The House of Love are an English alternative rock band, formed in London in 1986 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Guy Chadwick and co-founder and lead guitarist Terry Bickers. They rose to prominence in 1987 with their first single "Shine On", released on the independent label Creation. The following year, the band released their critically acclaimed eponymous debut album and built their reputation over the next few years through subsequent releases, constant touring and the support of the English press. They signed with Fontana Records in 1989 and met commercial success in 1990 with their second self-titled album, which peaked at number 8 in the UK albums chart. Their third album, Babe Rainbow, was favourably met by the critics in 1992 and also reached the top 40 in the UK.
The House of Love are best known for their detailed psychedelic guitar sound and for other singles such as "Christine" and "Destroy the Heart". In the US, the songs "I Don't Know Why I Love You", "Marble" and "You Don't Understand" were also popular on alternative rock radio stations, respectively reaching number two, number five and number nine on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. The House of Love disbanded in 1993. After a hiatus of 10 years, they reformed in 2003 with Bickers, who had performed on their two first albums. They have been cited as an influence by shoegaze bands Slowdive and Ride.
In 2020, Chadwick announced a change of line-up and that he had recruited a new band.
History Formation and debut album (1986–1989) The House of Love were formed in 1986 in Camberwell, London, by former Kingdoms singer and guitarist Guy Chadwick: he had been inspired to start a new band after seeing the Jesus and Mary Chain in concert at London's Electric Ballroom.Dave Roberts. ". February 2005. He wrote a new song called "Christine", which gave him ideas for progress: "The idea of the sound of the group and what kind of musicians to look for... female vocals... a good take on the Velvets' sonics... and of course the image."Sleevenotes for the 2007 Renascent reissue of The House of Love Chadwick teamed up with an old friend, drummer Pete Evans, and recruited the rest of the initial House of Love lineup via an advert in Melody Maker. This brought together an international band of London-born lead guitarist Terry Bickers (ex-Colenso Parade), described as "a genius guitar player," by Creation Records' Alan McGee, German rhythm guitarist/co-singer Andrea Heukamp and her bass guitarist boyfriend Chris Groothuizen (from New Zealand).Strong, Martin C. (1999) The Great Alternative & Indie Discography, Canongate, Chadwick opted to name his new band The House of Love after Anaïs Nin's book A Spy in the House of Love. There was a considerable age differential in the band: Chadwick, by now aged 30, was nearly ten years older than Terry Bickers.
Signing to Creation Records, The House of Love released their debut single "Shine On" in May 1987 and toured with Felt and Zodiac Mindwarp. During the latter half of 1987, the band continued to tour: a third on the bill placing at a concert at the Town & Country Club was widely acclaimed in the press and convinced Creation Records to make a record with them. The resulting single, "Christine", was not released until mid-1988, and was the last of the band's recordings to feature Andrea Heukamp as a full member. Having become tired of touring, Heukamp quit the band at the end of 1987 and returned to her home region of Münsterland.
Although the split was amicable, Chadwick would later comment "Losing Andrea Heukamp was a massive, massive blow for me: I loved her voice and I loved her playing, she was easily as important as Pete, Terry or Chris." Heukamp appeared in the group shot used for the cover of the band's first long-form release, a 1987 Germany-only compilation of the early recordings, eight songs of which she had played on. This record was untitled apart from the band name and was consequently just known as The House of Love or informally as The German Album. Heukamp's split from The House of Love would not be absolute, as she would return as a studio guest on some of the band's subsequent albums.
Following Heukamp's departure, The House of Love began working on their debut album. The recording sessions were completed in just over a week, but the mixing sessions, allegedly fuelled by copious use of LSD, proved more problematic, with producer Pat Collier dealing with the final mix after disagreements within the band. The album was preceded by the release of "Christine" as a single in May 1988, which reached No. 1 in the independent charts. Later in May, the debut album was released. As with The German Album, the album lacked a formal title anywhere on the sleeve, and therefore became generally known as The House of Love. A stand-alone single, "Destroy The Heart", was eventually voted single of the year in DJ John Peel's Festive Fifty.
Following the success of the first album which topped the indie charts in Europe, the band opted to sign to Fontana Records (and PolyGram in the US), with Creation label head Alan McGee continuing for a while as manager. Ominously, by this time the band's drug use had begun to escalate as had internal problems with egos and dissension.
The first House of Love release on the Fontana label was the single "Never", which was issued against the band's wishes, and stalled just outside the Top 40. During summer 1989, The House of Love played a week-long residency at the I.C.A. in London, varying their sets and featuring support bands as diverse as Pere Ubu, Stone Roses and the Rainbirds.
