Chapterhouse

Chapterhouse are a shoegaze band from Reading, England, formed in 1987. The group’s core line-up forms around Andrew Sherriff and Stephen Patman, with Simon Rowe on guitar, Jon Curtis on bass and Ashley Bates on drums; Russell Barrett also plays a key role in the band’s history after replacing Curtis on bass. The wider membership associated with the group also includes Steve Wren.

Early years and scene associations

The band begins by rehearsing and playing live for more than a year before recording a demo tape. They first perform alongside Spacemen 3 and are initially associated with the British acid rock scene before being placed among the shoegaze groups of 1991. Their music sits within British shoegaze, with links to dream pop and space rock.

Recordings and releases

Chapterhouse sign to Dedicated, a newly formed label, and issue a run of singles that build them a strong following. Among these, Pearl reaches the UK Top 75. Their first album, Whirlpool, appears in 1991 and is widely regarded as one of shoegaze’s notable records, although it does not reach a broad mainstream audience. In 1993 they release Blood Music, which has a different sound from their earlier work; the singles She’s a Vision and We Are the Beautiful gain relatively good attention, but the album is later withdrawn after a sample-related legal dispute. Global Communication later reworks Blood Music as Pentamerous Metamorphosis, and Spooky remixes We Are the Beautiful in two versions: We Are the Beautiful (Spooky’s Ugly as Sin mix) and We Are the Beautiful (Spooky’s Extravaganja dub mix).

Live work, split and later activity

Chapterhouse play Reading Festival in 1991, shortly after Nirvana’s first UK appearance there. The band splits in 1994 and does not release further new material apart from Rownderbout, a double CD compilation issued in 1996 containing singles, B-sides, rarities and unreleased demos. Their recordings are later out of print on CD until Cherry Red Records reissues Whirlpool in 2006 with bonus tracks and lyrics.

The group returns for a number of live dates in the late 2000s and 2010s, including a performance of Love Forever with Ulrich Schnauss at Truck Festival in 2008, a Club AC30 Reverence show at the ICA in November 2009 with Ulrich Schnauss and Kirsty Hawkshaw, a warm-up show at the Luminaire in Kilburn, a London show at The Scala in March 2010, and short tours of Japan and North America in 2010. After a long period away from regular activity, the band later returns to the live stage for a tour through the UK, the US and Canada linked to the 35th anniversary of Whirlpool.

Related projects

After Chapterhouse split, Andrew Sherriff forms Bio.com, Ashley Bates forms Cuba, and Simon Rowe goes on to play guitar for Mojave 3. Jon Curtis leaves early in the band’s career to study before Russell Barrett takes over on bass.