A Lush Chronology
1960April 28 - Philip King born in London, England
1966September 7 - Christopher Acland born in Lancaster, England
1967March 18 - Miki Berenyi born in London, England.
June 10 - Emma Anderson born in London, England
1981At the age of 14, Berenyi met future bandmate Emma Anderson at Queen's College in England. They found they had a common bond: their parents had bounced them both from school to school depending on family finances at the time.
Emma: Me and Miki have known each other since we were fourteen and we both got into music sorta around the same time 1983-85 (approx.)
Young Miki and Emma work together on music fanzines (
Alphabet Soup)
the two teenagers wrote and produced a fanzine called Alphabet Soup, which only lasted for five issues.
1987 September - LUSH is born, conceived by Chris Ackland, Steve Rippon, Meriel Barham, Emma Anderson, and Miki Berenyi.
Miki: We just wanted to be in a band together really. I met Chris and steve at Polytechnic doing a degree. And um, Chris joined first and then, I think, Emma was playing bass then and I was playing guitar and we had a different singer. And then we all changed what we were playing and stuff and then Steve joined. Emma: He could play a bit of guitar so I just asked him if he wanted to play bass and he said yes and that was it really. Really ropey beginnings. 1988(According to other sources) Lush formed in London, England, in 1988 Berenyi studied English literature at London's Polytechnic University, where she met drummer Christopher Acland, bassist Steve Rippon, and singer Meriel Barham. Along with Anderson, they decided to form their own band. Anderson's friend Kevin Pickering told her he thought Lush would be a perfect name for a band. Anderson agreed, suggested the name to the band, and they started writing and rehearsing. After that conversation, Anderson never saw Pickering again.
On March 6, 1988, Lush played their very first performance at Camden Falcon in London. Not long after the band's first show, the U.K. press started to take notice with favorable reviews. But Barham decided he didn't want to stay with the band and later went on to join Lush's 4AD labelmates, the Pale Saints. The remaining members of Lush placed ads in local papers looking for Barham's replacement, but they couldn't find the singer they wanted. Berenyi took over the vocals, and the band continued to perform in clubs around London.
Miki replaced original lead Meriel Barham on vocals
Emma: Well, I think what happened was, well, yeah, we did want to start playing gigs as soon as possible however abyssmal we were. we just went out and did it. We had, I don't know about five, six songs. And we just played and played and played. And this line-up was really finalized, if you like, around October 88 - no...yeah, October 88. And we were sorta just still playing, sorta just improved our song-writing and our playing. It wasn't like we all got together and we could play and it was really good. It was a slow learning process. Miki: We did a demo of two songs: "Etheriel" and "Second Sight" and we sent them out to about six companies - independant ones. We were going to go with another one first and do a single, but Ivo kept phoning to see what was going on, so he was interested, but I think he heard, from people, that we weren't very good live and whatever, so he was a bit cautious. but in the end he said "Well, I'll put you into the studio and you can record three songs. If I like them, we'll see what happens". So that's what we did. We went in the studio and we did "Babytalk", "Thoughtforms" and "Scarlet". And he really liked them. so he said "well, why don't you go back in the studio and do three more?" so we did and we did "Bitter", "Second Sight" and "Etheriel". and that was "Scar." So really, Scar's like demos, really. Miki: Once we did release "Scar" it made it a lot better for us live 'cos it meant people already knew what we sounded like having bought the record. that made live a bit easier and then when we got a tour with...was it the Darling Buds? Yeah. We got a support tour with the Darling Buds, which was alright. It was okay and then we played with loop. We did a tour with them almost straight afterwards. As soon as we finished that was when we recorded "De-Luxe". Then we did our first headline tour the following year, followed immediately by a european tour with the Pale Saints.1989In January of 1989 Chris Roberts in Melody Maker wrote a rave review of Lush, describing them as "a delta," "irresistible" and "monstrously wonderful." Once the magazine hit the street, Lush received nonstop phone calls from record companies interested in the band.
Signed with 4AD Records in the U.K., 1989. By the summer, 4AD Records had sent them into the studio with producer John Fryer to record a three-song demo called Etheriel. Those three songs became the first side of Lush's debut mini-album, titled Scar, which they released that fall.
Lush is four people: Emma Anderson (guitar & vocals), Miki Berenyi (vocals & guitar), Chris Ackland (drums), and Steve Rippon (bass). The band came together in Camden (North London) in 1989 while Miki, Steve, & Chris were finishing up their degrees at London Polytechnic. (Emma was Miki's school-chum from way back. The two had put together a 'zine of sorts called "Alphabet Soup" that was apparently mostly just rude!). Steve left the band in Feb. 1992, after recording the B-sides the "
For Love" e.p. He was replaced with former NME employee Phil King. Also, it should be noted that way back at the beginning, Muriel (now of Pale Saints fame), was the lead vocalist, before she moved onto her present band.
"
Scar" tracks 8,9,10,11,12,13, recorded at Blackwood Studios, London July 1989, released as "
Scar" ep / debut mini-LP October 1989.
"
Scar" tracks 4,5,6,7, recorded at September Sound and the Church, London, December 1989, released Feb 1990 on "
Mad Love" ep.
