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The Flatmates released five singles between 1986 and 1988. Their singles all reached the upper regions of the UK Indie Chart, culminating with a number one placing for "Shimmer".
Formed in Bristol in summer 1985, by Martin Whitehead, proprietor at the time of a weekly indie venue called The Mission Club, and "Rocker", the city's most notorious music fan. Lacking inspiration for an esoteric name, they adopted the tag stuck on them by their friends - "the flatmates".
As part of the first wave of the mid-eighties resurgence of guitar-pop, they ran (and gigged) with the C86 crowd, but spurned the coy affectations of "cutism". Taking a cue from the Modern Lovers their first demos featured covers of Velvet Underground and Stooges songs.
Echoes of the Shangri Las and Ronettes run through their tunes - part of a musical heritage that treads the line where classic, concise, tuneful pop meets the attitude and anarchy of rock'n'roll. If the Flatmates bore the influence of any one band though, it was their spiritual godfathers, The Ramones, to whom they paid tribute in the form of "I Don't Care".
The Flatmates arrived at a time when pop was shiny and nice girls didn't play in rock bands. They never made it to the pop charts, but shortly after their demise, the likes of The Primitives, The Sundays, The Darling Buds, Lush and Elastica did.
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