Kula Shaker

At the height of the mid-1990s Britpop craze—with Blur and Oasis trading insults and taking on the world—Kula Shaker appeared on the scene looking like they'd time-travelled from one of The Beatles' late 1960s trips to India. All side-burns, flares and sitars, their jangly indie pop drew on psychedelia, Eastern philosophy and spiky garage rock and found instant success when single "Tattva" shot to Number 4 in the UK charts. Led by Crispian Mills (son of actress Hayley Mills and grandson of Sir John Mills), their follow-up "Hey Dude" went to Number 2 before debut album K (1996) topped the charts and helped them to win Best Breakthrough Act at the 1997 BRIT Awards. Their cover of Deep Purple's "Hush" became another big hit and later featured on the soundtrack to the film I Know What You Did Last Summer and second album Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts (1999) fared reasonably well, and was recorded on the famous London houseboat-turned-studio owned by Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour. The band split shortly after its release but reformed in 2006, releasing Strangefolk (2007) and Pilgrims Progress (2010). It would be six years until the release of follow-up LP K 2.0 and another six before 1st Congregational Church of Eternal Love and Free Hugs arrived in 2022. The band's seventh studio album Natural Magick came out in January 2024 and was their first LP since 1999's Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts to include original keyboardist Jay Darlington.