Frazier Chorus were an English pop

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

from Brighton, England. They were known for their unconventional instrumentation, including synthesizers, trumpets, flutes and clarinets, as well as frontman Tim Freeman's "soft, heavily accented ... talk-singing" and sarcastically witty lyrics.

History

Frazier Chorus was formed in Brighton, England, by Tim Freeman (the brother of actor

Martin Freeman Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor. Among other accolades, he has won an Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Freeman's most not ...

, on vocals and keyboards), Michéle Allardyce (percussion), Kate Holmes (flute) and Chris Taplin (clarinet, programming). Original names for the band included both Clouds and Plop!, but the band eventually settled on Frazier Chorus, a phrase they'd seen on a jacket for the Frazier College football team's cheerleaders in the United States. The band first signed to British indie record label

4AD 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name "Axis" (after the Hendrix album) by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD a ...

and released the single "Sloppy Heart" in 1987. Shortly afterwards, they moved to

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...

and achieved chart success with a string of melodic pop songs taken from their 1989 debut album, '' Sue''. Allardyce was eventually dismissed from the band. Their second album, '' Ray'', followed in 1991, and its singles were remixed by a number of top remixers, including

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Mas ...

, Chad Jackson and

Youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

. Following the album's release, the band was let go from Virgin after the label was purchased by

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

and began purging a number of its artists; subsequently, Holmes and Taplin fired Freeman before ultimately disbanding entirely. Holmes later moved into electronica via the bands Sirenes, Technique, and

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. Freeman took several years off and re-emerged in the mid-1990s, resurrecting the band name with permission from Holmes and Taplin. In 1995, Freeman released a mini-album as Frazier Chorus, '' Wide Awake'', which did not reach the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. He later released '' Monkey Spunk'', a collection of five demos recorded prior to the sessions for ''Wide Awake'', available exclusively via the band's website. After leaving the band, Holmes became a member of the synthpop band Technique, before joining Dubstar's Sarah Blackwood in the electronic band CLIEͶT in the 2000s.https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/showbiz/kate-holmes-starts-fashion-revolution-1821761

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Compilations

References

External Links

* * {{Authority control 4AD artists Dream pop musical groups English synth-pop groups English new wave musical groups Musical groups from Brighton and Hove Musical groups established in 1986 Musical groups disestablished in 1996