Chris Thomson originally came to attention with the 1980s Glasgow funk/pop/Celtic soul band Friends Again, which also featured future Love and Money members Paul McGeechan, James Grant and Stuart Kerr.
Recorded with a core band of Thomson, Sam Loup (bass), Jon Turner (keyboards) and James Locke (drums), it gained an enthusiastic critical reception, but label politics limited its success.
Thomson then took time out from The Bathers to work with two former members of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions (Neil Clark and Stephen Irvine) and Madness bass player Mark Bedford in the one-off band Bloomsday, who released their lone album Fortuny in 1990.
Although Thomson enjoyed a good relationship with Marina, he felt that a label nearer home would be preferable: consequently, The Bathers' sixth album Pandemonia appeared on Wrasse Records in 1999.
[1] After fifteen years of inactivity, Chris Thomson reformed The Bathers in January 2016 to play two shows at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, with a lineup of himself, Hazel Morrison and James Grant, plus Maya Burman-Roy, Andrew Cruickshank and Kobus Frick.