Who were Hedonist? When were they active? Did they release anything?

The user robmaggs (could his name be Robert Maggs?) has a Soundcloud account. There are some songs by this band. And they do sound great! So let’s see what we can find out about them.

Robmaggs hails from the U.K. From a place called Menai Bridge. That is in Wales, right? Never heard of it before. It is a town in the isle of Anglesey. Wow. I’ve wanted to visit Anglesey and Beaumaris Castle. One day I hope.

Menai Bridge (Welsh: Porthaethwy; usually referred to colloquially as Y Borth) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in north-west Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas Telford, just over the water from Bangor. It has a population of 3,376. There are many small islands near the town, including Church Island. The Menai Heritage Bridges Exhibition celebrates the Menai Suspension Bridge, built by Thomas Telford, and the Britannia Bridge, built by Robert Stephenson.

The first song I listen by the band is called “Reaper“. There I notice some comments from someone called Gavin Kaufman. He mentions an album by Hedonist. An album that was released in cassette. The timeframe seems to be late 1990s. He also says that he was in a band called REIN.

The next song is “Underground“. Here Gavin comments again and gives us an important detail, Hedonist hailed from Northampton. He believes this song dates from 1998.

Ok, Northampton. That is a place I am more familiar with. I am sure I’ve written about Northampton bands. Slumber for example?

“Lindy” is another track by Hedonist. Was it a tribute to Lindy from The Go-Betweens? I wonder. This one dates from 1995.

And that’s not all, there’s “Promises” and “Always” which are a bit more darker than the previous tracks.

Then I find about another band he was involved in in the early 90s. Playground. There’s a track called “Hurt Me”. Thanks to this song can figure out that Rob was the vocalist. Maybe he was also the vocalist in Hedonist? Another band he was in was called Der Hunger.

We can see Rob has made many recordings, including covers of Morrissey and The Smiths. Some other recordings are not indie or indiepop, but jazz or experimental. Quite interesting.

And that’s what I could find about the band. Not much more. Anyone has any more details about them? Like who else was in the band? What about the cassette album? What songs were in it? When was it released? Did the album have a name? When was the band active? Many, many questions…

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Listen
Hedonist – Lindy