Harriet Wheeler

The Sundays were an English alternative rock band, formed in the late 1980s, who released three albums throughout the 1990s.

The band's beginnings came with the meeting of singer Harriet Wheeler and guitarist David Gavurin while attending Bristol University.

Wheeler had played gigs with Cruel Shoes, an early incarnation of the band Jim Jiminee.

The duo soon augmented the band with bassist Paul Brindley and drummer Patrick Hannan.

The Sundays secured a recording contract with Rough Trade Records.

Their debut single was "Can't Be Sure".

Vocalist Harriet Wheeler and guitarist David Gavurin met as students at Bristol University in the mid-1980s.

Wheeler was from Reading, the daughter of an architect and a teacher, and studied English literature.

Gavurin was from Wembley and actively pursued a degree in the Romance languages, particularly French and Spanish.

The two fell in love and began living together.

Following graduation they wrote music in their free time while collecting unemployment benefits.

Except for Wheeler's vocal duties in a band called Jim Jiminee, the couple had no musical background.

Commenting on his desire to compose, Gavurin said, "It was something I'd always wanted to do, although I never wanted to be in a band when I was younger, like many kids do. It just dawned on me gradually."

Wheeler displayed similar feelings: "There was never a time I wanted to be incredibly famous, or in a pop group," she said.

"It just seemed a great thing to do to spend time working on something that's your own."

After the couple completed several songs – and migrated to London – they enlisted the support of bassist Paul Brindley and drummer Patrick Hannan, who had also attended Bristol University.

Hannan's brother, Nick had also been a member of Jim Jiminee, which briefly featured Wheeler as vocalist (see paragraph above).

The band chose the name "The Sundays" as it was the only one everyone could agree upon.

Demo tapes were sent out to several London clubs after the group felt energized by their efforts; Gavurin stated in a Rolling Stone interview that "by the end of the year we were thinking, 'Hang on a minute, some of this [music] is good!'" Responses to the tape were enthusiastic and an employee at Vertigo Club offered the band an opening slot for an upcoming show in August 1988.

"By chance there were three reviewers from the top music papers there," said Wheeler.

"They were supposed to review the main band, but instead they wrote about us."

The group subsequently became the focus of a record label bidding war.

They eventually signed with Rough Trade Records and had a distribution deal signed for the United States with DGC Records.

The Sundays released their first single "Can't Be Sure" in January 1989.

It topped the British indie charts and received acclaim as one of the best singles of 1989.

The group performed three songs in a session with popular disc jockey John Peel.

These songs would later turn up on their debut album, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.

The group worked on their debut for over a year.

"A lot of bands who get signed, who have been playing the circuit for years, have 30 songs for the first album," said Gavurin.

"But we didn't have enough for our first album, let alone our second. We can't write to deadline. You can't force a whole load of songs out quickly."

Asked whether the band felt pressured when working on the album, Wheeler responded, "No, because to start off with, we're far more critical of ourselves than anyone else, and that's more a concern to us than what the press think."

Their first album, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, was released in 1990 and became a UK top 5 hit.

The album's lead single "Here's Where the Story Ends" was a number one hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States.

With Rough Trade's financial troubles and the band's decision to manage themselves, the Sundays' next single, "Goodbye", did not emerge until 1992.

Their next album, Blind, arrived the same year, reaching the UK top 15.

The single "Love" reached number 2 on the US Modern Rock charts.

The band toured in support of these recordings.

In 1997, their third album, Static & Silence, was followed by the release of their most successful single, "Summertime", which made the UK top 15.

The album itself reached the UK top 10.

However, the band has been on a lengthy hiatus since those releases, with Wheeler and Gavurin focusing on raising their two children; Wheeler and Gavurin married after the band breakup.