Hefner were a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
band formed in east London in 1995.
They were active from about 1996 until 2002; since then they have played together only once, for a tribute to the DJ
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
, who was a strong supporter of theirs.
History
Hefner's roots stretch back to 1992, when
Darren Hayman and
Antony Harding
Antony Harding is an English singer, songwriter and musician from New Mexico. He grew up on the Isle of Wight. He is best known as the drummer in London band Hefner, and has also played independently as ANT and now performs solo as Antony Har ...
met at art school in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
.
The band started playing live in 1995 and, after several line up changes, became a solo project of
Darren Hayman. In 1996 he recorded a tape for Sticky Records (named ''
The Devotion Chamber'') on which all instruments were played by Hayman himself. His friend from art school,
Antony Harding
Antony Harding is an English singer, songwriter and musician from New Mexico. He grew up on the Isle of Wight. He is best known as the drummer in London band Hefner, and has also played independently as ANT and now performs solo as Antony Har ...
, assisted, providing backing vocals.
The band's first release was in April 1997 when the 7-inch single "A Better Friend" was released by Boogle Wonderland. The single featured Harding on
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
and John Morrison (from
Rhatigan) on
bass. Shortly after the release, the record label
Too Pure
Too Pure was a London-based independent record label formed in 1990 by Richard Roberts and Paul Cox. The label gained prominence after the release of PJ Harvey's debut album '' Dry'' in 1992, and subsequently found further success in the lat ...
offered a record deal to Darren, who extended the offer to Antony and John.
After a few more singles, Hefner recorded their debut album ''
Breaking God's Heart
''Breaking God's Heart'' is the debut full-length album by United Kingdom, British indie rock band Hefner (band), Hefner. The album was originally released by Too Pure in 1998, and a reissue was released by Darren Hayman, the band's lead singer, ...
'', which was released in 1998.
A
lo fidelity album primarily recorded in one take, Hayman has declared that this album is the one he is least interested in listening to, due to its unrealized potential.
''
The Fidelity Wars'' would be their next record (with the recent addition of multi-instrumentalist
Jack Hayter
Jack Hayter is a British musician. He is best known as a multi instrumentalist with Hefner but is also an acclaimed folk singer-songwriter in his own right. ); a darker collection of songs. In the official website of the band Hayman has explained that all of the songs gravitate towards the concept of breaking up.
Hefner had, at this point, recorded a large number of singles and
EPs. ''
Boxing Hefner'' collected some of those tracks that had not appeared on the previous albums, often as new recordings. The compilation also included some unreleased material.
''
We Love the City
''We Love the City'' is the third album by British indie rock band Hefner. It was released by Too Pure in two formats in 2000, the standard version and a second version with a disc featuring videos for " I Took Her Love for Granted" and " G ...
'' marked a change in direction for the band. In contrast with previous records, which had older songs, all of the compositions on ''We Love the City'' were made for this record, which had better production value and more varied instrumentation.
''
Dead Media
''Dead Media'' is the fourth, and currently final, album by British indie rock band Hefner. It was originally released in 2001 on Too Pure.
A reissue was released on 4 July 2011, which included all the tracks from ''The Hefner Brain'' EP, th ...
'', released in 2001, continues the interest that Hefner had shown in exploring new ways. '' Dead Media'' is certainly different from previous records in the sense of its electronic weight,
an interest that led Darren to eventually create
The French.
After the band's final gig at the
ICA in London on 10 December 2001 and the release of an EP called ''
The Hefner Brain
Hefner were a British indie rock band formed in east London in 1995. They were active from about 1996 until 2002; since then they have played together only once, for a tribute to the DJ John Peel, who was a strong supporter of theirs.
History
...
'' the following March, the band went on a seemingly permanent hiatus, save for one reformation for the "Keeping It Peel" tribute show, marking the death of one of their biggest supporters,
Radio 1 Radio 1 or Radio One most commonly refers to:
*BBC Radio 1, a music radio station from the BBC
** BBC Radio 1Xtra, a digital radio station broadcasting black music
*CBC Radio One, a talk radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporatio ...
DJ
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
. In 2005 a T-shirt was released that read "Hefner, Britain’s Largest Small Band (1997–2002)", and in an interview Darren Hayman said "no, no reunion planned".
Their song I Love Only You was featured on the 2015
Craig Cash
Craig Cash (born 11 September 1960)
Retrie ...
sitcom
After Hours.
Post-Hefner
In 2005, following a legal dispute between
Darren Hayman and Too Pure, the rights to all of the band's Too Pure recordings were reverted to Hayman. As a result, the band has released a best-of album, a 2 CD collection of 43 unreleased songs called ''
Catfight'' and a live album, recorded at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
Studios. All of the band's studio albums have been reissued as 2-CD sets with bonus tracks. Planned for the future is a compilation of BBC session tracks. The band recorded ten sessions for
programme, as well as a number of live performances, and eleven of their tracks made it into the
.
in June 2008. Despite this,
has said that Hefner will not reform unless it's with the original line up.
He has consistently aired his disdain for bands that reform.
* ''Boxing Hefner'' - Too Pure - 2000 (#144)
* ''Kick, Snare, Hats, Ride'' - self-released - 2002
* ''The Best of Hefner'' - Fortune and Glory Records - 2006
* ''Catfight'' - self-released - 2006
* ''Maida Vale'' - Belka - 2006
* ''The Devotion Chamber'' - Sticky Records - 1996
* ''The Hefner Soul'' - Too Pure - 1998
* ''The Hefner Heart'' - Acuarela Discos - 1999
* ''Orphan Songs'' - Everlasting Records - 1999
* ''Revelations'' - Too Pure - 1999
* ''The Hefner Brain'' - Too Pure - 2002 (#21 §)
§ - Budget Album Chart
" - Too Pure - 2000 (UK No. 64)
* "Half a Life" - Too Pure - 2001 (split 7-inch with