Johnny Dean: vocals, backing vocals and percussion
Simon White: electric guitar and backing vocals
Chris Gentry: electric and acoustic guitars
Stuart Black: bass and acoustic guitar
Matt Everitt: drums and percussion

So What became of Britpop ? Some called the Mid 90's Britpop thing nothing more than another Boring Mod revival were they right, Up Magazine even went as far as calling the New Scene, "Kids in Oxfam gear,pretending to be Mods,they will all be gone by 1996"

leaders of the new Scene

Menswear..They were hailed as leaders of the new Scene before they even played a live show..The rise of Menswear Southends Best Loved Son's was one of 1995's biggest UK events. They appeared on the BBC Television chart show Top Of The Pops performing "I'll Manage Somehow" before they had even released a single. The Hype of New Pop Stars was leading the way, as were the sharp 60's style suits and haircuts..However I'll Manage Somehow" was and stil is a fantastic piece of Pop, full on cutting guitars/a great hook Chorus it was well worth any hype that was being pilled on the band..

"Daydreamer", the first song they had written together, was released as a single, it made number 14 in the UK charts. The band having formed officially on October 1994. Their debut gig five days later was In Camden and was filled with A&R men. Much of the initial attention stemmed from the fact that their career was steered by local London celebrities Howard Gough of Laurel Records .Soon the first Album was ready and it recived rave reviews."Daydreamer" was accused as being nothing more than poor copied 60's Pop ut it was more than that and a very clever slab of Pop, while the rated Album Nuisance possessed a many tunes and thrash Guitars and some excellent vocal work.

Breath Deeper Day Dreamer!MENSWE@R

They finally managed to break into the UK Top 10 in March 1996 with the single "Being Brave". Everett left the band in July '96 to join Montrose Avenue and was replaced by Tud Tudgate,Then they returned in 1997 with a new single the very Beach Boys- "We Love You" which gave an insight to just how good the band could be ,but it was all to late,By 1998, despite the Japanese release of their second album 'Hey Tiempo' being a great success story on far off shores!, they had all gone their separate ways. Gentry and Everett teamed up again in GI, while Black and White formed the Acolytes, none of these bands ever getting anywhere near what Menswear were meant to do, .They do leave behind some great Singles and 2 great Albums although the 1st was fullof quirky 4 mins Pop tunes ,and that about sums up Menswear..Quirky but still a fave of the bunch.

Band Quotes

Chris Gentry (guitarist, Menswear): In Summer '94, we used to go to [London club nights] Blow Up and Smashing. When you're 16, 17, you think, well, I could do a band, get a record deal and get on 'Top Of The Pops'. We did our first gig on 9 October, 1994, and it had to be a secret gig, because we didn't want any record companies coming down. We couldn't do a pub in north London or the West End, so we went for some old man's drinking hole in south London. Still, we were offered a deal before we'd even finished the last song. The second gig, about 50 A&R men came down. We got taken out for dinner every night for two months, got flown to New York, given as much champagne and coke as we could handle. The night before we actually signed our deal, we were at some party at [a certain major record company], and they were trying to get us to pull out of our deal. We said, "We really want to get some coke." They said, "Oh, we know where you can get some, but it's in Liverpool. If you get in this cab now, we'll drive you to Liverpool and give you cocaine" - just to get us out of London so we couldn't sign.

1ST ALBUM REVIEW

I adore this album, I love these guys, and they should have been contenders on some level, I know not what. I even have all the singles, pretty much, and the fact that they disappeared and then supposedly started doing country-rock before splitting into various similar Southern boogie fates (supposedly) pains my heart. They fell victim to dreams of quality, that reach for 'maturity,' when they should have avoided it like the plague. The bandmembers were no fools, were perhaps too self-conscious of their potential shelf-life and fate, said as much in interviews well before the album finally surfaced at the end of the Britpop Year, 1995. Still, such an ignominious way to bow out. Not kosher.
So this album. Friend Brian argued that in their own odd way they were English equivalents to San Diego's godlike Rocket From the Crypt -- heavy duty liars and publicity scam artists in the best of ways, dedicated to taking the kids with rock power, and possessed of (generally) damn good dress sense on stage.

