Background
Wheeler grew up in Sonning Common, near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, the daughter of an architect and a teacher.
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Harriet Wheeler
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She was enrolled as an English literature student at Bristol University when she met David Gavurin. The two shared a common passion for music, and despite little musical training (although Wheeler had sung in a band called Jim Jiminee before meeting Gavurin), released demos to various clubs in London. Wheeler and Gavurin were the core of a popular alternative band,, with Paul Brindley on bass and Patrick Hannan on drums.
They decided upon the name by default as it was the only one they could all agree on. performed their first show in August 1988.
Their debut album, Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, was released in 1990. Rolling Stone reviewer Ira Robbins called it "an alluring slice of lighter-than-air guitar popular, a collection of uncommonly good songs graced by Harriet Wheeler"s wondrous singing." The album sold over half a million copies around the world.
The band released their second album, Blind, in 1992, and it also sold nearly half a million copies, giving the band another gold record. Wheeler"s vocals received the lion"s share of praise.
One reviewer wrote, "Her singing is fluttery, mischievous, and full of unexpected, perverse flashes of tenderness."
Parenthood prolonged the recording of their third album, but they eventually released Static & Silence in 1997.
While some critics said sounded exactly the same as before, Kevin Raub of Ray Gun called Static & Silence "the band"s most solid effort to date.".
