The Sundays

Borrowing Johnny Marr's jangling guitar licks and The Cocteau Twins' fragile melodies, The Sundays were tipped as the next big Rough Trade band heading for greatness at the start of the 1990s. They may have fallen short, but left a masterclass in indie sweetness that strongly influenced later bands like Belle & Sebastian, The Cardigans and Los Campesinos. Fronted by the sweet, butter-wouldn't-melt vocals of Harriett Wheeler, the band's debut album Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (1990) became one of the most acclaimed albums of the decade; with the track Here's Where The Story Ends (later a hit for Tin Tin Out) becoming a surprise hit in America. Their hazy, dreamy pop became more melancholy on follow-up album Blind (1992) and they then took a five-year hiatus to set up a studio and have children. The band returned to something of a hero's welcome towards the end of the Brit-pop era with the folk-tinged album Static & Silence (1997), scoring a small hit with the single Summertime before quickly disappearing again.