Blameless were a rock quartet formed in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, England in 1993/94. They reached the top 30 of the UK Singles Chart in 1996 with the song "Breathe (A Little Deeper)". The band consisted of singer Jared Daley, guitarist Matt Pirt, bassist Jason Leggatt and drummer Jon Dodd. Although coming from the UK during a "British Invasion" headed by

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

, the band have been more-often compared to American bands such as

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guita ...

and

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternative ...

Their inclusion of the song "Town Clowns" in the Rough Trade Singles Club caught the attention of several labels, and the band finally signed to

China Records China Records was a record label founded 1 October 1984 by Derek Green (music), Derek Green. Its top-selling artists were Art of Noise, Morcheeba and the The Levellers (band), Levellers. In 1986 and 1987, China Records releases were manufactu ...

. They released a single for China, "Don't Say You're Sorry", and then went to

Fort Apache Studios Fort Apache Studios is a New England recording studio focusing on alternative rock sessions produced there since 1986. History The studio was initially built by a collective begun in 1985 by musician/producer Joe Harvard and members of a band ...

in Boston, Massachusetts to record their debut album, ''The Signs Are All There''. Jared Daley later said, "When China said we were going to Boston, we thought they meant

Boston, Lincolnshire Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is north of London, north-east of Peterborough, east of Nottingham, south-east of Lincoln, south-southeast of Hull ...

." The album was produced by

Paul Q. Kolderie Paul Q. Kolderie is an American record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with Pixies, Radiohead, Orangutang, Hole, Dinosaur Jr., Juliana Hatfield, Wax, Warren Zevon, Uncle Tupelo, Throwing Muses, Morphine, the Mighty Mighty Bosstone ...

and

Sean Slade Sean Slade (born 14 November 1957) is an American record producer, engineer, and mixer. On many of his productions he worked in partnership with Paul Q. Kolderie. Career Slade was born in Lansing, Michigan, United States. He graduated from Yal ...

, and was released in October 1995 on China Records/

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. Blameless supported Moist and

the Bluetones The Bluetones are an English indie rock band, formed in Hounslow, Greater London, in 1993. The band's members are Mark Morriss on vocals, Adam Devlin on guitar, Mark's brother Scott Morriss on bass guitar, and Eds Chesters on drums. A fifth me ...

on tour in 1995 and played at two of the Heineken Music Festivals, as well as at

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

. ''The Signs Are All There'' failed to chart and did not meet sales expectations. In March 1996, the band had a minor hit with the non-album single "Breathe (A Little Deeper)" which spent 3 weeks in the UK charts and cracked the UK top 40 of the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

peaking at chart position #27. Follow up single "Signs..." (the album's title track) was released at the start of June 1996 and reached #49. The band re-issued their LP, but sales were disappointing and the band ultimately disbanded. "Breathe (A Little Deeper)" was selected for the '' Shine 5'' album released by

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

in July 1996. "Town Clowns" was a top 10 indie hit in the UK and was the band's first U.S. single.

References

*https://web.archive.org/web/20100926053552/http://pauseandplay.com/blameless.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20100910121305/http://www.music.us/biography/artist/29486/blameless.html *http://www.fortapache.net/discography.html
The great indie discography
By Martin Charles Strong

External links

Breathe (A Little Deeper)
on

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{{Authority control Musical groups from Sheffield English indie rock groups China Records artists Atlantic Records artists