1990On February 26, 1990, Lush released their next EP, Mad Love, and its first single, "
Sweetness and Light." Produced by Cocteau Twins' guitarist Robin Guthrie, "
Mad Love" provided another step in their musical growth and got the attention of Warner/Reprise Records, who licensed the band's releases in the United States. Lush didn't set out on a certain plan in their career from this point; they put aside ambition and decided to take things one step at a time.
In December of 1990 4AD/Reprise compiled and released Lush's two preceding EPs as
"Gala," their first release in the United States. The group named the album after Salvador Dali's wife.
Released two EPs before licensing for U.S. distribution with Reprise Records, 1990
Released debut LP,
"Gala," 1990
"
Scar" tracks 1,2,3, recorded at Greenhouse, London 1990, released October 1990 on ep.
"
Scar" track 14 recorded at First Protocol and September Sound, London, February 1990.
"
Scar" album is released.
1991Embarked on U.S. tour, 1991
In April of 1991 they returned to the United States for their second tour co-headlining with Ride. Then, at the end of the year, bassist Steve Rippon left the band to concentrate on writing novels full time. To replace him, Lush approached Philip King, a former New Musical Express journalist, who had played bass for many U.K. bands, including Felt, and Biff Bang Pow!
July-October: "
Spooky" album is recorded at September Sound, London.
August: tracks on "
Black Spring" ep recorded at September Sound, London, released that same year.
1992With their new lineup in place, Lush headed back into the studio and released their next EP,
"For Love," in January of 1992. Later in the year, Lush arrived in the record stores once again with their next album--also produced by Robin Guthrie — called "
Spooky." Although it debuted at Number Seven on the U.K. charts, it received a negative reaction from the press. Some critics berated the band for bad songwriting, and others accused Guthrie of subduing the band's talents.
"
Spooky" album is released.
They toured Great Britain, the United States, and Europe, then returned to the States to join the second annual Lollapalooza tour with Pearl Jam, Ministry, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and Ice Cube. At the end of the summer, the band took their tour to Japan and Australia.
Performed on Lollapalooza tour '92
Miki, under the influence on many tequilas, stage-dived during Ministry's set one night (Dallas I think) and landed on the barrier between the stagefront and the audience, leaving her with 15 stitches, and meaning she had to perform guitarless at the following show.
At an afterparty, Emma smashed a pane of glass with both fists which caused a few major cuts.
Rippon left, the band at this stage in order to concentrate on writing, though his book Cold Turkey Sandwich - a fictionalized chronicle of his time in touring - was rejected by publishers.
Philip King replaced Rippon on bass.
1993October-December: Recording (for "
Split") at Rockford Studios, Wales Berry House, Sussex and Abbey Road London.
Lush played in 4AD's "
13 Year Itch" celebration at England's Institute of Contemporary Art and joined Rage Against the Machine for a special benefit concert for the Anti-Nazi League at the Brixton Academy.
1994Releases: "
Hypocrite" and "
Desire Lines" ep's, and "
Split" album.
On June 14, 1994, Lush released "
Split," produced by Mike Hedges. In Great Britain, 4AD simultaneously released two EPs along with the album —
"Hypocrite" and
"Desire Lines." Berenyi wrote four of the album's songs, and Anderson wrote the other eight. Chris Gill in Guitar Player commented, "Split shares moments of hypnotic, resplendent pleasure-punk and hard, lardy angst-pop" and added that the album was "easily the British dream-pop band's most varied, cocksure, and commercial effort."
1995May-August: Back to the studios to record (for "
Lovelife")- Protocol Studios, London
1996"
Lady Killers (disc one and disc two)" ep's, "
Lovelife" and "
Topolino" albums released.
Acland killed himself in October 1996
One of the songs performed at Chris' funeral touchingly is "
When I Die"...I'll see you again.
1998The remaining band members officially announce that Lush has permanently disbanded.
2000Miki records "
Smile" in 2000. The song appears on a Japanese-only various artists release titled "
Possessed".
2001?"Ciao! Best of Lush" (4AD) 2001, a compilation of singles is released
Miki's daughter Stella is born
Emma: Yes! she has had a baby, it is her first baby, there were some rumours about three years ago, so she’s had a little baby girl and she’s at home looking after her at the moment, Phil is working for NME still and some other magazines off and on, I’m not sure if he’s doing anything musically at the moment - he has done bits and pieces over the last few years, but nothing that’s really... well he was in the Mary Chain for a while after we split up but I don’t think he’s made any records and Steve lives in Ireland with his wife and he works at a computer company and he writes sometimes for Mojo and Q, mainly reviewing reissues and stuff, back catalogue type things.Emma: I have a day job, and I work for another band... who were big in the 80’s....their initials are DD (*editor note-Duran Duran) and they’ve just got back together in the original line up. 2002September 3: Emma's new band Sing-Sing releases it's debut album, "
The Joy of Sing-Sing"
2004?Miki's son Ivan is born
2005Targeted Release of Sing-Sing's second album
(2011 note: not sure at all who originally started this excellent timeline and the sources — aside from some interviews ... but took someone's hard work, edited/expanded on it a bit myself, and now resharing it sheerly for the wealth of info provided in a simple timeline form for the benefit of those interested)
