Everything But The Girl

January 1, 2002 11:31 AM

Everything But The Girl has had a website for some time now, but there's more to the band than meets the eye. Ben and Tracey recall their interesting histories including when and where they met. Though an excellent resource for information on the releases of the band, you may also discover Ben's struggle with Churg-Strauss syndrome, a quite bleak condition. And, of course, you no longer need wonder how Ben and Tracey came up with the name.
posted by moz (23 comments total)

OK, that explains how the band got the name, but how did the store get the name? I'm still confused.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:00 PM on January 1, 2002

The shop, which stood on the Beverley Road, sold brand new but dated household furniture to newly married couples.

it's a pun -- not immediately clear from the website, though i've read this elsewhere -- for the store sold everything you would need but the girl. ha ha.
posted by moz at 12:03 PM on January 1, 2002

Good lookin' out, Moz! They put on a lovely show at the Warfield some years ago on their "Walking Wounded" tour. And as Anil Dash has previously noted, their cover genius also extends to Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Corcovado."
posted by allaboutgeorge at 12:51 PM on January 1, 2002

Ben's book, Patient, ranks among the finest autobiographies I have ever read. He's a splendid writer with a keen sense of humor and a talent for storytelling.
posted by gsh at 1:29 PM on January 1, 2002

Ah, the Marine Girls.. Now they were truly great!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:53 PM on January 1, 2002

My understanding of how the store got its name was that "Everything was for sale, except the girl" - the girl was the owners daughter.
posted by AdamJ at 4:57 PM on January 1, 2002

You know, I couldn't care less about the band, but still found the site to be pretty interesting.
posted by Hima Otsubusu at 5:15 PM on January 1, 2002

I have an old Cherry Red sampler with the Marine Girls, Ben Watt, Tracey Thorn and Everything But the Girl all on it at once (along with other CR staples like Eyeless in Gaza and Tears for Fears). I had no idea anyone still listened to any of that old stuff. Next you'll be telling me there'll be some MeFi person named after a Smiths member.
posted by rodii at 5:21 PM on January 1, 2002

Good to see some props to the Go-Betweens on that site, by the way.
posted by rodii at 5:24 PM on January 1, 2002

i like 'temperamental' they have a nice sound. grove as you work if you will. low key yet sway like...
posted by clavdivs at 6:03 PM on January 1, 2002

This MeFi person was at high school with Ben Watt. He played guitar in a school band, called, if I remember right, Fleur Moderne.
posted by liam at 6:38 PM on January 1, 2002

But you're named after an Oasis member, right? :)
posted by rodii at 6:39 PM on January 1, 2002

Liam was probably named after a thousand Irish heroes. Or one of my favourite writers, the author of Assassins, Liam O'Flaherty. The Gallagher guy is a Mancunian. Like Morrissey. And Vini "Durutti Column" Reilly. Or perhaps he was named before Liam Clancy, whose new album is so eagerly awaited in Celtic Portugal.
Manchester brings out the best - well not the best, but a lot of good - in the Irish.

But to get back on topic. Cherry Red Records were absolutely great. Are they still going? I remember the early 80's as being the best for minimalist, whispery, strumming post-pop music.

Even better than early Tracey Thorne was the first 10-inch Mathilde Santing LP. Or the Young Marble Giants' "Colossal Youth".

I had a record label at the time, a real commercial failure pompously called "Fundação Atlântica" and I'm proud to have lost a lot of money trying to make these artists popular in kitsch-loving Portugal...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:47 PM on January 1, 2002

Er, no, not even a member of The Prodigy.
posted by liam at 7:48 PM on January 1, 2002

MiguelCardoso, I'd completely forgotten about Mathilde Santing, but just realised I still have that first 10", alongside EBTG's Night and Day 7". It looks like Cherry Red are still going.
posted by liam at 8:02 PM on January 1, 2002

Er, no,

*sigh* ... thus my smiley.

Miguel! Marine Girls and Durutti Column! You're quite the 80s guy. This is a whole new side of you. Got any good Galician (or whatever they call it on the Portugal side) music recommendations? They like the Oysterband there?
posted by rodii at 8:12 PM on January 1, 2002

rodii: I was already too old - 21 - in 1976, when I first dyed my hair red to go see the Sex Pistols in London. So the 80's are my mature decade. (blush). Hence the love of guitars and melancholy, badly-played lounge music. My first book, pretentiously called "Escrítica Pop" had Ian Curtis on the cover and was subtitled "One-Fourth of the Fourth Decade of Popular Music, 1980-1982".

Hey, my favourite band of all time is Aztec Camera! I cannot speak too highly of all the clips available on Roddy Frame's website, either. He is my idea of a contemporary Cole Porter. Mathilde Santing's version of "We Could Send Letters", one of his first songs, written when he was seventeen or something, always makes me cry. Yes, I am 46. So don't mock an old man!

Regarding the Celtic connection - and you must know the Galicians and us practically speak the same language - it's actually overbearing in Portugal. Not a week goes by without some bagpipe-toting dude coming over from the Atlantic fringes. Green Linnet is as well known a label as EMI. The Oysterband are massive here. Sinatra is our Alan Styvell. Not the other way round; as in normal countries.

I expect it's much more fun if you're not part of something. But Celtiberian is good. Translation: You should come!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:30 PM on January 1, 2002

(Miguel, you and I are precisely the same age.)
posted by rodii at 10:21 PM on January 1, 2002

Well that's certainly established one small but perfectly formed lobby for others to hereinafter fear and respect!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:48 PM on January 1, 2002

Miguel: Thanks for the link to the Aztec Camera site -- lots of interesting things to peruse. But what, no Green Jacket Grey?
posted by nstop at 11:07 PM on January 1, 2002

nstop: criminal, innit? I'm afraid this is all he has to say. Still, live in hope and all that! :)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:12 PM on January 1, 2002

Someone has to mention A Distant Shore. Long forgotten memories are coming back to me...
posted by southisup at 11:56 PM on January 1, 2002

Used to pass the shop everyday on the bus on my way to school. It was a furniture shop called Turners. It had the slogan "Everything but the girl" next to the name. The odd thing is though that a couple of years later, Paul Heaton from the Housemartins and then the Beautiful South (also not from Hull, but passing through as a student) used to get on the same bus around the time that Happy hour was in the charts
posted by Guish at 7:20 AM on January 3, 2002