The Telescopes

The Telescopes are an English band formed in Burton upon Trent in 1987 by Stephen Lawrie. Their sound spans noise rock, space rock, dream pop and psychedelic music, and they are also associated with shoegaze, experimental, indie pop and neo-psychedelia.

Line-up and approach

The group has a constantly changing line-up, ranging from solo performances to large ensembles on record. People involved across the project include David Fitzgerald, Joanna Doran, Robert Brooks, Dominic Dillon, James Beal, James Messenger, Bridget Hayden and Byron Jackson, alongside Lawrie. Fitzgerald plays lead guitar on the early records and Doran plays rhythm guitar, with Brooks on bass and Dillon on drums in the original line-up. Fitzgerald dies of cancer in 2020.

Early releases and label history

Their first release is a split flexi disc with Loop on Cheree in 1988, given away with the Sowing Seeds fanzine. This is followed by the singles “Kick the Wall” and “7th# Disaster”, also on Cheree Records. The band then moves to What Goes On Records, where they release debut album Taste and the single “The Perfect Needle”, one of their best-known songs. A live album appears on Fierce Records, and after What Goes On goes bankrupt they sign to Creation Records.

Albums and musical development

After the noise-rock emphasis of Taste, the band moves towards a more restrained sound on its second album, The Telescopes, released in 1992. In 2002 they return with Third Wave on Double Agent Records. #4 follows in 2005 on their own Antenna Records, by which point the music is more experimental and built around electronic soundscapes. HARM is recorded live during a US tour in 2013 with a largely different touring line-up that includes members of LSD and the Search for God and Ricky Maymi of The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Hidden Fields appears in 2015 on Tapete Records, and is described as more song-based than some of the group’s recent work. Later releases on Tapete include Exploding Head Syndrome in 2019, Songs of Love and Revolution in 2021 and Of Tomorrow in 2023. Experimental Health is released in 2023 on Weisskalt Records.

Live activity and influence

The Telescopes are invited by Portishead to play ATP I’ll Be Your Mirror at Alexandra Palace in London in 2011, where they perform songs from their debut album. They later appear at Austin Psych Fest in 2012, curated by The Reverberation Appreciation Society. Their work is presented as influential within shoegaze, space rock and neo-psychedelia, and a tribute compilation, Anticipating Nowhere, A Homage To The Telescopes, is released in 2016 with cover versions by a range of artists.