Leicester Square: The Best of Yeah Yeah Noh

Biography

Yeah Yeah Noh were a post-punk group formed in Leicester, England in 1984. They released two albums and five singles while still together, and have had two compilation albums issued since they split in 1986. The group reformed in 2011, an announcement appearing on the Cherry Red Records website: "STOP PRESS: Yeah Yeah Noh are back together and are playing live as of summer 2012, on the lookout for 'interesting gigs in fields; gardens with expansive lawns considered'." Yeah Yeah Noh was formed...

Yeah Yeah Noh were a post-punk group formed in Leicester, England in 1984. They released two albums and five singles while still together, and have had two compilation albums issued since they split in 1986.

The group reformed in 2011, an announcement appearing on the Cherry Red Records website: "STOP PRESS: Yeah Yeah Noh are back together and are playing live as of summer 2012, on the lookout for 'interesting gigs in fields; gardens with expansive lawns considered'."

Yeah Yeah Noh was formed by Derek Hammond (vocals, guitar), John Grayland (guitar), Adrian Crossan (bass) and Sue Dorey (drums, vocals). The band members also published "Printhead", a free magazine focusing on independent music in Leicester and its environs. They also produced "Let's Cut a Rug," a compilation LP of songs from local independent bands.

Signing to In-Tape records, the band debuted in June 1984 with the Cottage Industry EP, featuring humorous and satirical lyrics and post-punk/jangle pop music. After a further two ep's, the releases so far were collected on the album When I Am A Big Girl.

After adding Tom Slater on guitar, the band moved towards a more psychedelic sound and introduced more serious songwriting for first album proper, Cutting The Heavenly Lawn Of Greatness...Last Rites For The God Of Love in 1985. The band released a further single but split up in 1986. Hammond announced that he was forming two new groups, The New New Seekers and The Time Beings, but neither materialized, and he continued to work as a music journalist under the pseudonym D.J. Fontana.

The band's Peel sessions were collected on the Fun On The Lawn Lawn Lawn album in 1986, and a retrospective Leicester Square was issued by Cherry Red records in 2006.

The group which "emerged from a big sticky chrysalis" in the 21st century includes John, Derek and Tom from the '80s line-up, Dermot O'Sullivan (bass) who played guitar on various later '80s sessions, Antony Cook (drums) and Eva Landsberg (keyboards). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.