The recording and mixing of the band's next album (and first for Fontana) was beset with problems. The band members were distracted by hedonism, ego and indecision, going through four different producers and multiple studios. The stress of Fontana's commercial expectations were also playing a part. In 2005, Chadwick recollected that "the guy who signed us (Dave Bates) had signed Def Leppard and Tears for Fears so he had a lot of clout. He insisted on putting us together with producers who were quite obviously wrong for us. He was completely uninterested in anything that didn't have a huge chorus in it. He wanted hits, basically. He also ordered a load of remixes that we hadn't authorised and we absolutely loathed."
Much later, Chadwick was to regard signing with Fontana as the worst mistake in the band's career. At the time, Terry Bickers was of this opinion already. Having always been unhappy with the implications of the Fontana deal, and now feeling justified in his fears, he began to retreat into anxiety and drugs, eventually succumbing to manic depression. By this time, Chadwick's own responsibilities and external pressures, fuelled by his growing drug and alcohol habit, would turn him into what he would later describe as "(a) monster. A nice monster, sometimes, but a monster none the less." Before much longer, Chadwick and Bickers were no longer talking to each other.
The next House of Love single, "I Don't Know Why I Love You", was released in October 1989 but stalled at number 41 in the charts despite being Radio 1's Single of the Week. A sixty-plus date UK tour was set for the end of the year, with an important press covering and public attention, but this would prove to be the last straw for the band's initial lineup. In 2005 Bickers recollected "After our first album it was manic. A classic case of too much too soon. We needed a break... We had spent eighteen months in the studio recording our second album. Everything we produced got rejected and we were at the end of our ropes. Then as soon as we got the last track down they said 'Right, now off you go on tour'. It was a recipe for disaster."
Second self-titled album and departure of Terry Bickers (1989–1990) During the tour, the increasingly difficult relationship between Chadwick and Bickers worsened and Bickers was abruptly sacked mid-tour. At one day's notice, Simon Walker was recruited directly from My White Bedroom and the Dave Howard Singers as replacement lead guitarist. He made his debut at the band's concert at Portsmouth Polytechnic on 4 December 1989.
Initially, the band claimed that Bickers was taking a break due to exhaustion. It soon became clear that the break was permanent, having followed a notorious incident inside the House of Love's tour van when Bickers had begun chanting "Breadhead!" at Chadwick while setting fire to the band's money in a protest against what he saw as the band's increasing commercialisation and materialism. Looking back on the incident two years later, Bickers confessed "That was frustration. I just found at the time that I didn't have the same aspirations as the rest of the band. I was more into exploring music than exploring the exploitation of markets around the globe. They were really into crusading. And winning. I wasn't."
Bickers would go on to form the psychedelic rock band Levitation and for some time, he and Chadwick would continue to spar via the music press. At one point, Chadwick claimed that despite Bickers' stellar reputation as a player it was in fact he himself who had played "90 per cent" of the guitars on the band's recordings (a claim that he later withdrew). Bickers in turn described Chadwick as "a megalomaniac." In spite of the feud, over a decade later Chadwick would confess that he had soon come to want Bickers to return to The House of Love but had failed to actually communicate this to Bickers himself.
The House of Love's second album (also untitled, but generally known as either House of Love, the Butterfly album, or simply Fontana) was released in January 1990; it reached the top ten in the UK Albums Chart and peaked at No. 148 in the Billboard Top 200, staying in the US chart for 8 weeks."House of Love US charts". Billboard.com. Retrieved 11 December 2015 It sold worldwide over 400,000 copies. "I Don't Know Why I Love You" was heavily played on US alternative rock radios: it reached number 2 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in March. In the UK, the album had been preceded by a newly recorded version of the band's first single, "Shine On": released in seven different formats, the song saw them break into the top 20.
The House of Love continued and completed their tour with Simon Walker now firmly settled in as guitarist. The last date of the tour was a sold-out concert at the Royal Albert Hall. This was the band's commercial peak. A fourth single from the Fontana album – "The Beatles and the Stones" – reached the top 40 of the singles chart in March 1990. The House of Love continued to tour in both America and Europe, with former member Andrea Heukamp returning to the band later in the year to add backing vocals.
A second compilation album called A Spy in the House of Love was released in late 1990, consisting of older scrapped material and a sampling of the band's large backlog of b-sides. A stopgap measure to keep up the band's momentum, it failed to match the sales of Fontana (although a promo single, "Marble", reached number 5 in the U.S. Modern Rock charts).
In early 1991, they undertook a 10 date French tour which peaked at the Olympia in Paris; the concert was broadcast live in prime time on radio France Inter. On 31 August, they decided to perform three London concerts on the same night – the first at the University of London Union in Bloomsbury, the second at the Town & Country Club in Kentish Town and the third at The Boston Arms in Tufnell Park. Despite the publicity stunt nature of the evening, the band received good reviews and it was considered that their challenge had paid off. Evans, Walker and Groothuizen then took advantage of the time off to return to My White Bedroom, which released its lone album after two years of delay.
Babe Rainbow (1991–1992)