"Tangerine" is a song by
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, ...
rock band
Feeder, released as the band's second single, and the first that was taken from the ''
Polythene
Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bott ...
'' album. The single managed to gain word-of-mouth success and made #60 on the UK top 75- their first of 25 hit singles to date.
The song is featured on the original ''
Gran Turismo'' game as an instrumental.
Grant once said that the song is about the struggles the band experienced while trying to get a record contract.
During the 2020 Covid lockdown, a radio presenter living in Bath, discovered during a clear out of his attic and shed, a series of master tapes containing acoustic radio sessions he did with various established and up and coming bands. Amongst these was an early performance of b-side “Rain” performed in 1997, sometime before this single was released.
Music video
The music video (directed by Toby Duckett) begins with a first person camera sequence of being let in by a doorman to a squat known as Oddballs Hall. The now demolished building at the junction of
Harrow Rd and
Ladbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue.
It is also a name given to ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
where Feeder are performing in a dingy hall which features
rats, several
arcade machine
An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...
s, a giant fiberglass wolf head and a man in a bathtub filled with
tangerine
The tangerine is a type of citrus fruit that is orange in color. Its scientific name varies. It has been treated as a separate species under the name ''Citrus tangerina'' or ''Citrus'' × ''tangerina'', or treated as a variety of ''Citrus retic ...
s. One end of the hall was covered with mirrors which were smashed for effect during the filming but the process proved to be too dangerous to all concerned so does not appear in the finished piece. Several
slow-motion
Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slo-mo or slow-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use o ...
sequences occur during the performance in which tangerines fly at the band as they leap through the air, drummer
Jon Lee's bass drum is also filled with tangerines. In keeping with the orange-based image of the song (and of the band at the time) the band wear several orange items of clothing during the video, including their then-trademark orange
jumpsuit
A jumpsuit is a one-piece garment with sleeves and legs and typically without integral coverings for feet, hands or head. The original jump suit is the functional one-piece garment used by parachuting, parachuters.
The original skydivers' j ...
s. At the end of the performance the camera returns to first person, leaves the building and returns to the street. The doorman and the dog were residents, everyone else that appears are crew, all the filming was done in a single day and was shot on 72mm film.
Track listing
;CD1
# "Tangerine" – 3:55
# "Rhubarb" – 2:07
# "Rain" – 3:27
;CD2
# "Tangerine" – 3:55
# "TV Me" – 3:28
# "Elegy" – 4:13
;7" vinyl
# "Tangerine" – 3:55
# "Rhubarb" – 2:07
References
{{Feeder
1997 singles
Feeder songs
Song recordings produced by Chris Sheldon
1997 songs
The Echo Label singles
Songs written by Grant Nicholas
Songs written by Taka Hirose
Songs written by Jon Lee (drummer)