Beyond that things get different, but it's a good starting point. Everything on the album is stitched together from different sources, happily pastiched. Every single sounds like it came from somewhere else familiar first -- "I'll Manage Somehow" is "Oblivious" by Aztec Camera, "Daydreamer" is pop-pitched Wire (cleverly avoiding an actual full lift like Elastica fell victim to, I should note), "Stardust" ain't got nothing to do with Ziggy, but just about any cheeky punk/pop hit ended up here. And I could go on -- "Hollywood Girl" is a Jam B-side, "Little Miss Pinpoint Eyes" starts with a knockoff of Johnny Rotten's "Rrrrrrrright!" from "Anarchy in the UK" and throws in a random Suede reference via Hampstead Heath, etc.

But what makes it all great is that it all hangs together, like a playlist of indie cool pureed and served in a form that theoretically should appeal to everybody as opposed to snobs. What makes it better is that unexpected touches keep popping up -- "Hollywood Girl" has a melt-in-your-mouth chorus that Weller could never write, "Stardust" has more toss-off lines per minute than any bitchfest you've ever been in (singing "He's a superficial fucker!" is a fun joy, I've found, in the right situation), "Sleeping In" has this bizarre Jethro Tull flute out of nowhere, and so forth. It all hangs together brilliantly, and I listen to it all pretty regularly still.

Supreme high point of the album and their career -- "The One." The ultimate kiss-off to the rat bastard at your school who was the big man on campus while you were stuck on the margins, and who you discover has become a brain-dead drone while you at least have a life, it is, and the requisite Britpop String Arrangement here kicks, snarls and snaps right along with the music, right down to the final soaring chorus. They did this even better the one time I saw them live. Genius.

Ned Raggett, November 1999

Alternative Press (12/95, .90) - "...This is a great album. This is a great band. The hype was right again, But what will become of Menswear and all the other Brit Pop Acts, like many small revivals before them they just might end up as also runs of 1995"

Update Update July 2005

At long last a review of the final Album Hay Tiempo..

To most, Menswear 1996 one-off single We Love You was the band's swan song. However, despite being dropped by their record company in every country but Japan, Menswear still managed to release their second album, Hay Tiempo, in that country. This record, however, was hardly what anyone would expect from them. More or less abandoning their stylized, loud pop formula, Hay Tiempo is much more rooted in trad rock, with no less than three five-plus minute opuses in the middle of a ten-song cycle.

The disc is a textbook sophomore slump; Menswear was essentially a singles band, yet there are not many standout tracks here. The more aggressive songs, for the most part, sound bland and uninspired, with the sole exception of "Waiting for the Sun," which evokes some of the joys found in their debut. The songs that do stand out are mostly the ballads, like the orchestral opener "Every Sound's a Melody" and the excellent "Coming Home," essentially a rewrite of the previous album's "Being Brave." "Coming Home" is not only the best track on the album, but was unfortunately also the band's subtle wave goodbye; shortly after the release of Hay Tiempo they permanently disbanded.

This disc does have a few virtues, however, the most notable being that it does, surprisingly, hold up better upon repeat listens. This alone makes it a worthwhile buy for hardcore fans of the band, even though the price and relative obscurity of each copy is a sizable obstacle. Hay Tiempo may not have been the best way for Menswear to say goodbye, but it is a set of ten songs that may please die-hard.. Jason Damas..

BREATH DEEPER DAY DREAMER...

But what became of the band..ah

After the initial hype, Menswear sank - along with their country second album.

Singer Johnny Dean was said to be at a firm dealing in the "after-sale support of cellular equipment" and resurfaced with a solo gig about a year ago.

Bassist Simon White now manages Bloc Party - who are up for the Mercury Prize - plus Engineers and The Fields.

Guitarist Chris Gentry is in a new band, Vatican DC, while drummer Matt Everitt is news editor at London indie radio station Xfm. MENU