Ooberman

Biography

Ooberman is an English band with strong indie, folk and progressive influences first formed in 1997. The band split up in 2003, shortly after the release of their second album Hey Petrunko, reformed in April 2006 and began releasing music again. Ooberman founders Dan Popplewell and Andy Flett met over a piano at their school in Bradford, 1988. The first band they set up was The Forestry Commission, with Andy's younger brother Steve Flett on bass. The band's life soon ended when Popplewell moved...

Ooberman is an English band with strong indie, folk and progressive influences first formed in 1997. The band split up in 2003, shortly after the release of their second album Hey Petrunko, reformed in April 2006 and began releasing music again.

Ooberman founders Dan Popplewell and Andy Flett met over a piano at their school in Bradford, 1988. The first band they set up was The Forestry Commission, with Andy's younger brother Steve Flett on bass. The band's life soon ended when Popplewell moved to Liverpool, but the three friends kept in touch.

Steve Flett moved to Liverpool in 1992, and Andy Flett later joined him in 1997. Ooberman was then born, complete with Sophia Churney (keyboards and vocals) and Alan Kelly (drums). The first Ooberman gig was in June 1997, and their eccentric live shows and quirky demos won them the 1997 BT Merseyside Arts Award for Best Newcomers.

Their first release was the "Sugar Bum" single, a 7" on Graham Coxon's Transcopic label. They then released the critically acclaimed Shorley Wall EP on Tugboat Records. The band then whipped up a major deal with Independiente, on which they released their first proper single; the Top 40 hit "Blossoms Falling".

By spring 1999, the band had finished work on their debut album, The Magic Treehouse. The album got great reviews, including an 8/10 in the hard-to-please NME. The reviews sadly didn't turn into sales, though, and after a few singles missed the Top 40, Independiente and Ooberman parted company.

The band had had enough with the music industry by this time, and in mid-2000, they started work on their second LP. During this time, tension within the band caused original drummer Alan to leave the band, but he was replaced by Paul Walsham.

After more than a year working on new material, things started to heat up. The band announced that they would release their second album - Hey Petrunko - at the start of 2002. A mini-album, Running Girl, preceded it in October 2001. As well as getting a new drummer, this time Jaymie Ireland, Popplewell also set up his own record label, Rotodisc.

A five-track EP - "Bluebell Morning" - and a single - "Beany Bean" - followed, but Hey Petrunko was delayed over and over again. After nearly three years working on the album, it was finally released on the 3rd March 2003, to widespread critical acclaim.

A tour and another single followed, but all was not well at Oober HQ. The break-up of Danny and Sophia's relationship strained the band too far, and in May, Danny announced that they were both leaving the band. Rotodisc was shut down, and planned releases and tour dates (including festivals and foreign gigs) were scrapped.

In February 2005, a website - ooberman.net - was launched, claiming to be "the new official Ooberman website".

in April 2006, the ooberman.net site appeared in full, and a news update dated 20 April stated that "the band have now reformed and recorded a new album... there are no current plans to play live."

An album, entitled Carried Away was released in August 2006 by Rotodisc, distributed in the UK by Cargo Records. The release was preceded by an extremely limited 7" single, "The Beauty of Your Soul", on 19 June, and a download-only single – also entitled "Carried Away".

In December 2006, the album "The Snow Queen" was released by Symphonika, an orchestral side-project by Dan Popplewell. The album featured the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and vocals by Sophia Churney.

On 26 February 2007, Andy and Steve Flett released an album of material recorded during Ooberman's time apart under the name Ooberon. It was entitled "Waiting For The Sonic Boom".

In August 2007 they announced on their webpage, that their entire back catalogue would be available for free download as a promotion for The Lost Tapes. Controversially, it included some material owned by Sony, and therefore the band effectively invited legal action from their former label.

On 7 June 2010, a new album London Town featuring Ooberman members Sophia Churney and Dan Popplewell as The Magic Theatre was released accompanied by eleven free HD videos. The album's orchestral sound was achieved on a low budget by Popplewell writing library music, designed to be used as background for films and television, that fitted his songs, and re-using the recordings with new vocals by him and Sophia Churney.

The band does not seem to have been active after 2010. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.