Spacemen 3 were an English rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman.

Their first live performances occurred around winter 1982/83, playing at a party and then at a couple of gigs they managed to get at a local bar; at the latter their set included a 20-minute version of the one-chord song "O.D.

This material – which included early iterations of the songs "Walkin' with Jesus", "Come Down Easy" and "Things'll Never be the Same" – was used for a short demo tape entitled For All The Fucked Up Children Of The World We Give You Spacemen 3.

[7] Spacemen 3's music at this stage had a loose, swampy blues feel; some songs included harmonica and slide guitar, and their style sounded akin to The Cramps.

[19][7][8] In January 1986, Spacemen 3 attended the Studio Morocco based at the home of Carlo Marocco at Piddington, outside Northampton, to record their new demo tape.

It was "a full on, fuzzed up drone of relentless guitar pounding" (Ian Edmond, Record Collector),[8] with a "rough garage energy " and "minimal, bluntly entrancing riffs".

[33] In January 1987, Spacemen 3 commenced work on their second album, The Perfect Prescription, which was recorded at Paul Adkins' VHF Studios, near Rugby; it was at the request of sound engineer Graham Walker.

The Perfect Prescription "marked a serious artistic development, drawing deeper from gospel, ambient, and spiritual music, granting a serenity and depth to their spaced-out garage psychedelia".

[45] Spacemen 3 reached a deal with Glass Records where in return for providing a live album, their contractual obligations would be deemed to have been met, and they would be allowed to leave.

[47][48] It was at this juncture that Kember and Pierce chose to enter into a contractual relationship with Gerald Palmer, a Northamptonshire businessman and concert promoter who had already been functioning recently as Spacemen 3's de facto manager.

Palmer had booked them to provide 'An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' in the foyer of the Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford, London, to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire.

The razor-blade riffs lead you into a sonic underworld of alienation, desolation and raw power... [This] band are one of the most interesting around.Spacemen 3 "became the indie phenomenon of late 1988" (Erik Morse).

"Playing with Fire... shows another side of Spacemen 3 – a slower, melancholic, blissfully refined pop band" (Ron Rom, Sounds).

[67] The band "created glazed, liquid songs with subtle arrangements and sheer reveling in aural joys...[Playing with Fire is] a feast of sound".

[95] The official explanation at the time – and that reported in the UK music press – was that the US tour had been cancelled because they had not been able to obtain work permits due to the drug convictions of band members.

A few days later, at a dinner (at the Paper Tiger Chinese restaurant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) with Dedicated executives, Kember and Pierce were cordial with the other guests but didn't talk with one another.

Recorded nearly a year previously, Kember had used the project as a vehicle for a group of melancholic themed songs, having decided to save his more upbeat work for Spacemen 3 and Recurring.

Musically, it was richer and lusher, but Kember and Pierce's respective halves of Recurring were distinctly different and presaged the solo material which they were already working on by the time of the album's release.

Sonic Boom's lengthy textured pieces move horizontally – a rhythmic, hypnotic pulse from start to finish.What we have here, then, are two very fine solo mini-LPs bolted together under the same moniker.

Laid back to the point of bed sores, its hushed vocals, pulsing backbeats and warm walls of sound infuse an introverted beauty with a keen r'n'r understanding.

The two sides run on a similar vibe, although Jason's is a tad more conventional, riding on vocal atmospherics and a dreamtime feel, while Sonic's is sparser, pulling on a more disparate source of influences as shown on "Big City", the LP's killer cut as well as the current fab single.In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively.

Peter Kember (alias 'Sonic Boom') has had a solo career releasing music under the monikers Spectrum and E.A.R.,[1][118] and has also done production work for MGMT,[119] Panda Bear,[120] Dean & Britta[121] and The Flowers of Hell.

Spaceman') remains the leader and creative force, and only constant member, of the alternative band Spiritualized who have achieved significant critical acclaim and commercial success.

Will Carruthers took a hiatus from the music industry after leaving Spiritualized; but subsequently has worked with Kember, recorded two solo albums as Freelovebabies,[1] and has most recently toured with The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

[132][133] Sonically, Spacemen 3's music was characterised by fuzzy and distorted electric guitars, stuttering tremolo effects and wah-wah, the employment of 'power chords' and simple riffs, harmonic overtones and drones, softly sung/spoken vocals, and sparse or monolithic drumming.

[1] Their earlier record releases were guitar 'heavy', sounding Stooges-esque and "a bit like a punked-up garage rock band"; whilst their later work was mostly sparser and softer with more textural techniques and augmented by organs, resulting in "their signature trance-like neo-psychedelia".

[71] Spacemen 3 were adherents to the "minimal is maximal" philosophy of Alan Vega, singer for the American duo Suicide who were known for their ominously repetitive music.

[139] Kember was also interested in drone music and everyday ambient sounds such as those created by electric razors, washing machines, lawnmowers, planes, motor engines and passing cars.

[8] They produced "some of the most visceral and psychedelic music of all time...and set a sonic template that influenced a generation, inspiring countless bands" (Julian Woolsey, Rock Edition).

Kember's liner notes explain that the alternative mixes represent the more multi-layered versions which he and Pierce agreed not to use because they would be unable to satisfactorily reproduce their sound live.