Other members included Mark Guthrie, Derek McManus, Gavin Crawford and Ken McAlpine.
[3] The band's best known songs ("Smile" and "I Wasn't Built To Get Up") were featured prominently in a series of television advertisements.
[1] The band was formed in 1991 by Derek McManus (guitar), James McColl (guitar/vocals), Gavin Crawford (drums) and Mark Guthrie (bass).
The band toured extensively around Scotland, selling copies of "Big 7" and "Dark Star" and building a fanbase.
While still unsigned, they released the CD album "Sitting in the Sun" in 1994 and played at the Sound City Festival in Glasgow with the Trashcan Sinatras in April 1994.
[3] The band spent early 1996 recording their debut album with producer Pete Smith and played gigs supporting Dodgy (on their Big Top Tour), Tina Turner, Sleeper, Menswear, the Bluetones and Ash.
The band's second release on Food, "Lazy Lover" was supported by a large UK tour with Silver Sun and Grasshow in the Autumn of 1996.
They were replaced by David Mitchell (keyboards) and Paul Malcolm (guitars) with James McColl switching to bass.
The band were nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in 1998 for best contemporary song for "Smile" along with The Verve's "The Drugs Don't Work" and Radiohead's "No Surprises".
The song "Smile" was the theme tune for bank Smile.co.uk's TV advertisements, Arnold Clark Automobiles, Sky Movies UK, Pearl Drops, and mayonnaise in Japan, and was re-recorded for use as the main theme of the Nine Network idents in Australia 2008, and was also parodied in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights.
The band's 2008 album "Super Pro" was recorded by Kevin Burleigh (Glasvegas, Supernaturals, Simple Minds) at the Byre Studio in Beauly.
Their songs "Rock Concert", "Napoleon", "Friends Reunited", "Warm and Fuzzy" and "We Expected" have been used variously on Jersey Shore, When I Was 17, Paris Hilton's BFF and Made on MTV.
Their songs "Aftershave" "Roller Disco" "T Rex Records" and "Jenny Teaches Rock School" have been played by Rodney Bingenheimer.
Keyboardist McAlpine later became a cameraman for Eòrpa, House Guest, Dragons Den, and music videos for Justin Currie.