After two self-issued cassettes, they signed to South London indie label Flim Flam for a string of singles and two 1987 albums; More Tales From The City and the live LP When Stars Come Out To Play.

[1] The band reached a commercial and critical peak after signing to Rough Trade, with Manic, Magic, Majestic in 1989, and Positively Spooked in 1990,[2] supported by a tour of the U.S.S.R.[3] The label was forced into receivership in 1991 following cash flow problems and eventual bankruptcy.

[4] In 2008, after playing nine warm-up dates in and around London during April, May and June, the band set off to the US for the first time in their 24-year history and embarked on a successful tour of New York City.

[6] The songs from this show were released as a mini album CD A Lucky Thief in a Careless World on the band's own Radio Joy label.

[7][8] In October 2009, they were invited to play The Wire magazine's 'Into the Vortex' festival,[9] followed by a series of shows in Athens, Greece, later that year.

On 28 January 2013, a double cassette and digital download titled City of Tales: Volume 1 & 2 was released on Exotic Pylon Records.

[12] Since 2017, the band have put out a series of releases on label Tiny Global Productions starting with an EP on 10" vinyl entitled Brutalism Begins at Home followed by the albums, Funambulist We Love You, Neon Primitives, Dreams Take Flight and Fated Beautiful Mistakes in 2023 which Louder Than War described as "an album that everyone should hear and hopefully take to their heart.

[15] The band's music includes elements of post-punk, folk rock, European cabaret, reflective instrumentation and epic pop,[16] with Jacques Brel, Bertolt Brecht,[1] Coleridge and David Peace[2] identified as influences.

[3] Rob Young, in the book Rough Trade, described their music as "a bohemian mix of inner city guignol, Brechtian street song, and soaring romanticism".