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Juniper (band)

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Juniper

Juniper were a rock band from County Kildare in Ireland, most widely-known today as a precursor to Damien Rice and Bell X1.

Beginning

The band was founded by Damien Rice, Paul Noonan, Dominic Philips and Brian Crosby in 1991 whilst they were attending Salesian College secondary school in Celbridge as students. In 1994 the band recorded and independently released an EP entitled The J-Plane and began performing in local bars. Guitarist Dave Geraghty joined the band shortly after they left secondary school and contributed to the recording of the band's second EP, Manna, which was released in 1996.

Polygram

Juniper had by this time gained a significant following and the band signed a six-album deal with Polygram in 1997. The band began recording sessions at Windmill Lane for single releases that year. Polygram were highly influential in the choice of the first single and pushed for the band to release their most radio-friendly tracks. Weatherman was released in February of 1998 and went to number 9 in the Irish singles charts, remaining in the charts for seven weeks. This was quickly followed by World Is Dead in May, which fared less well and entered the singles charts at number 19 [1]. Despite the positve chart standings and unprecedented live popularity [2], the critical response to the singles was quite poor [3]. Rice claimed in later an interview with Yahoo that he had hoped to release fan-favourite Eskimo as the second single but that he had been effectively over-ruled by the label [4]. Bootleg material certainly suggests that a studio version of Eskimo was recorded during Juniper's Windmill Lane sessions along with a work in progress called Volcano. That track was never released by Juniper but instead appeared in two new versions on Bell X1's debut album Neither Am I in 2000 (attributed to Crosby, Geraghty, Noonan, Philips and Rice) and later on Damien Rice's 2002 album O.

The end of Juniper

At the end of 1998, front man Damien Rice left the band and moved to Tuscany, Italy, to work on solo material. The planned album sessions in southern France were cancelled. The remaining band members continued to play together and eventually reformed as the well-known band Bell X1 with Noonan now as their vocalist. Rice, meanwhile, has become a world-famous folk artist, most noted for his albums O and 9.

Discography

  • The J-Plane (EP) - 1994
  • Manna (EP) - 1996
  • Weatherman (Single) - 1998
  • World Is Dead (Single) - 1998
  • Natural Born Elvis (Compilation Album) - 1998

See also

  • Juniper at Irish Music Central [5]

References

  1. ^ [1] http://www.irishcharts.ie
  2. ^ [2] http://www.irishnewspaperarchives.com (requires membership)
  3. ^ [3] http://www.irishnewspaperarchives.com (requires membership)
  4. ^ [4] Interview with Damien Rice at Yahoo! Music
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