Yeah Yeah Noh

Formed in Leicestershire in 1983 by vocalist Derek Hammond and guitarist John Grayland, this inventive post-punk act got a break when they caught the ear of BBC Radio 1's John Peel. Over the next two years, they recorded five singles and an album for Marc Riley's In Tape label -- as well as four sessions for Peel -- dabbling in psychedelia as their repertoire grew. The band split in 1986, despite becoming regulars on the U.K. indie chart. However, 2012 brought a re-formation at Grayland's 50th birthday party, which led to more gigs and 2015's Automatically Saturday. Hammond and Grayland met in 1981 while working at an Oadby pub and instantly bonded over music. A student at Leicester Polytechnic, Grayland sometimes helped with events coordination, booking the Fall and playing in support acts to bands such as Soft Cell and the Thompson Twins. When Printhead, a fanzine he co-edited with Sue Dorey, began to gain momentum, they won a grant to press a compilation LP of local indie talent. The resulting Let's Cut a Rug included "Bias Binding," a track by Hammond and Grayland under the Yeah Yeah Noh name. When Peel began to play it on national radio on an almost nightly basis, they decided it was time to put a proper band together. The group's caustic and droll June 1984 debut, the Cottage Industry EP, featured Graham Summers of the Deep Freeze Mice on drums and Adrian Crossan on bass. However, by the time of their follow-up -- October's "Beware the Weakling Lines" -- Dorey had replaced Summers. February 1985 brought the Prick Up Your Ears EP before these first three releases were compiled on the mini-album When I Am a Big Girl. Next, Tom Slater joined as an additional guitarist, resulting in a more experimental, psychedelic sound as evinced on August's "Another Side to Mrs. Quill" and that year's full-length debut, Cutting the Heavenly Lawn of Greatness…Last Rites for the God of Love. Still, they weren't earning enough to make a living and when Grayland moved to London and Dorey emigrated to Egypt, in 1986 they disbanded. That year's collection of Peel sessions, Fun on the Lawn, Lawn, Lawn proved a fitting swan song, with Peel additionally issuing their final session on his own Strange Fruit label. In the intervening years, Hammond became a writer, publishing a London travelogue and a compendium of football memorabilia. When the band regrouped in the summer of 2012 only Hammond, Grayland, and Slater appeared from their earlier incarnation, although bassist Dermot O'Sullivan had recorded with them in the '80s. Drummer Antony Cook and keyboard player Eva Landsberg completed the revised lineup, but the latter was soon replaced by Fi Hodgson. In 2013, after demoing new material, Yeah Yeah Noh were invited by their old label boss Riley to record a session for his BBC 6Music show. Then, in January 2014, sessions began for their second studio album, Automatically Saturday, which appeared the following year with cleaner production than anything they had previously issued.
© James Wilkinson /TiVo