[citation needed] The band was led by singer Craig Lorentson on lead vocals and also featured Cocteau Twins founding bassist Will Heggie after his departure from that group.

Dead Neighbours were an early-1980s psychobilly band from Grangemouth, Scotland, originally consisting of Craig Lorentson (vocals), David Steel (bass), Ronnie Buchanan (guitar), and Grant McDowall (drums).

Guthrie noticed that with Heggie, the entire chemistry of the group suddenly changed and they began forging a completely new, atmospheric sound very different from their original Cramps-influenced beginnings.

All subsequent Lowlife LPs, singles, and EPs would appear on Nightshift, with the exception of their final album, Gush, which was released on the Anoise Annoys Records label.

Trouser Press noted that the album "... delves deeper into instrumental and vocal textures, with layers of strummed and picked guitar and slippery bass chords (shades of New Order) dominating the sound.

Sounds gave the album four stars and commented "Lowlife construct their deep atmospheres through hypnotically mysterious songs…" An EP, Vain Delights, was released in late 1986.

Trouser Press stated, "The aptly titled and excellent Diminuendo reduces Lowlife's volume by stripping the arrangements of their thickening ingredients, leaving only the bass, simple drums and frugal bits of guitar and keyboards to support Lorentson's increasingly ambitious and musical vocals."

The tour helped bring Lowlife to a wider audience, and culminated in a critically well-received show at The Town & Country Club in London, a performance which Guthrie would later describe as "possibly the best set of their career".

Also in 1987, a live performance of the band specifically shot for BBC Scotland was broadcast on television, and a single ("Eternity Road") and an EP (Swirl It Swings) were released.

Critical response was slightly less effusive this time, with Music Week noting that the album "…takes us back to that classic case of a band who never reap enough acclaim because they won’t play the game.

Trouser Press was unimpressed: "The misnamed Godhead lacks the emotional drive that sparks all of Lowlife's other albums and winds up labored and dull, a collection of unaffecting songs that plod – even at brisk tempos.

In 2006, all of Lowlife's back catalogue (except Gush) was re-released on CD by LTM, augmented with multiple bonus tracks and extensive liner notes by Brian Guthrie.