Hipsway

Hipsway are a Scottish pop and rock group from Glasgow, formed in 1984. The line-up includes Grahame Skinner on vocals, Pim Jones on guitar, Johnny McElhone on bass and Harry Travers on drums. Their sound is also described as sophisti-pop and as a form of white soul and funk.

Career

The band signs to Mercury Records soon after forming. Their debut album, Hipsway, appears in 1985 and becomes a moderate success in the UK. Its best-known single, The Honeythief, reaches number 17 in the British charts and also enters the US Top 20. Another track from the album, Tinder, becomes familiar in Scotland through its use in a McEwan’s Lager commercial.

Johnny McElhone leaves Hipsway and later founds Texas. By the time the second album, Scratch the Surface, is recorded, Harry Travers has also departed and Steven Ferrera replaces him. The album is released in 1989 and, later reissued as The Rest of Hipsway, does not match the commercial or critical reception of the debut. The group then splits up.

After Hipsway

Grahame Skinner and Pim Jones later form Witness, who release the album House Called Love.