Tracey Thorn
Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ Schoolの同級生とThe Stern Bopsを結成し、ギターとバックコーラスを務めた。Traceyと同級生のGeorgina HartmanとJane Foxの３人にJane Foxの妹Alice Foxが加わり４人組になった時にバンド名をMarine Girlsと改める。1982年にCherry RedレコードからリリースされたシングルPlain SailingのB面で The Monochrome Setのアルバム「Strange Boutique(1980)」の収録曲“Goodbye Joe”をカヴァーしている。
Thorn’s first solo work was a mini-album entitled A Distant Shore (1982). A re-recorded version of the track “Plain Sailing” was released as a single, and was included on the Pillows & Prayers Cherry Red records compilation album.
In the 1980s, Thorn contributed guest vocals and backing vocals for The Style Council on the track “The Paris Match” (from the album Café Bleu), The Go-Betweens on their track Head Full of Steam, Working Week on the single “Venceremos (We Will Win)” and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions on the track “Big Snake”.
In the 1990s, she collaborated with Massive Attack on several projects, including the soundtrack for the motion picture Batman Forever where she contributed with “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game”. Their first project together was the song “Protection” (for which she wrote the lyrics and melody) from the album by Massive Attack of the same name. She also co-wrote and sings on the track “Better Things”. She also sang ‘The Tree Knows Everything’ on Adam F’s debut album, “Colours”.
Just prior to her return to recording in 2007, Thorn contributed vocals to the song “Damage” by the band Tiefschwarz on the album Eat Books.
In March 2007, Tracey Thorn released her second solo album Out of the Woods on Virgin Records (Worldwide) and on Astralwerks (USA). Thorn cited her post-punk peers and idols Terry Hall (from 2-Tone Records ska-revivalists The Specials, and New Pop trio Fun Boy Three), Edwyn Collins (of Postcard Records’ jingle-jangling Scots Orange Juice) and scene-queen Siouxsie Sioux in the song “Hands Up to the Ceiling”. The record includes contributions from Cagedbaby, Ewan Pearson, Charles Webster, Sasse, Darshan Jesrani, Martin Wheeler and Alex Santos.
The first single from the album, “It’s All True”, accompanied by remixes from the likes of Kris Menace & Martin Buttrich, was released on 7 February and the second single, “Raise the Roof” was released on 18 June. The third single, “Grand Canyon” was released on 30 October. A fourth single, “King’s Cross” (which is a cover version of a Pet Shop Boys song) was released on 12 December.
In 2008, Thorn collaborated with the Hungarian acoustic downtempo group The Unbending Trees on their single “Overture”, which also featured on their album Chemically Happy (Is The New Sad), released by her partner Ben Watt.
In 2009, Thorn collaborated with the Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman for a cover of The Magnetic Fields’ “Yeah! Oh Yeah!” for a compilation album commemorating twenty years of Merge Records, Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers!.
Thorn’s third solo album Love and Its Opposite was released in May 2010 on Ben Watt’s Strange Feeling Records in the UK, and on Merge Records in the US. Recorded in London and Berlin and produced by Ewan Pearson, it contained eight new songs and two cover versions, “Come on Home to Me” by Lee Hazlewood, and “You Are a Lover” by The Unbending Trees.
Thorn’s fourth solo album was a Christmas album entitled Tinsel and Lights. It was released in late October 2012, and included covers of songs by Carol Hall, The White Stripes, Ron Sexsmith, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Sufjan Stevens, Low and Scritti Politti, plus two original songs and contributions from Green Gartside and Ben Watt. The original song “Joy” is featured in the 2012 film All Is Bright with Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd.
In 2013 Thorn wrote and recorded the original music for The Falling, the debut feature film by filmmaker Carol Morley, which premiered at the London Film Festival 2014.
A compilation album, Solo: Songs and Collaborations 1982 – 2015, was released in the UK on 23 October 2015. It features 34 tracks on two discs.