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London, United Kingdom (1995 – present)

Spearmint is a London-based indie pop band, founded in 1995 from the ashes of a project called ‘Laverne and Shirlie’. Their sound can be said to be classic British guitar pop, with some northern soul influences.

The founding members were Shirley Lee (lead vocals, guitar), Simon Calnan (vocals, keyboards), Martin Talbot (bass) and Ronan Larvor (drums). Talbot left soon afterward, to be replaced by James Parsons. Richard ‘Dickon’ Edwards later ended up joining as second guitarist, though leaving in 2000 to form Fosca. Parsons then took over second guitar duties, with Andy Lewis joining on bass.

Spearmint have released eight albums and many singles, all on their own label, hitBack, having a minor success with 1997’s

Sweeping The Nation and

A Trip Into Space, both of which grazed the UK Top 75.

We’re Going Out received some airplay on BBC Radio 1 and was remixed by long-time Pet Shop Boys prodcuer Stephen Hague.

Their most recent studio album, Paris In A Bottle, was released in the summer of 2006.

During the initial few months of gigs around the homes of the band members in south-east London, Spearmint put out a run of 500 white label 7” singles featuring “Somebody” and an early version of “I Can’t Sleep” on their own hitBack label. The song featured an unauthorised The Beatles sample, which should have made them infamous at the very least. It was not to be, but it was fiery enough to get a manager on board.

The original bass player left later that year, so the band advertised in Melody Maker for a new bass player and met James. He’d just parted ways with previous band Supersaurus and was really looking to play guitar, but they persuaded him to play bass with promises of records, glamour and riches, and he joined.

Featured Tracks

FULL TRACK Absense Greetings Number Two	2:17
FULL TRACK Life In Reverse	2:45
FULL TRACK A Signal Or A Sign	4:38
FULL TRACK Outside The Roundhouse	2:35
FULL TRACK Come On Feel The Lemonheads	1:39
FULL TRACK My Birthday Present To Myself	0:40

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Similar Artists

Top Albums

A Week Away (Special Edition)
Spearmint
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A Week Away
Spearmint
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- 7digital $7.77
- iTunes $9.99
- Buy Album
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A Different Lifetime
Spearmint
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Paris In A Bottle
Spearmint
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Top Tracks

1	Sweeping The Nation	51
2	We're Going Out	45
3	A Week Away	33
4	Isn't It Great To Be Alive	23
5	Start Again	22
6	A Third Of My Life	20
7	Best Ballroom	19
7	A Trip Into Space	19
9	It Won't Be Long Now	16
10	You Carry This With You	15
11	Saturday	14
11	Making You Laugh	14
13	You Are Still My Brother	12
14	Scottish Pop	11
15	The Flaming Lips	9

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kanto_sho wrote:
December 2011

The reason why Nations is #1 is properly because the song is available at the rough trade compilations.

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Colton56 wrote:
November 2011

Why is Sweeping the Nation at #1? That song blows

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astarish1 wrote:
December 2010

the best !

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abiflip wrote:
November 2010

I LOVE Spearmint!!

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leechgatherer wrote:
August 2010

Holy jesus fuck. I'm so happy Levitt name-dropped them in 500 Days. I just listened to A Week Away for the first time and I think it's one of the best albums I've listened to this year. It's incredible.

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sdonoh wrote:
July 2010

I was disappointed they weren't on the (500) days soundtrack, but I'm glad the reference has brought so many here. Spearmint are virtually unknown even here in the UK, and deserve so much more.

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telleyjim wrote:
June 2010

I'm bitting my tongue

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oozabooman wrote:
May 2010

I downloaded A Different Lifetime in 2008 on a whim because I liked the name. I liked it, so I downloaded A Week Away later that day. I don't think I really listened to them that much afterwards, but I felt very excited 'getting' an indie band namedrop in a mainstream movie.

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zanderkate wrote:
March 2010

oh we have a fan of before 500dos, nice to meet you. why dont you got A Different Lifetime? :( the best one

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field_day wrote:
March 2010

heard them in 1999 with an acoustic version of Isn't It Great To Be Alive on a Papercuts CD, which made me get A Week Away. (i have not seen 500 Days of Summer, although it is in my netflix queue.)

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zanderkate wrote:
February 2010

OK everybody here listened to them after whatching 500days of summer ¬¬'

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SuperCoolBros wrote:
February 2010

Listening after "500 days of summer"

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purpledaffodils wrote:
January 2010

I also heard about them from 500 days of summer x3

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DorMizrahi wrote:
December 2009

I watched "500 days of summer" also, and heard of this band for the first time.

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cladiniz wrote:
November 2009

Listening after "500 days of summer". Great movie and great band.

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terranautilus wrote:
October 2009

thanks for having me around on those two shows in Germany, much appreciated!! hope all's well on your side :-) Am back in London, hopefully Neil will keep me in the loop .... cheers Neal/Amphibic

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shelby87 wrote:
October 2009

@themshow118 haha, man it's cool. this is what i exactly wanted to do :)

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zzzoneDOTnet wrote:
October 2009

Nice stuff. http://zzzone.net

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christlair wrote:
September 2009

hey. i enjoyed your concert in dresden yesterday. keep on doing it this way!

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ADMIRALSPALAST wrote:
August 2009

♥ ♥ ♥

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Best Ballroom from the ICA 30th September
16 Oct 2009 | from telleyjims.blogspot.com/
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A third of my life, from the ICA 30th September
16 Oct 2009 | from telleyjims.blogspot.com/
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Isn't it great to be alive? from the ICA 30th September
16 Oct 2009 | from telleyjims.blogspot.com/
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Recent Activity

atpunk, cakin93, outquisition and 3 other people added Spearmint to their libraries. 8 hours ago
clau_sura tagged Spearmint with indie, pop and indie pop. last month
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KindOfDude tagged Spearmint with ‘indie pop’. December 2011
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Spearmint posted a news item ‘Tour Blog’. May 2011