Geneva were a British indie band from Aberdeen in Scotland.

The band were formed in 1992 by vocalist Andrew Montgomery and guitarist Steven Dora. They recruited second guitarist Stuart Evans, bass player Keith Graham and drummer Douglas Caskie. Originally the band were called Sunfish.

One of their demos found their way to Suede’s record label Nude who signed the band in 1996. The band changed their name and released their debut single No One Speaks the same year. The band garnered enough press to headline NME’s annual Bratbus tour of up and coming bands in early 1997. The band released second single Into the Blue to coincide with the tour.

The band fitted well with the current musical scene and were well promoted by the UK music press of the time. As a reaction to the fading Britpop scene many bands rejected the laddish ideals of bands like Oasis and wrote darker more intelligent songs. This was perfectly shown by Radiohead’s OK Computer and other bands like Strangelove. Montgomery’s high pitched vocals were often compared to Suede. However it could be said that being on Suede's record label did them few favours because they were unable to find their own sound and own fanbase compared to the more successful band.

Geneva released their full-length debut album, Further, early in the summer of 1997. The album mixed traditional power pop with darker brooding songs. Though the album was said to be one of the best that year by some critics, it had little commercial success, despite including NME voted Single of the Year "Tranquilizer". One more single was released by the band from further, entitled "Best Regrets".

The second album, Weather Underground was released in 2000. It was preceeded by the single "Dollars In The Heavens" and followed by the single "If You Have To Go". The band, who never achieved a great amount of success with their first release, completely flopped with the second LP, despite a raft of good reviews and split soon after.

Andy Montgomery joined a band called Amityville who released the "Pacific Radio Fire" EP in 2004 - a limited release, it quickly sold out. Amityville broke up in late 2005 and Montgomery formed a duo with Keris Howard called St Famous. Stuart Evans and Keith Graham formed 69CORP and have released an album, "Our Present to the Future" in 2005.

See also

• List of bands named after places

External Links

Official archive site