User:Chirpycockney

'Oslo' the band originally formed as 'Please Please' in July 1995 with the original line up of Lee Bryan (vocals, guitar), Robin Cook (bass), Ewen Spencer (guitar) and Paddy Considine (drums). All the members of the band were then attending the University of Brighton Art College.

'Please Please' played a handful of gigs around Brighton in early 1996 before changing their name to 'Pedestrians'. 'Pedestrians' attracted a small amount of attention to a number of A&R and a local manager, David Hague, who had previous success managing S*M*A*S*H* in the early 1990's.

The band went on to record two demo's during 1996 in a studio in central Brighton called Loophole, engineered by Simon Walker (Dexy's Midnight Runners) and played a number of gigs mainly on the South Coast of England, supporting bands such as 'Tiger', 'Jaquar' and 'The Warm Jets'. In November of 1996, Paddy Considine left the band and was replaced by Los Angeles born Tom Wenzel on drums. By the spring of 1997, 'Pedestrians' had attracted the attention of EMI Publishing, and by mid 1998, had changed their name to ‘Oslo’. Ewen Spencer was then replaced by Anthony May, who was subsequently replaced by Dan Farrow, also an attendee at the University of Brighton Art College.

In October 1998 the band was signed to EMI publishing by Mike Smith, and went on to record their first e.p with Ed Grimshaw on drums. ‘Three Nine Nine’, included three tracks, 'Talk to Feet' 'Undertones' and 'Stop, Start Again'. 'Talk to feet' and ‘Undertones’ enjoyed a fairly low amount of airtime on Radio 1’s evening session. The band’s second single, recorded with Pete Howard on drums, ‘Skrika’ reached Number 29 in the indie charts, being released in the summer of 1999, shortly before the release of their debut mini album on Scared Hitless Records ‘Daylight’ in November 1999.

From May to November of 1999, the band enjoyed a handful of larger gigs, supporting ‘Travis’ as part of Sound in the City Live on Radio 1, ‘Wilco’ at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire and live on BBC2’s ‘Later with Jools Holland’ in October, with Jeff Beck, The Charlatans and Shelby Lynne.

In December the band demoed for Warner Bros with new material, but shortly after this, creative difference and financial restraints took over, and the band’s last gig was at the Zap Club, Brighton in May 2000.

Bryan and Cook continued to demo new material for EMI throughout 2000, and eventually parted company in January 2001.