glaswegians Superstar (band)|Superstar ,, formed musical collective Green Peppers, wrote and recorded with Isobel Campbell and formed the folk group Snowgoose .
Discography
Albums
Hang Ten& #33; (Soup Dragons album)|Hang Ten! (compilation, 1987)
This Is Our Art (1988) #60 UK Albums Chart|UK
Lovegod (1990) #7 UK / #88 U.S. / #27 New Zealand|NZ cite web
cite book | first= David | last= Roberts | year= 2006 | title= British Hit Singles & Albums | edition= 19th | publisher= Guinness World Records Limited | location= London | isbn= 1-904994-10-5 | page= 516
Singles
Year
Title
Chart positions
Album
UK Singles Chart
UK Indie Chart
U.S. Hot 100
U.S. Modern Rock
U.S. Dance Club Play
U.S. Top 40 Mainstream
1986
The Sun Is In The Sky EP
-
-
-
-
-
-
1986
"Whole Wide World"
-
#2
-
-
-
-
1986
"Hang-Ten"
-
#2
-
-
-
-
1987
"Head Gone Astray"
-
#3
-
-
-
-
Hang-Ten!
1987
"Can't Take No More"http:/ / www.youtube.com/ watch? v=HpRoqq8-Uxs ''Can't Take No More Video
#65
#1
-
-
-
-
This Is Our Art
1987
"Soft As Your Face"
#66
#2
-
-
-
-
This Is Our Art
1988
"The Majestic Head"
-
#4
-
-
-
-
This Is Our Art
1988
"Kingdom Chairs"
-
-
-
-
-
-
This Is Our Art
1988
4-Track Live E.P.
-
-
-
-
-
-
This Is Our Art
1989
"Backwards Dog"http:/ / www.youtube.com/ watch? v=VNIMC7OwvWo Backwards Dog video
-
#5
-
-
-
-
Lovegod
1989
"Crotch Deep Trash"
-
#11
-
-
-
-
Lovegod
1990
" Mother Universe "
-
-
-
-
Lovegod
1990
I'm Free "
#5
-
#79
#2
#20
-
Lovegod
1990
" Mother Universe remixed version"
#26
-
-
-
#34
-
Lovegod
1991
"Electric Blues"http:/ / www.youtube.com/ watch? v=zeGQ0UJjXx0 Electric Blues video
-
-
-
-
-
-
1992
"Divine Thing"
#53
-
#35
#3
#17
#24
Hotwired
"Pleasure"http:/ / www.youtube.com/ watch? v=J_FcaoXk9Z0 Pleasure video on MTV
