could be achieved with a dextrous
blend of melody and beat science,
and ended up, if not soundtracking
the 90s, producing music that kept
up with technological advances while
remaining somehow timeless.
They were peers of those other
60s-referencing pop house typesand had, in the early days, Oasis
and Pulp supporting them – the video
for Pulp’s Babies was fi lmed in the
north London fl at shared by Stanley
and Wiggs – even if they were never
really part of the Britpop party.
Wiggs – currently studying in
his spare time for a postgraduate
degree in Film Scoring (in 2014
he wrote and performed the music
for the movie Year 7) – remembers
the early days of Saint Etienne,
when he and Stanley would dabble
with “rudimentary melodies” with
facilitator Catt and “somehow
cobble together” songs, with ideas
of samples in their heads. They
were probably at a similar level
of non-profi ciency as The Human
League. “None of us were good
enough to sit down with a guitar and
piano and ‘jam’,” as Stanley puts it.
In a way, at that point, they were a
virtual band, a studio chimera – “an
experiment, really,” decides Wiggs.
The intention at fi rst was to bring in
different female singers to front each
release: Moira Lambert sang on Only
Love... while Donna Savage was
vocalist on follow-up single Kiss And
Make Up.
Being a fully-functioning
performing unit wasn’t really on the
cards until Cracknell joined. A drama
student from Windsor, she had beenSAINT ETIENNE83Deee-Lite and Betty
Boo, southern
counterparts
of esoteric
Mancunians World
Of Twist and
Intastella, and in
the same ballpark
as experimental
electronicists The
High Llamas and
Stereolab. But they
were regulars on
Top Of The PopsAt the beginning of
the 90s, the charts were
suddenly populated by
lunatics like The KLF
BOB STANLEYin an indie band called The Worried
Parachutes before moving to London
at 17. She had stints with other acts,
but following her vocal on third Saint
Etienne single Nothing Can Stop
Us she became a full-time member.
She, too, recalls their untutored
early days (“scattergun” is how
she describes their approach), and
admits that, in terms of prowess, they
have improved immeasurably in the
quarter-century since.
“We’re a lot better now,” she
laughs, ordering a hot chocolate as
Wiggs settles for a cider.
According to Stanley, their musical
ability – or lack of same – didn’t
hinder their ambition.
“We actually thought Only Love...
could do something. And then Dub
Be Good To Me went to No.1 and
[the danced-up cover of] Strawberry
Fields Forever by Candy Flip reached
No.3 and we thought, ‘There you
go!’ It didn’t seem that unlikely,
although at the same time it did
seem a bit ridiculous cos we were
always following our muse with lots
of in-jokes and references to things,”
he adds of the snippets of dialogueAbove: The band
during their
hit-making peak
in 1993© Rob Baker AshtonFrom left, Bob Stanley,
Sarah Cracknell and
Pete Wiggs. Before Cracknell
joined the band, the lads had
a hit with 7 Ways To Love in
1991 as Cola BoyCP30.Feat_StEtienne.print.indd 83 07/06/2017 16:55