Shed Seven in concert for this holiday morning – recorded at La Cigale in Paris on November 3, 1994 and broadcast live by RTF2.
Shed Seven formed in York in 1990. They were one of the groups which contributed to the Britpop music scene of the 1990s. They originally comprised singer Rick Witter, guitarist/keyboardist Joe Johnson, bassist Tom Gladwin and drummer Alan Leach. Johnson was later replaced by Paul Banks, but a later line-up of the band included both Johnson and Banks.
They have achieved 15 Top 40 singles and five Top 40 albums in the UK. The band officially broke up in 2003, but reformed for a greatest-hits tour in July 2007. Shed Seven continued to play shows around Britain periodically until releasing a new studio album in 2017 with the announcement of Instant Pleasures. Their latest album, A Matter of Time, was released on 5 January 2024 and became the first number one album in their career. Shed Seven released another album on 27th September of the same year, Liquid Gold, which went straight in at number one on the official UK album charts, giving them a second number one album of the year.
In September 1994, the band released their debut album, Change Giver, entering the UK album chart at number 16 and giving the group their first Gold disc. Despite it spending just two weeks in the chart, the “critically underrated debut album”, which NME declared “an attempted stab in the face of their critics”, gave the band three UK Top 40 singles. As well as enjoying popularity in both the UK and Australia, Shed Seven also found an audience in Thailand, where they managed to beat Take That to the Christmas number 1 spot with their fourth single release, “Ocean Pie”. The following April, “Where Have You Been Tonight?”, the first record to emerge from the band’s collaboration with their new producer, Chris Sheldon, was issued as their fifth single, peaking at number 23 and continuing the band’s chart-placing run. Although the single was “rush released” with the intention of it being followed by a swiftly recorded second album, the band failed to capitalize on the song’s success as it became Shed Seven’s one and only release throughout 1995.
This concert comes on the heels of the release of Change Giver. So to get a better idea of what Shed Seven were all about during the formative years, sit back and press play – dive into the 90s.
