Sundae Club is an English down-tempo band formed in 2001 by members Hamstall Ridware and Dr. C.D.Mille, both audio historians and musical instrument technicians, assisted by producer George Shilling

George Shilling

George Shilling is a British musician, record producer, composer and audio engineer. He is the son of Eric Shilling, formerly of the English National Opera and actress Erica Johns...

. Initially conceived as a vehicle simply to prevent an existing historic collection of ancient synthesizers and Hammond organ

Hammond organ

The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...

s from decaying through lack of use, the duo found interest from UK television company GMTV

GMTV

GMTV was the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc. in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end...

 who used some of their early work as promo film soundtracks. This led to a publishing contract with Taste Music, famously the erstwhile label of West Country progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 band, Muse

Muse (band)

Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...

.

Sundae Club's music invariably features the sound of the mellotron

Mellotron

The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...

, as well as other old electronic instruments such as Theremin

Theremin

The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...

 and Fairlight

Fairlight

Fairlight is a digital audio company based in Sydney, Australia. In 1979 they created the Fairlight CMI, the first digital audio sampler, quickly used by artists such as Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, and Jean Michel Jarre. They are now a manufacturer of media solutions tools such as digital audio...

 and manages to sound simultaneously contemporary and nostalgic. Their debut album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

, Technostalgia appeared in 2004, and they have also contributed music for the Histoires Naturelles

Histoires Naturelles

Histoires Naturelles is Nolwenn Leroy's second album. It was released on the 5th December 2005 in France. Most of the songs were written by the French singer Laurent Voulzy and Nolwenn Leroy herself. The title track was written by Yasmin Shah and Arnaud Rosenthal,and "Mélusine" by Yasmin Shah...

album by Nolwenn Leroy

Nolwenn Leroy

Nolwenn Leroy, , is a French singer and songwriter, discovered by the French television reality show Star Academy. She is best known for her two Number One singles "Cassé" and "Nolwenn Ohwo!"....

, released in France by Mercury Records

Mercury Records

Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...

 in December 2005. A piece of their work was chosen as a soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 by animation director, Mario Cavalli, for a short film to commemorate sixty years of the Care charity in Germany.

They collaborated with Najma Akhtar

Najma Akhtar

Najma Akhtar born in the UK, also known as Najma, is a British singer of Asian ancestry. She was born in 1964 Chelmsford, England.Najma studied chemical engineering at Aston University, Birmingham: her father, brother and sister are also engineers...

 on a remix

Remix

A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....

track and an original work in 2003.

Their second album, British Summer Time, was released as a free mp3 download in May 2008, with an invitation for the 'purchaser' to make an optional donation.

Sea-sides

"The lost Sundae Club album found whilst spring cleaning behind the Mellotron. Some of these tracks date back to Sundae Club's earliest days in 2001 and were conceived one Sunday evening on the upper floor of the Cheltenham branch of Pizza Piazza. If you were there, you would have witnessed Dr Mille playing a row of tuned Peroni Nastro Azzuro bottles, but since most of the other diners had left by that point, perhaps because of it, there are few witnesses. That night, Sunday Club (sic) was born. Hamstall and Dr Mille were christened (or at least something which nearly rhymed with it) and Ray Cathode was invented. The close derivation Sundae Club came a week or two later when it became apparent that Mondays were actually more convenient than Sundays for us to get together and lark around with synthesizers and old tat.

Some of these were the tracks which led to a publishing deal with Taste Music, and probably also led to them dropping us a few years later. Most contain Mellotron, some contain Theremin and all are important little steps in the evolution of the Sundae Club Sound."

E-Pea

"Why E-Pea? Well, it's an EP of course; the modern equivalent of one of those 7" records of yesteryear with four tracks on it, the groove modulation too small to offer much in the way of audio fidelity, but a satisfying object nonetheless. Many years ago, Island Records issued a "sampler disc". A 12" LP record with a selection of some their artists' works. A promotional tool to get obscure acts known off the back of the big sellers. In this case it was a double album and headliners like Traffic, ELP, Jethro Tull and Fairport Convention were included to entice buyers to listen to unknowns like Mountain, Bronco and Nick Drake. In the case of poor old talented-but-awkwardly-shy Nick it didn't work, and he sold hardly any records at all. Until he was dead. They called it "El Pea". Much later, the Acid-House movement pioneered by the likes of Baby Ford and 808-State invented drugs which looked like small aspirins which you had to take with lots of water whilst wearing a t-shirt with a Smiley face on it which sent you bonkers whenever you listened to dance music. They called it "E".

Sundae Club are honoured to be in the position of having bought at least one member of Traffic a pint or two over the years, but the closest they ever got to Baby Ford was Hamstall borrowing his housemate's Mark 1 Fiesta. "

British Summer Time

"Sundae Club's second album, 'British Summer Time' is available exclusively to download for your mp3-player gadgets and i-Tuneses, in which they take you on a Journey across Continents with their Travel Trilogy; you can savour the wholesome meaty goodness (chicken if you're vegetarian) of 'Pies'; spot the Bev Bevanesque drum solo in 'Honey Bee'; marvel as a moonlighting electrician from the Midlands ignores New Labour's green policy on tungsten light bulb usage and get slightly miffed as the new people move in to the flat above. It's all here, and Sam comes too.

Rather different from their debut, 'Technostalgia', but a vastly expanded arsenal of vintage electronics and the trusty Mellotron guarantee the Sundae Club Sound.

Influences:
Reginald Perrin, Lea and Perrins, British Summer Time, Any Other Time, Vintage Ice-Cream Vans, Blustery days in Bognor Regis, BBC Trades Test Transmissions, Delia Derbyshire, Shipping Forecasts, Electric Light Orchestra, The Clark's Electronic Foot-gauge, Eastern European Radio Call Signs, Cars with mineral-based Brake Fluid, Fry's Five Boys Chocolate, Milo with milk, Home visits from Radio Rentals. Doorstep Milk Deliveries, Bakelite, Linoleum, Caddy-Matics, Joe Meek, Clocking off, VHF Television, pushing Button B on the Post-Office public telephone."