Sleeper, the band, were an
epic meditation on intangiability. Throughout 1995 and 1996 they were extremely famous; lead singer
Louise Wener was a regular on the cover of the
NME and was voted by the short-lived
Jewish style magazine 'New Moon' as their '
Most Eligible Jewish Woman' of 1996. They were one of the key
Britpop bands, and were the most famous of the 'three anonymous musicians with a female vocalist' groups (such as
Lush,
Catatonia,
Skunk Anansie,
Elastica,
Echobelly,
The Cranberries, and so forth).
The band were formed in 1993 as 'Surrender Dorothy', although the quickly realised that this was as bad a name as 'The Cranberry Saw Us' (the original monikor of the Cranberries). Wener (vocals, guitar) and 'Long' Jon Stewart (guitar) wrote the songs; vigorous Diid Osman played The Bass non-stop until 1997, when he was sacked and replaced by Dan Kaufmann. Throughout, stoic Andy McClure played The Drums.
Their debut album 'Smart' generated a buzz; 'The It Girl' was massive for a short time, produced a couple of top ten singles, and Elvis Costello recorded a cover of 'What do I do now?'. If you read the NME at this point, the band seemed at least as important as Blur or Oasis. Wener
In 1997 they released a final album, 'Pleased to meet you', but their time had passed. The album itself was much the same as before - jangly indie guitars with meandering, directionless tunes - but whereas Oasis could get away with the same old, Sleeper could not. As with Catatonia the group itself was much the same, but fashion had moved on. To utter indifference the group split up in 1998.
Subsequently Louise Wener wrote a novel, 'Goodnight Steve McQueen', which was published by Hodder & Stoughton - clearly sensing a female Nick Hornby - in 2002, and another novel, 'The Big Blind', for 2003. The band itself was featured in the 2003 documentary film 'Live Forever', and will no doubt be mentioned when Britpop is trendy again, in 2015.
"The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long".