Ooberman

If it had to say one of the bands that they have impressed to me more lately, or even, one of my 25 favorite bands of all the history and with whose sound I identify myself, there would be British OOBERMAN. They are (good, they were) from Liverpool, started on a major paradoxicalally called 'Independiente'. They fired them after releasing their first album because they did not sell enough, fundamental principle of majors, that unconditional affection to their bands... And they almost left it, the truth that those things low down a dream... but they re-emerged from the well, and they became conceited so before hard misfortune, and began to change their minds, creating his own label, Rotodisc, where they were releasing singles one after another and where their second album would also be released, "Hey, petrunko".

OOBERMAN are a band formed by Dan Popplewell (Voice, Guitar, Piano, Violin, composer and producer), Sophie Churney (Voice and Keyboards), the brothers Andy Flett (Guitar and Backing Vocals) and Steve Flett (Bass), and Jaymie Ireland (Drums).

OOBERMAN began like many groups that meet in the institute and decide to form a band. This was the case of Dan Popplewell, that was companion of brothers Andy and Steve Flett, and they formed THE FORESTRY COMMISSION in 1988 in the beginning. In 1989 they split up. Some years later, in 1997, they moved to Liverpool. Then there they found Sophie, with that angelical voice, that joined the band, and they began to record some demos, winning some local contests, and began giving some gigs, and to harvest good reviews, attracting the interest of the musical industry.

They released their debut single at the beginning of 1998 in the Graham Coxon's ' Transcopic label: "Shorley wall". They began to sound in radio stations, like BBC Radio 1, collecting also good reviews on the newspapers and magazines. Before the end of 1998 they signed a contract by 150,000 pounds with the Independiente major, to release their debut LP, "The magic treehouse", produced by Stephen Street (BLUR, THE SMITHS, LLOYD COLE...) that came out finally in October of 1999.

Before it came out, they were collecting very good reviews in Select, NME, or the missing Melody Maker; they entered Top 40 with the single "Blossoms falling"; they supported BLUR, HAPPY MONDAYS, TRAVIS and GOMEZ; they played in Glastonbury and Reading festivals; they sounded and they played for the radio shows of John Peel and Steve Lamacq. But when the next 2 following singles did not arrive at Top 40, the damn British press immediately started to forget them, and Independiente ran out of them, just 6 months after the release of their debut album. Then they created its own Rotodisc label, to avoid that musical industry did not interfere in their creations.

I knew them in the transition from the first album to the second one, when I bought a pair of singles of the group, singles extracted from their first album, "The magic treehouse", very difficult to get a copy nowadays, and those songs shook me up, they wrapped me with a magical aura, and they brought me a pile of new sensations, and it's just when you are working in the music industry (that's my case) that you see that the things today are very hard for making music and releasing albums, you start to listen to a lot of new albums that come out today, but you don't stop in any of them, enjoying an album listening to it a day and another, this is, there are a lot of bands today, but only a few groups that really catch your attention. And Ooberman was that exception. I started to listen to their songs one day after another, and I started to look for the first album "The magic treehouse" in Madrid and Barcelona, I needed that album desperatly. I had listened to "Million suns", "Dolphin blue", "Shorley wall",... and all of them were magical songs and needed more. After a long time of waiting for that copy of their album debut, I finally could get an import cd, that cost me 26.40 euros!! (around 18 pounds!!) the highest price I have paid for a record! but I was very happy that day and did not mind it. That record was really wonderful, its music was the perfect soundtrack for my dreams. I found that cd with a special sound that I did not any find in any other records.

One of the things that I regret more is that I missed them live, I was even at that Reading Festival where Ooberman opened for the main stage that morning, but I spent that time in the record fair near the festival doors. I did not like the name of the band. Damn prejudices. I surely lost a wonderful gig and the best chance to see them live.

When they were bound to released their second album, I received an email from Dan Popplewell, and I was so happy, I could not believe it, I had received an email from Dan, singer, guitar player, composer of those brilliant gems of the best pop I have heard in the last times!. He wrote to me to thank me for the good reviews of their mini-album "Running girl" in 'El planeta Amarillo', my fanzine. It was the first reference of the new Rotodisc label. And he asked to me in addition if I could help him to pass him some contacts to license the album in Spain. Immediately I thought about Sinnamon. I passed the Sinnamon contact to him, and 2 or 3 record labels more. I was incredibly glad when I saw that Sinnamon decided to release "Hey petrunko" in Spain. I was surprised and terribly happy, so that would be a chance to see them live in Spain! I still keep, of course, those I emails that I received from Dan. But soon after the album was released in Spain, I sadly heard that the bad split up. OOBERMAN would no longer come to play to Spain, now that everything was easier. The record was not very well-known in Spain. Here people sadly prefer THE STROKES, THE LIBERTINES, RADIOHEAD, and major bands such as them, and other magical bands, not as well-known as those ones, are hardly known them here, that's why I want to talk about them here in my fanzine.

Some months later I tried to get in touch with the band again, but it was impossible. Emails bounced back to me, and I found out that the end of the group had something to see with the fact that Dan and Sophie had split up their relationship, and that had also caused partly the dissolution of the group. Now I think that Dan is working in the University of Liverpool, and he does not want to know anything about OOBERMAN. Sophie is also a teacher, and the rest of the band formed PHANTOM 309, that with that name they had already made a remix of "Running girl". It is very hard to find anything about OOBERMAN on the internet. The official website does not work anymore, and so the unofficial ones. They had two forums, but nobody writes onthem. I have luckily found the Ootube forum, and it seems that it's alive!!! Ooberman songs still seem to be the soundtrack of my dreams.