Kingmaker

Kingmaker are a British indie rock group from the United Kingdom, active from 1990 to 1995. The band forms in Kingston upon Hull in 1990, when teenage schoolmates Loz Hardy and Myles Howell start playing together during a year away after school. They advertise for a drummer and recruit John Andrew, who is older than the other two and has previously worked as a travelling puppeteer.

Formation and early releases

The group begins by playing live and touring before making their recording debut with The Celebrated Working Man EP. They then sign to Chrysalis Records and issue a second EP, Idiots at the Wheel, in January 1992. Their early press coverage helps create the label “New Cool Rock” for their sound.

Albums and chart success

Kingmaker’s debut album, Eat Yourself Whole, receives a positive response and spends three weeks in the UK Albums Chart, reaching number 29. The title track is also released as a single and reaches the UK Top Twenty. The band later secures an American record deal with Chrysalis.

Their second album, Sleepwalking, appears in 1993 and is described as receiving general acclaim. Much of the writing on the record comes from Hardy, and the songs deal with subjects including bullying, death, anarchy and injustice. A track called “Playground Brutality” opens the album and focuses on school bullying.

Later period and final album

By the time of their final album, In the Best Possible Taste, Kingmaker have begun to shift towards a more urban rockabilly direction on songs such as “One False Move”. They disband after touring later in 1995.

Style and reception

The band are associated with alternative rock and indie rock, with melodic but austere songs and a building fan base in their early years. They are at one stage tipped as a major new act, but later fall out of favour.