Clearlake

In January 2000, four young men, Jason Pegg (voice, piano, guitar), Sam Hewitt (keyboards, devices), Woody Woodward (bass, omnichord) and James Butcher (drums, percussion), emerged blinking from their bunker on the south coast of England with the marvellous Winterlight - the first single on Domino offshoot Dusty Company - which amazed everyone concerned by picking up copious daytime Radio 1 plays, being awarded Single Of the Week in all the music papers, selling out its limited pressing in a fortnight and slipping into the Top 100. A year of frenzied activity followed: three tours Britain, two visits to Europe, four radio sessions, a TV show in Abbey Road, Scott Walker's Meltdown with Elliot Smith, collecting venerable fans with subsequent singles (Don't Let the Cold In prompted Jarvis Cocker to invite them to support Pulp, Something To Look Forward To took them out on the road with The Delgados) and somehow, in the middle of all this, recording their first album, Clearlake Lido, during occasional visits to a studio in Hove.