- Melanie Garside
-
"Melanie Garside" redirects here. For the footballer, see Melanie Garside-Wight.
Melanie Garside 
Background information Also known as Maple Bee Occupations Musician, Music Therapist Associated acts QueenAdreena
Mediæval Bæbes
Huski
Vertigo Angels
Our Lady of Miracles
Tabitha Zu
ZuMelanie Garside is a songwriter, artist and musician whose long career in music has been diverse and often surprising. Currently releasing material under the name of Maple Bee, she is about to release her third solo album entitled These Four Worlds on Xie Recordings. Garside is also a practicing Music Therapist working in and around London.
Contents
Tabitha Zu
Starting out as a well known teenage busker in Cambridge, Garside soon moved on to college near Nottingham where she began playing solo shows under the name Tabitha Zu. During this period she met her first band mates, Jon Hamilton and Phil Stevenson - and Tabitha Zu became three. The band's chaotic and intense live shows quickly caught the attention of the alternative press, Melody Maker, NME and Sounds.
File:Tabitha Zu.jpgGarside performing with Tabitha ZuThe band released two singles Heard It Before and On Reality on TLF records, both landing in the alternative chart top 20. The band played Reading Festival in 1992 to rave reviews, toured Portugal and landed themselves a place on an extensive university tour of the UK named StrollerCoaster. The tour featured five regular bands a night with a special guest appearance from top names of the time including Suede and Oasis. After the departure of the band's bassist Stevenson, Tabitha Zu seemed to undergo an extensive series of changes. Garside appeared solo (with a violinist) supporting Suede at the Underworld, London and with the support of drummer Hamilton, set about looking for a replacement for Stevenson. Hamilton also left the Zu's to join underground noise makers Part Chimp soon after and Garside appeared some months later re-named Zu.
Zu
Also a three piece, Zu was made up of Paul Godfrey on Bass and Adam Woods on Drums. After only a few live shows the band were quickly signed by Echo Records. They released one EP, produced by John Fryer The Apart EP received air play on BBC Radio 1 and went on to receive more great live reviews in the alternative press. Their second unreleased EP Break was produced by Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). The promo video was directed and filmed by Cardiacs frontman Tim Smith. However, Echo Records seemed to pull the plug on the band around this time. The Break EP and video never saw the light of day. Godfrey left the band and after a year of recording demos with producer Dave Dix, Garside underwent a huge change in styling and sound directed by the record label. Garside went on to release her first solo album on Echo Records, Fossil, produced by Julian Mendelsohn - who had worked with the likes of Kate Bush and the Pet Shop Boys.
Melanie Garside
The record was well received by the music business achieving Album of the Month in Music Week and receiving critical acclaim from the broadsheet press - The Sunday Times likening Garside's musical force and talent to that of Annie Lennox. The alternative press who had previously championed Garside, did not take to the new direction. London Underground stations were full of promotional posters for the first single and BBC Radio 1 gave Big White Room extensive daytime play. The videos for the single featured on Saturday morning TV show, The Chart Show. Garside also appeared on The Big Breakfast (Channel 4) with cult puppet act Zig and Zag, she made an evening appearance on The James Whale Show, GMTV and sang with The James Taylor Quartet on The Gaby Roslin Show. Staffing issues at the record label meant that although Big White Room was well received the record was not actually available to buy in the shops and it disappeared fairly quickly. The second single She Knows was available to buy but received very little press. Garside spent the next year touring and traveling in South East Asia, promoting Fossil in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, North Korea and Taiwan.
File:Fossil Japan Sleeve.jpgJapanese Version of FossilThe following year Garside had a baby and was released from her deal with Echo Records.
Our Lady of Miracles/Vertigo Angels
After a year out of the spotlight and some low-key solo London shows, Garside soon formed a new three piece noise band called Our Lady of Miracles.
File:Our lady of Miracles.jpegEarly Press Shot - Garside, Merino & Hamilton - Our Lady of Miracles taken by David LevineRe-united with Tabitha Zu's original drummer and long time friend Jon Hamilton and French bassist Blaise Merino, the band made a fearsome noise, selling packed out shows on London's alternative live circuit. Their first singles Burned and Firefly received a low-key release on Hijack Records and live reviews in Kerrang! and Mojo were glowing. After issues arose around the use of their name, Our Lady of Miracles re-named themselves after one of their songs, Vertigo Angels, releasing their debut album Eradicate Apathy on Cargo Records/Livewire records in 2003. The album, like the inter-band relationship between Garside and Merino, was intense, dark and wild and the band were not set to last, breaking up in 2005 after a final show at Camden's Koko featuring Robin Goodridge (formerly of Bush) on drums.
