Senseless Things

Hailed as the British precursor to bands like Green Day and Blink-182, Senseless Things helped turn pop-punk into a commercial force during the early '90s, when the London-based group scored a pair of Top 40 hit singles on the UK charts. The group was formed by frontman Mark Keds (born Mark Myers) and bassist Morgan Nicholls, two childhood friends from Twickenham who'd been playing together since the early 1980s. With the addition of drummer Cass Browne, they played their first gig as Senseless Things in 1986, adding guitarist Ben Harding to the lineup one year later. Postcard C.V., the band's 1989 debut, earned well-deserved comparisons to Buzzcocks and the Undertones, while 1991's The First of Too Many marked the quartet's major-label debut for Epic Records. "Easy to Smile" charted at Number 18 that year, becoming the band's first UK Top 40 hit, with "Hold It Down" climbing to Number 19 one year later. Senseless Things cracked the Top 40 once again with their 1993 release, Empire of the Senseless, which peaked at Number 37 in the UK, before embarking upon a long hiatus after release of 1995's Taking Care of Business. Keds later revisited the UK charts as the co-writer of the Libertine's hit single "Can't Stand Me Now," which climbed to Number 2 in 2004, while Browne spent a decade touring with Damon Albarn as a member of Gorillaz. Senseless Things briefly reunited in 2017 and released one final single, "Lost Honey." Several years later, Mark Keds passed away on January 10, 2021.