Great Lost Bands no.10: Quickspace

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Back to London in the 1990s for this week's great lost band. Quickspace were originally called Quickspace Supersport and were formed in London in 1994. Guitarist and occasional vocalist Tom Cullinan had been in Th' Faith Healers, who had already made some cracking records in the early part of the decade and were often referred to with the 'Peel favourites' tag. Quickspace released records on quite a few different labels, including their own Kitty Kitty label, but their main releases were on Domino (UK) and Matador.
Quickspace Happy Song #1 was their first single, from 1995.



Although they had definite leanings towards more experimental music, incorporating extended repetitive grooves with links to krautrock and arabic music, some of their output was reminiscent of Th' Faith Healers, with the fuzzy guitars and the slightly off-kilter male and female voices, like this 1996 single 'Friend'.



Their profile steadily grew and by the time I moved to London in 1998 I was able to see them headline places like Dingwalls and the Underworld. They released their second album 'Precious Falling' around then as well, which was a lot stronger and more coherent than their self-titled debut. Nothing brings back the vibe of London in '98 like this video for Quickspace Happy Song #2. Some of this was shot near my flat in Finsbury Park.



The ominously titled 'The Death of Quickspace' from 2000 is probably my favourite of their records, and it has held up very well over time. They disintegrated soon afterwards although they released a single called 'Pissed Off Boy' on Domino in 2005, with Roxanne from the Th' Faith Healers on vocals. The next time I heard of any of them was when Th' Faith Healers popped up at My Bloody Valentine's All Tomorrows Parties weekend and played a thoroughly decent set in the early afternoon. The whole Faith Healer/ Quickspace set up has been quiet on the news front ever since.

They Shoot Horse Don't They (from The Death of Quickspace)

3 comments:

  1. JG you are right about Quickspace being a great lost band. However best thing they did was (Choosy10) 12" Precious Mountain. A good 10 minutes of Spaghetti Western. One of my fave tracks of all time. Aengus

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  2. If you wander down to the Playhouse Bar in Norwich on a Tuesday evening, you might hear some Quickspace wobbling out of the stereo, especially Superplus, the lovliest tune they did. Much missed.

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  3. I was also in and around London at the time (via my home in Surrey) and never missed a Quickspace show. Love that band so much that I check back in every year or so online to try and see if anything new has happened: wherefore art thou, Tom!
    They changed the way I thought about music: I remember first seeing them in support of the Tindersticks and finding it really hard to work out what was happening. One week later I saw them at Reading in some kind of 'new band' tent and I was hooked.
    All the line-ups and albums were great but I think the Supersport EP, Precious Mountain EP, 3rd side of Precious Falling, Happy Song #1, Friend and Happy Song #2 (with Hadid on the B side) were my top releases, with a honorable mention for the Munchers in all its versions. I remember sitting down and learning to play 'Song for Someone' as a kid and it still haunts my own music. They might even be the reason I am still in bands, so I hope Tom hasn't packed it all in: he's too good for that! I could write a book about this band but I'll stop here for now. Thanks for writing about them here!

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