Headswim are an English

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band active during the 1990s, best known for their 1997 single "Tourniquet". Band members subsequently went on to projects including BlackCar, Tenebrous Liar and Mew.

History

The band originally formed in 1989 in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England under the name Blinder. The initial line-up was Daniel Glendining (guitar/vocals), his brother Tom Glendining (drums), Nick Watts (keyboards/backing vocals) and

Matt Pegg Matthew "Matt" Pegg (born 27 March 1971) is an English musician and bass guitarist. Pegg is the son of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull bass guitar player Dave Pegg. He is an experienced bass guitarist in his own right and has been known to ...

(bass guitar). The band's main influences were

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...

and

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

and their most successful concerts were two support slots for

It Bites It Bites are an English progressive rock and pop fusion band, formed in Egremont, Cumbria, Egremont, Cumbria, in 1982 and best known for their 1986 single "Calling All the Heroes", which gained them a Top 40, Top 10 UK Singles Chart hit. Initial ...

in 1989 (one of which was to a capacity audience at the

Hammersmith Odeon The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Palace. Located in Ha ...

). Following Pegg's departure Blinder rethought their approach, reducing the progressive rock elements in their music. Pegg was replaced as bass player by a friend of the band, Clovis Taylor and, by 1992, Blinder had changed their name to Headswim. Headswim's first releases were two four-track EPs, ''Tense Nervous Head'' and ''Moment of Union'', on their own Crush Records label (the eight songs from the two EPs would later be compiled and released as the

mini-album A mini-LP or mini-album is a short vinyl record album or LP, usually retailing at a lower price than an album that would be considered full-length. It is distinct from an EP due to containing more tracks and a slightly longer running length. A ...

''Tense Moments''). The EPs made enough of an impression for them to be signed by the

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

subsidiary

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

in an eight-album deal and they released their debut album ''

Flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

'' in 1994. The album's third single "Crawl" made 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 ...

and the band embarked on their first extensive

tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

of the UK and Europe. However, the death later that year of Dan and Tom's brother Matthew (who had created all of the band's album artwork up to this point) after a long battle with

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

had a profound effect on the group, who took time off to regroup. Headswim re-emerged in 1997 with their second album ''

Despite Yourself ''Despite Yourself'' is the second and final studio album by the English rock band Headswim. The album was released by Epic Records on 2 September 1997 in the US, and on 18 May 1998 in the UK and the rest of Europe, and spawned two singles for ...

'', which contained many cathartic songs about death and spirituality. The group's music had also shifted from their earlier grunge influences to a more reflective alternative rock sound, more akin to artists such as

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

and

Jeff Buckley Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by ...

. The lead single "Tourniquet" reached the top 30 in the UK and was a minor radio hit in the United States. Soon after, the band supported

Kula Shaker Kula Shaker are an English psychedelic rock band. Led by frontman Crispian Mills, the band came to prominence during the Post-Britpop era of the late 1990s. The band enjoyed commercial success in the UK between 1996 and 1999, notching up a num ...

on a US tour. However, sales of the album did not live up to expectations. Headswim began recording a third album, but after two attempts at recording it the band were still unhappy with the results, and concerned at the rising costs, Sony made the decision to pull the album and drop the band. As of 2022, the album remains unreleased. Subsequently, Headswim released only one further single, "Dusty Road", in 2000 on the

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

Pet Sounds in the UK, before splitting up in early 2001. Following the group's split, Daniel Glendining formed a new band, BlackCar, essentially a solo project with occasional contributions from other musicians. BlackCar released two albums, ''BlackCar'' (2004) and ''Last Scene Rushes'' (2010), before going on hiatus.

Natalie Imbruglia Natalie Jane Imbruglia ( , ; born 4 February 1975) is an Australian singer and actress. In the early 1990s, she played Beth Brennan in the Australian soap opera '' Neighbours''. Three years after leaving the programme, she began a singing car ...

recorded a version of BlackCar's song "Come On Home" for her UK number-one album ''

Counting Down the Days ''Counting Down the Days'' is the third studio album by Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia. It was released by Brightside Recordings on 4 April 2005 in the United Kingdom. Her debut with the label, Imbruglia reteamed with Gary Clark to work ...

''. Glendining also composes music for

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

s, having composed the instrumental score for Lindy Heymann's 2010

low-budget A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or ...

British film, ''Kicks'' and contributing two tracks to the soundtrack of French television series '' Ainsi soient-ils''. Tom Glendining also played drums for BlackCar while also a member of another band, Tenebrous Liar. In February 2011 it was announced that Dan would be joining his brother Tom in Tenebrous Liar as their new guitarist while continuing to work as BlackCar. Nick Watts became a

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

, but is still involved in the music business as he plays keyboards for the Danish

band Mew when they are on tour. In May 2022, record label Trapped Animal announced that they would release a deluxe version of ''Flood'' on 7 October 2022, featuring the original album along with an extra disc of outtakes from the ''Flood'' sessions and session tracks recorded for the

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

''Rock Show''. The band also reunited to play a one-off gig at the

Camden Underworld Camden Underworld is a music venue in Camden Town, London, England. The venue is a part of the World's End pub, situated in the basement of the building. It has a capacity of 500 people. History Over the years The Underworld has become th ...

on the day of release of the reissue of ''Flood'', where they played the album in its entirety. Speaking to ''

Classic Rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

'' ahead of the gig, bassist Clovis Taylor refused to rule out future activity from the band.

Discography

Studio albums

*''

'' (1994) *''

'' (1997 in USA, 1998 in UK & Europe) - UK No. 24

EPs

*''Tense Nervous Head'' (1993) *''Moment of Union'' (1994) **combined and released as the mini-album ''Tense Moments'' (1994)

Singles

*"Gone to Pot" (1994) *"Soup" (1994) *"Crawl" (1995) - UK No. 64 *"Tourniquet" (1997 in USA, 1998 in UK & Europe) - UK No. 30 *"Better Made" (1998) - UK No. 42 *"Dusty Road" (2000) (highest UK chart positions taken from "British Hit Singles & Albums")

References

{{Authority control English alternative rock groups English rock music groups Musical groups established in 1992 Musical groups disestablished in 2001