Echobelly

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Echobelly

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London based Britpop band. Founded in 1992 when vocalist Sonya Madan & guitarist Glenn Johansson met in a pub, with Madan expressing an interest for singing in a band. Soon after bassist Alex Keyser & drummer Andy Henderson (2) were drafted in, with guitarist Debbie Smith - formerly of Curve - rounding out the group in 1994. The band came up with the name from the notion of "being hungry for something".

Upon releasing their debut 'Bellyache EP', Echobelly found themselves securing a contract with label Rhythm King (which at the time was part of Epic), leading to their first album 'Everyone's Got One' in June of 1994. After receiving major airplay they became a mainstay of the blossoming Britpop genre. Their sophomore record 'On' gained rave reviews by fans & critics, leading it to sell twice as many as their debut, with all the singles birthed from it entering the top 30. After a major illness Madan decided to venture away from the band in 1996 after working with the House act Lithium, and Debbie Smith also left due to creative differences. Sonya returned to the fold in 1997 in time for the band's third album 'Lustra', with the singles 'The World Is Flat' & 'Here Comes The Big Rush' failing to hit the top 30. This would lead to a 4 year hiatus, which came to a close with the release of the 2001 '[r=2447107] EP'. This was followed up by their 4th album 'People Are Expensive' through their own label Fry Up and featured new bassist Ruth Owen. In 2004 the band released their 5th album 'Gravity Pulls'. Following this both Owen & Henderson decided to leave the band, and the decision was made to break up.

In 2009 Johansson & Madan performed an acoustic set, featuring fan favourites and new demos. These new demos would later become their side-project Calm Of Zero, where 2 mini-albums would be recorded and released in 2012. In 2015 Echobelly returned to the stage, performing a sold-out gig at The Scala in London. The following year they announced that a new album was in the works, this would be the 2017 release 'Anarchy And Alchemy' featuring 3300152 on bass and 5766875 on drums. In 2018 the band's third compilation 'Black Heart Lullabies' was released.

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Echobelly are a British rock band, debuting in 1994 with their album Everyone's Got One. They were often compared to Blondie and The Smiths; Morrissey becoming a fan of the group. The most prominent part of Echobelly's success formula was vocalist Sonya Madan, who was also the group's lyricist. Born in Delhi, India, before moving to England at the age of two, Madan had an atypical background for a pop star. Her upbringing made rock music an unusual choice for her as a youngster and she did not attend her first rock concert until she was in college. In 1990 she met Glenn Johansson, a guitarist from Sweden. In a radio interview with Janice Long, on BBC Radio Wales, in December 2017, she admitted that her parents had initially found it hard to accept her choice of career.