Mohair are an English rock band, formed in 1998 in Watford, Hertfordshire.
The band is composed of drummer Pete Baker, vocalist/guitarist Tom Billington, keyboardist Alex Lee-Richards and bassist Tim Slade.
The band initially split in 2007, but in January 2019 they announced they would be reforming for a one-off show at London's Borderline club in the June of that year.
I met Alex at a musical theatre show we were both involved in a year or so later.
This evolved into a 10-piece soul band (doing weddings and the like) until I left school and went traveling in India for a year – where I started to write songs.
By 2001, they had attracted the attention of a small indie label, M1 records and changed their name to Mohair (due to a Canadian band already having the name Trooper).
After signing with M1 Records in October 2001, Mohair spent much of the next 3 years touring throughout the UK.
In March 2002 the band made their USA debut with performances at The Cat Club and The Roxy in Los Angeles – and by summer 2004 the band had played over 300 gigs and appeared at many major UK festivals.
[1] However, their first 2 'official' single releases (discounting their promo CD "Octopus Chunks") arrived to little fanfare, resulting in the group parting ways with M1 Records in June 2004.
Mohair went on to form their own Ear Candy imprint in 2005, and released singles "End of the Line" and "Stranded (in the Middle of Nowhere)" that year.
Their debut album, Small Talk (produced by Mark Wallis and Dave Ruffy) was released in the UK on 24 April 2006 on the Ear Candy label,[2] promoted by an appearance on The Album Chart Show on Channel 4 in the UK.
The album was received favourably by Allmusic, with Jason MacNeil giving it four stars and calling it "an album that should have a lot of people talking", while Michael Deacon of the Daily Telegraph called the songs "simple and predictable" with "almost teeth-grinding tunefulness".
[2][3] The US version of the album was released on Grunion Records on 19 September 2006 (supported by a 9-week tour of the East coast of America).
They played a handful of dates throughout the UK as part of a 'farewell' tour, finishing with a show at The Horn Reborn, St Albans on 28 September 2007.
Pete Baker went on to play with Emmy The Great and fellow Watford band The Staves.
[5] In 2010, Tom Billington recorded his first solo album, Make No Bones, released on 24 May of that year.
Alex Lee-Richards toured with The Bluetones from 2008 to 2018, also playing on their final studio album A New Athens.
Along with Andy Lewis, he went on to form the short-lived Acid Jazz project The Red Inspectors.
Lee-Richards has gone on to perform and record with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Joan Armatrading and Indie/Folk outfit In The Forest.
Tim Slade now works as a TV composer and freelance bass player – most notably for Fields Of The Nephilim and Gary Numan.
The box-sets sold out in under a week, sparking a renewed interest in the band to the possibility of playing live again.
Mohair reformed for a one-off performance at The Borderline, London on 14 June 2019.
The band followed their sold-out reunion in London with a 'homecoming' show at O'Neill's, Watford on 19 December 2019.