Th' Faith Healers

Th' Faith Healers began life in 1990 as a punk cover band in which Ben played drums and Tom on guitar. Settling on The Faith Healers as a suitable moniker, they were soon making drunken fools of themselves at every available opportunity. Joe saw them and something at the core of their shambolic mess appealed -- so when a vacancy arose, he jumped at the chance to join. Ben and Tom remember Joe's joining as the point at which they started to become serious about their music, despite the initial attraction being the band's relaxed attitude. Three gigs later, desperate to play somewhere other than the Dublin Castle public house, the threesome recruited expatriate Scot and sometime Falcon barperson Roxanne, principally because the promoter at The Falcon had promised them a gig just so he could see her sing. They dropped the 'e'. Joe later claimed it had been stolen by Thee Hypnotics, and a legend was born. Amongst the crowd at these primitive gigs were Richard Roberts and Paul Cox, the most implausible record company executives imaginable, who had decided to set up their own label in order to 'go public' with some of the emergent talent they'd been putting on stage at their Sausage Machine Club in Hampstead's White Horse basement. Too Pure Records' maiden release was a compilation, Now That's Disgusting Music, that put new bands alongside the more established likes of Mega City Four and Silverfish. Th' Faith Healers contributed 'Jesus Freak', and soon afterwards accepted the invitation to become Too Pure's first signing. In mid-1990, Th' Healers recorded their first 12", 'Pop Song', 'Delores' and 'Slag', which was released following a nationwide tour supporting Lush. Suddenly, alongside Silverfish, Th' Faith Healers were touted by the press as prime movers in the Camden Scene: a loose aggregation of North London-based grunge/noise merchants whose followers indulged in a dance known as The Lurch and frequented gigs at The White Horse, The Falcon and The Bull & Gate. The Lurch (as both the scene and everyone involved in it became collectively known) convened for its Biggest Night Out in November at the L.S.E., where Th' Healers played a headline gig of such alcohol-fuelled proportions that Tom doesn't remember it happening at all. '91 brought forth the Picture of Health EP, featuring the lead track, 'Gorgeous Blue Flower In My Garden', which the band regard as their most accessible moment. The EP gained them even more glowing press, and their first headline tour was pretty successful until Birmingham, where Ben's bass amp gave up the ghost and a bemused audience were treated to a bass-less 35-minute version of 'Slag'. Just as the fame and fortune beckoned, Th' absurdly perverse Healers decided to take a six month holiday, finally returning to the studio in the autumn. The resulting In Love EP was fraught by technical problems and is seen as an underachievement by the band. Nevertheless, 'Reptile Smile' and company followed the first two twelves into the upper regions of the indie chart and completed a trilogy of bizarre sleeve designs that gave a whole new meaning to the word 'tasteless'. After a Christmas party at the Camden Palace where even the Christmas tree was too pissed to stand up, Th' Faith Healers set about recording their debut LP Lido whilst Too Pure became the most talked about independent record label in Europe. Th' Healers singles were compiled on a CD, L', for overseas consumption, and the band's first John Peel session was released by Strange Fruit Records on an LP of sessions by Too Pure artists. The band split in 1994. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.