The Soup Dragons were a Scottish alternative rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s, named after a character in the 1970s children's TV show The Clangers.

History

The Soup Dragons formed in Bellshill, a town near to Glasgow in 1985. The line up was Sean Dickson (vocals, lead guitar), Jim McCulloch (guitar, second voice) who replaced Ian Whitehall and Sushil K. Dade (bass). The original drummer, Ross A. Sinclair, left the group after the first proper album, This Is Our Art, to pursue a career in art, and was replaced by Paul Quinn. Most of their songs were written by Dickson, while some were co-written with McCulloch. Tambourine player, Jackie was present for the first few rehearsals.

Originally lumped in with the C86 movement, along with fellow members of the Bellshill Sound, such as the BMX Bandits and Teenage Fanclub, they went through a number of stylistic changes in their career.

Their first single was Buzzcocks-inspired pop-punk, and over the course of six singles (the first three collected in 1986 on a U.S. only compilation, Hang Ten), they gradually developed a more complex rock guitar sound, which culminated in their first album proper This Is Our Art.

In the year following This Is Our Art their sound got heavier and heavier. Suddenly they underwent a major change from an indie rock sound, to the rock-dance crossover baggy sound, popular at the time with the release of the album Lovegod. This change mirrored that of fellow Scottish band Primal Scream, and can be attributed to the rise of the ecstasy-fueled acid house rave scene in the UK. This led to accusations that they were jumping on the "baggy" bandwagon. However, in 1990, it produced their most notable hit single in the UK, I'm Free, a cover of a Rolling Stones song.

Subsequent albums continued the rock-dance crossover sound, as they concentrated on trying to break America. In 1992 they enjoyed their biggest U.S. hit with "Divine Thing" which reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The band split in 1995 with Quinn joining fellow Bellshill band, Teenage Fanclub. Sushil K. Dade formed the experimental post rock band Future Pilot A.K.A., and singer Sean Dickson formed The High Fidelity.Jim McCulloch joined fellow Glaswegians Superstar,and has since formed musical collective Green Peppers and writes and records with Isobel Campbell.

Discography

Albums

• Hang Ten (compilation, 1986)
• This Is Our Art (1988) [#60 UK]
• Lovegod (1990) [#7 UK / #88 US]
• Hotwired (1992) [#74 UK / #97 US]
• Hydrophonic (1994)

Singles

External links

• The Soup Dragons at the BBC
• MP3.com entry
• trouserpress entry
• The Soup Dragons page at VH1