Pete Astor
Beginning as leader and songwriter with seminal Indie band The Loft on Alan McGee’s Creation Records, Astor then lead his next group The Weather Prophets to the top of the Indie charts, signing to Warner Brothers in 1988. After three classically cultish albums, the band split, for Astor next to enjoy a successful solo career in Europe. In the 1990’s he expanded his musical palette and formed The Wisdom Of Harry and Ellis Island Sound, signing deals with Matador and EMI respectively, performing and composing using a range contemporary electronica styles, undertaking extensive remix work for artists ranging from the Manic Street Preachers to underground dance icon Andrew Weatherall.
In 2004, Astor recorded an album of traditional folk songs for the Static Caravan label and expanded his Ellis Island Sound project to a fifteen-piece group, promoting the band’s album The Good Seed for Peacefrog Records and taking in the festival circuit, appearing at events such as The Green Man and the Big Chill.
The Loft reformed for a brief tour in 2006, with Astor’s song Up the Hill and Down the Slope being featured in Mojo’s Top Fifty Indie Records, the lyric also providing the title to David Cavanagh’s highly rated biography of the label, My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize. Astor’s compositions for Ellis Island Sound can currently also be heard soundtracking TV programmes Wife Swap and Channel Four Racing.
Expanding his focus on writing, teaching and research, Pete Astor is currently writing for the magazine of the Saatchi Gallery, Art and Music and, together with Keith Negus, developing a collection of pieces by academics and cultural critics entitled Words in Music, having just had some of his own recent research on the subject published in the Cambridge Journal of Popular Music.
Recorded works
With The Loft:
Singles:
Why Does the Rain? (Creation, 1984)
Up the Hill and Down the Slope (Creation, 1985)
Model Village (Static Caravan, 2006)
Compilation Albums:
Once Around the Fair: The Loft 1982-1985 (Creation, 1989)
Magpie Eyes 1982-1985 (Rev-Ola, 2005)
With The Weather Prophets:
Albums:
Diesel River (Creation/Rough Trade, 1986 - German Import)
Mayflower (Elevation, 1987) (UK #67)[2]
Judges, Juries and Horsemen (Creation, 1988)
Temperance Hotel (Creation, 1989)
'87 Live (Creation, 1991)
Blue Skies & Freerides – The Best of 1986-1989 (Cherry Red, 2004)
Singles:
Almost Prayed (Creation, 1986)
Naked as the Day You Were Born (Creation, 1986)
She Comes from the Rain (Elevation, 1987) (UK #62)[2]
Why Does the Rain (Elevation, 1987)
Hollow Heart (Creation, 1988)
Always the Light (Creation, 1988)
With Ellis Island Sound:
Albums:
Ellis Island Sound (2002) Heavenly/EMI
Home Service (2003) Static Caravan
The Good Seed (2007) Peacefrog
Singles/EPs:
All City EP
Data Centre (1999) Faux-Lux
#7 Goes East (2000) Static Caravan
Gene Pool (2006) Static Caravan