They had the highest selling debut album of any artist at Island Records and international chart hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The name of the band refers to the surname of the three brothers that were originally in the line-up, and is also coincidentally guitarist Henry Priestman's middle name.

Paul Barlow (drums), Mike Bulger (guitar/vocals) and Tony Jones on bass were also early members.

In Rock: The Rough Guide, critic Charles Bottomley, described them as "The Temptations in ripped jeans, producing gritty-centred songs in a sugary vocal shell".

[7] 1989 saw another charity single success, this time as performers on a version of "Ferry Cross the Mersey", released in aid of those affected by the Hillsborough disaster.

[7] Garry Christian moved to Paris in 1995 to record a solo album Your Cool Mystery[16] effectively breaking up the band, although no formal announcement was made, and the door was open to future reformation.

[8] A new album called Speed of Life was released in September, with the title track the first single.

[8] In August they embarked on a tour of the UK and, on 16 December, they played at Liverpool's Royal Court Theatre.

In December 2021, the band released a version of their hit "Man Don't Cry", renaming it "Naz Don't Cry" in reference to the plight of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British dual citizen who was detained in Iran from 3 April 2016 to 16 March 2022 on charges of espionage for the British government.