Scarlet's Well 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, ...

pop band formed in 1998 by Bid of

The Monochrome Set The Monochrome Set are an English post-punk/ new wave band, originally formed in London in January 1978. The most recent line-up consists of Bid, Andy Warren, Athen Ayren and Stephen Gilchrist. History Original band: 1978–1985 The Monoc ...

, after the latter band amicably split for the second time. They originally started as a studio project, the first four albums featuring a total of ten lead vocalists, including Bid (the only male voice), Zarif and Alice Healey, the latter being the only member other than Bid who has appeared on all albums. A live band was formed at the beginning of 2004, with the help of

Dickon Edwards Dickon Edwards (born Richard Dickon Edwards; 3 September 1971), also known as Dickon Angel, is a London-based indie pop musician and diarist. He was a founding member of the bands Orlando and Fosca, and briefly played guitar in the band Spearmin ...

, who appeared as lead guitarist at the first gig. Since then, they have been through various line-up changes with the last listed below. Using a wide range of instruments on the albums ("rock", folk and orchestral), the music has been variously described as "gypsy folk to English psychedelic rock", "hybrid English pop and Baroque music", "a rich, lush and densely layered confection", and "sprightly guitar pop". Conceptually "an ongoing and open-ended musical", set partly in a fictitious village in

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

called Mousseron ("a sickly village situated somewhere east of the Azores, and only slightly north of the Styx", many of the songs are "richly-textured, well-spun yarns driven by a cast of colourful eccentrics", yet "the songs still function as pop in the sweetest sense". Though most of the material was written by Bid, collaborators have included

Alex Kapranos Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley (born 20 March 1972) is a Scottish musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and author. He is best known as the lead singer and guitarist of Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand. He has also been a part of the ...

("The Spell" on the "Strange Letters" album) and

David Shrigley David John Shrigley (born 17 September 1968) is a British visual artist. He lived and worked in Glasgow, Scotland for 27 years before moving to Brighton, England in 2015. Early life and education Shrigley was born 17 September 1968 in Macclesfi ...

("Maybe", though this song only appeared on his "Worried Noodles" album); past and present members of the band have also contributed, with some lyrics made of poems by

Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in Brit ...

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

, and

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

. A few of the songs are supposed to have been material never completed by

("Miss Twinkle's Been On Holiday Again", "Why Do Spirits Haunt Ruby Auburn?", "My Little Doll", "Piepentube"), and "Walking With The Beast" (from "Dante's Casino") was re-recorded for "The Dream Spider of the Laughing Horse". All the studio albums have been released by the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

label Siesta Records, in the digipak format with a 16-page colour booklet, "lavishly illustrated" with "exquisite artwork which fits in perfectly with the gothic fantasy"Subba Cultcha - Black Tulip Wings review
/ref>

Album discography

*''Strange Letters'' (1999) *''The Isle of the Blue Flowers'' (2000) *''Alice in the Underworld'' (2002) *''The Dream Spider of the Laughing Horse'' (2004) *''Unreal'' (live and studio, with musicians from other bands) (2006) *''Black Tulip Wings'' (2006) *''Gatekeeper'' (2008) *''Unreal II'' (live and studio, with musicians from other bands, Red Velvet Records) (2010) *''Society of Figurines'' (2010)

Members

*Bid - guitar/vocals (

) *Alice Healey - vocals *Jennifer Denitto - drums/vocals (

Linus Linus, a male given name, is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Linos''. It's a common given name in Sweden. The origin of the name is unknown although the name appears in antiquity both as a musician who taught Apollo and as a son of Apollo who di ...

, The Low Edges) *

Peter Momtchiloff Peter Momtchiloff (born 10 March 1962) is a British guitarist and bassist. He was educated at Winchester College and Worcester College, Oxford. His musical career began in 1978 playing bass guitar in Winchester band The Big Figure. At Oxford h ...

- guitar (

Talulah Gosh Talulah Gosh were an English guitar-pop group from Oxford, and one of the leading bands of the indiepop movement, taking their name from the headline of an NME interview with Clare Grogan. They supposedly formed in 1986 when Amelia Fletcher an ...

, Heavenly, Would-be-goods) *

Helena Johansson Helena ''Viktoria'' Johansson is a Swedish screenwriter and singer-songwriter. Helena was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. She started singing at a very early age and in her teens also began writing her own music. After graduating from Kult ...

- violin/mandolin *Deb Van Der Geugten - bass (Linus) *Sian Chaffer - keyboards/vocals Previous members included Martin White (The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra, solo music & comedy),

(

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

Spearmint Spearmint, also known as garden mint, common mint, lamb mint and mackerel mint, is a species of mint, ''Mentha spicata'' (, native to Europe and southern temperate Asia, extending from Ireland in the west to southern China in the east. It is nat ...

and Fosca), Kate Dornan ( Fosca and The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra), Toby Robinson and Zarif.

References

External links

* http://www.scarletswell.co.uk - the band's official website * http://www.myspace.com/scarletswell - the band's page on MySpace * http://www.siesta.es/ - Siesta Records, the band's record label {{DEFAULTSORT:Scarlets Well British pop music groups Musical groups established in 1998