![]() ![]() The same year, David Byrne's worldbeat-oriented Luaka Bop label signed Cornershop to a deal and released Woman's Gotta Have It, the group's first widely accessible album. Chambers and Avtar Singh both left the group in 1995 and the new, reshuffled lineup brought on drummer Nick Simms and percussionist Pete Hall. Through all the controversy, the group kept honing its sound, adding sitarist Anthony Saffery (who also played keyboards and harmonium) and guitarist Wallis Healey for its 1994 debut album Hold on It Hurts. Unfairly, Cornershop were, for the most part, dismissed as incompetent. The backlash in the British music media (incorrectly) suggested that Cornershop were nothing but publicity hounds, pointing to the amateurish, messy qualities of the band's music as evidence (indeed, the group members took pride in their lack of technical know-how during their early days). In response to Morrissey's flirtation with skinhead imagery, the group blasted him in the press and took to burning pictures of him in concerts, at press conferences, and even outside the offices of his record label. Following their first gig in Harlow, they signed with the small indie label WIIIJA.Ĭornershop issued two EPs over the course of 1993 (In the Days of Ford Cortina and Lock Stock & Double-Barrel, later collected as Elvis Sex-Change), but attracted more attention for their strong anti-racist politics - specifically, their public denunciation of indie icon Morrissey. The remainder of their initial lineup featured Singh's brother Avtar on guitar and former Dandelion Adventure drummer David Chambers. Taking their name from a common stereotype of Indians in England - that they all own small, corner grocery shops - Cornershop were formed by singer/songwriter, guitarist, and dholki player Tjinder Singh and guitarist, keyboardist, and tambura player Ben Ayres after the 1991 breakup of a previous group, General Havoc. After "Asha" hit, they took a detour into disco with their Clinton side project, then sporadically returned with albums that served as reminders of their skills at blending cultures (Cornershop & the Double-O Groove Of) and experimenting with disparate sounds (Urban Turban.) By the time of 2020's England Is a Garden, Cornershop had become a finely honed rock & roll band with a powerful political message. Rex-style boogie, and whatever else they felt like adding to their melting pot. ![]() Cornershop started off as punky, gleefully amateurish rabble rousers, then built a sound of from there that incorporated Bollywood soundtracks, hip-hop, T. It may have taken Cornershop a few years to perfect their innovative hybrid of Indian music, British indie rock, and off-kilter danceable pop, but with the release of 1997's When I Was Born for the 7th Time, and the hit single "Brimful of Ashan" the group's multi-cultural fusions broke through. ![]()
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