The Beta Band

As the UK music scene entered a post-Brit pop slump towards the end of the 1990s, The Beta Band's inventive, psychedelic, oddball melodies stood out among a sea of tired, generic guitar groups. Such was their refreshing use of electronica, hip hop beats and quirky atmospherics that Noel Gallagher even declared that he wanted Oasis to sound like the Beta Band - and they reputedly duly attempted to do as much. The vision of Steve Mason (vocals, guitar) and Edinburgh friends Gordon Anderson (multi-instrumentalist), John MacLean (keyboards) and Robin Jones (drums), the band's acclaimed early recordings were packaged together on their debut album The Three EPs (1998); and the track Dry The Rain was used in the movie High Fidelity. Always original and unusual, their albums The Beta Band (1999), Hot Shots II (2001) and Heroes To Zeroes (2004) all reached the UK Top 20 as the band toured with Radiohead and become cult favourites of music obsessives and critics alike. They split in 2004, but Mason went on to a solo career using the name King Biscuit Time, while the rest of the band continued as The Aliens.

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