QueenAdreena and Mediæval Bæbes
Around this period Garside also lent herself to two other projects, Mediæval Bæbes and her sister KatieJane Garside's cult rock band QueenAdreena.
File:Maple Bee Bassist in QueenAdreena - The Astoria.jpgGarside performing with QueenAdreenaOver the next two years Garside recorded and co-wrote with both acts.
During her time in Mediæval Bæbes, Garside toured extensively around Canada, Europe, USA and UK, going on to sing on the Mediæval Bæbes 2005 album, Mirabilis. She wrote, arranged and performed the lead vocal on featured album track All For Love Of One, and the soundtrack to the 2005 BBC Television series The Virgin Queen. The 2006 Mediæval Bæbes Live album, also featured Garside. From 2004 to 2005, she also played bass guitar in her sister, KatieJane Garside's band, QueenAdreena, and appeared on their album, The Butcher and the Butterfly. She toured with them for a short time, before leaving both bands to really focus on her own work as Maple Bee and Huski.
Huski
Garside and Pike Galloway formed their songwriting partnership Huski in 2006. Their first album Love, Peace, Pain was released on Xie Recordings on 17 July 2006, following the three track single Make Me Your Picture (iTunes exclusive), which was released on 22 May 2006.
File:Love Peace Pain.jpegLove Peace Pain Album CoverThe band promoted the album touring the UK with pop-punk due Robots In Disguise. The live line up was made up of Garside, Pike Galloway, Jules Harley and TC (formerly of Mediæval Bæbes).
Huski performing live
Their second album Strangelove, was long in the making and while the band have made available online copies of the album, the official release of their third record H is being released soon. The album features production and mixing from the production/DJ Duo, Psychemagik. Huski have collaborated with renowned photographer and video director James Sutton throughout their career, the live shows featuring mesmerising backdrops of disturbing and confusing imagery. The artwork for Strangelove features a series of dark and seductive photos by Sutton in which Garside and Galloway tell their story in a series of clues and apparent misdemeanors.
Maple Bee
Garside has released three albums as Maple Bee to date, Chasing Eva (2003)
File:Chasing Eva Sleeve.jpegChasing EvaHello Eve (2006) and Home (2008). Chasing Eva was originally released as a double album, but was later re-released with a shortened track list and new artwork as in 2004. The album was entirely written and produced by Garside, except two tracks written in collaboration with cello player Andy Nice and an exotic sounding cover of Doris Day's Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps. Her second album Home was released on Xie Recordings in 2009.
File:Home Sleeve.jpegHome - photography by Bill LingRecorded at in her house and working alone, the album is both intimate and alarming in equal doses. The photos for the artwork for the album were taken by renowned photographer Bill Ling. While You Were Sleeping was released as an exclusive iTunes three track single and received 'Alternative Single of The Week' and glowing reviews in the online press. A video for album track No Place was filmed in Garside's home by Emmy Winning Director and Photographer, Kate Schermerhorn.
Her forthcoming fourth solo album is entitled These Four Worlds. It will also be released on Xie Recordings and is due out in the Spring of 2012. The record also features Sophie Spinoza on Piano and Fender Rhodes and photographer Bill Ling doing Backing Vocals on It Isn't Gonna Be That Way, a cover version taken from Steve Forbert's 1977 seminal Album, Alive on Arrival.
Discography
- Tabitha Zu
- Heard it Before (7" Single)
- On Reality (EP)
- Tabitha Zu (Album - Due For Release 2012)
- Zu
- Apart (EP)
- Break (EP, Unreleased)
- Melanie Garside
- Big White Room (Single)
- She Knows (EP)
- She Knows (Live EP)
- Fossil (Album) (1996, Echo)
- Sleeping in Ashes (Album - Due For Release 2012)
- Vertigo Angels
- Eradicate Apathy (Album) (2003, Cargo Records/Livewire)
- Maple Bee
- Chasing Eva (Album) (2004, Xie Recordings)
- Hello Eve (Album) (2006, Prikosnovénie)
- Home (Album) (2008, Xie Recorings)
- These Four Worlds (Album - Due For Release 2011)
- With QueenAdreena
- The Butcher and the Butterfly (Album)
- With Mediæval Bæbes
- Mirabilis (Album)
- Live (Album)
- The Virgin Queen Soundtrack (Album)
- Huski
- Love, Peace, Pain (Album) (2006, Xie Recordings)
- Strangelove (Album)
- H (Album - Due For Release March 2012)
References
External links
Categories:- British guitarists
- British keyboardists
- Recorder players
- English female guitarists
- Echo Records artists
- Prikosnovénie artists
- Living people
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
