Vocalist Tom Hingley first emerged amidst the groovy fury of Manchester's "baggy" or "Madchester" scene in the late '80s as a frontman for the group Inspiral Carpets. After such vaunted Mancs as the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, the Carpets were one of the prime movers of that scene (and outlasted both of those other combos). Hingley re-emerged in the new millennium as an acoustic singer/songwriter with his debut solo effort, Keep Britain Untidy.

Inspiral Carpets and their trippy psychedelia and Farfisa-soaked '60s rock first started making noise on the Manchester scene in the mid-'80s. Their first release was 1988's Plane Crash EP. That same year, the band set up its own label, Cow Records. After the first Cow release in 1989, Tom Hingley joined up as a vocalist. (He had previously been in a group called Too Much Texas.) Inspiral Carpets (who hired a pre-Oasis Noel Gallagher as a roadie in 1991) called it quits in the mid-'90s. Hingley went on to form a group called the Lovers with Jerry Kelly of the Lotus Eaters, then dropped out of sight, even working for a catalogue company for a time. In 2000, he resurfaced with his debut solo effort, Keep Britain Untidy. The album, which featured only Hingley's vocals and acoustic guitar, with no overdubs, was a shocking departure from the days of old. He followed that with another solo effort, Soulfire, continuing to tour extensively and to play gigs with the Lovers, who often featured Inspiral Carpets classics in their set list. ~ Erik Hage, Rovi