The nucleus of what was to become Planet Sunday met in Oxford in the heady summer of 1987.
One drunken night, fuelled by one too many Dead Kennedies records, David Statham and Richard Newbold decided to form a band despite (a) not owning any instruments and (b) not being able to play any instruments.
Years (well months) of painstaking practise led to the formation of Spacehopper. Playing a mix of jangly grunge and noisy pop, the band featured 2 lead singers : Chris Hill (ex Eaton College choirboy) and Rachel Nield (the 3rd best pianist in Barnsley).

After a series of gigs around London in the early 90s, Spacehopper ran the gamut of noveau mod to brit pop to new electronic before settling on their own style.

The departure of singer Chris to work as a fashion stylist for the German Navy saw Rachel taking over on voice, and led to the formation of Planet Sunday. All too soon, the trusty drum machine was replaced by human beatbox Terry Arnett (ex Worldspin/New Breed/The Wiltons/Sokatash etc), when he answered an ad in NME for a drummer in the vain of Keith Moon, who liked 80's music. Well, he wasn't Keith Moon, but had that special 80's style about him (plus, he had a decent drum kit!).

Rehearsals began, in earnest, at Westar Studios in Southall. It was clear we needed a keyboard player. In walks Si�n Allen. The band was complete.

With a plethora of material, Planet Sunday was let loose into the musical wilderness - well Acton! The first gig as Planet Sunday was at Fillmore West in Acton. From there, the fanbase grew.

Therein followed several gigs within the Camden circuit - The Monarch and The Falcon were regular slots for the band.

This was also when PS as a group started recording. The first demos of "Dukes of Knitwear" and "Please Like Me"were recorded in South London. A quick session (8 hours) produced the embryo of a much larger beast.

Other gigs followed, but things were to change...

Personal pressures meant that Richard couldn't carry on with the band, so he decided to quit.
The bass was filled by Rachel for one gig, but a replacement was soon to follow.

Matthew Bell (ex Parade/Sokatash/The Wiltons) was recommended by Terry. Terry had worked with him in various bands in Hounslow, with some success with Parade (a Modernist band with one huge following!).
Terry also liked his style, and had an empathy that worked tightly.

At this point, the band seeked management. This came in the large (very!) guise of George Jackson of PMT Management, and his sidekick - Duncan Reddell, with the promise of big things (ha!).

He arranged for PS to record with Mike Allinson at his studios in Notting Hill.

Four songs were recorded - in quite weird circumstances. Firstly, the drums were recorded separately at RMS Studios in Fulham. Two takes for each song were done in one day (8 hours to be precise!).

The tapes were then sent on to AMS Studios for the other parts of the recording, ending up with the band's first quality demo.

PS then started playing gigs, with the addition of new material, written during the break for recording.

After gigs at the Rock Gardens and the Monarch, George J asked for Matt to be dropped from the band!
Why, we will never really know.

After several "incidents" with George, PS decided to drop George - who had walked away with several hundred pounds of our money. B*stard is the word that springs to mind!

We were without a manager, when Mike Allinson and his partner, John Roy took over the managerial duties.

We managed to recruit a new bass player in Paul Humphries - a wonderfully organic player. As a rhythm section, David, Terry and Paul clicked instantly.

A decision to record more material led to PS going back to AMS to record "I Wish" and "Brilliant".

Terry had a tough time again, having to record the drums in two stages...
Firstly, recording the drums and hi-hats only, leaving space for the cymbals, then...
Secondly, overdub the cymbals in the spaces left in the first run.
Strange, but it worked wonderfully. David was very pleased with the end results.

But, cracks were beginning to appear...

Personal differences were making life in the band very difficult to sustain.
Also, the new management were trying to push Rachel as the focal point of the band - the other members being sidemen (and replaceable). Eventually, this strain on the band caused its demise.

In 1997, the band as it stood split...

The management then tries to promote David and Rachel as a duo - and had a few gigs in London with countless session players filling in for the original members.

But this didn't last. The history of PS ended there.

Written by David Statham and Terry Arnett � 2001