The High

NAME:		The High
MEMBERS:		John Matthews, Andy Couzens, Simon Davies, Chris Goodwin
HIGHEST CHART SINGLE:		Box Set Go
ESSENTIAL TUNE:		This Is My World
ESSENTIAL ALBUM:		Somewhere Soon
FASCINATING FACT:		The band and their label were once involved in a chart-rigging scandal.
BAGGY RATING:		Maybe not a 20 inch bell bottom, but definitely pretty darn loose fitting.

The chiming guitar, the plinkety piano, the groovesome beats. The High's 1990 debut LP crammed most of what constituted 'jus de Baggy' into its first 25 seconds. But then Andy Couzens had been The Stone Roses' bass player (leaving after a gruelling Scandinavian tour), so we always knew his baggy credentials were good (despite his reputation for being a hard man).

The High's sound maybe didn't have the arrogant swagger of the Roses, or the swirling garage keyboards of the Inspirals or Charlatans, but what it lacked in gimmick it made up for in feeling. Theirs were songs that dripped with emotion, be it a soaring defiance or gentle despair. 'This Is My World' - with its 'this is my world and I will live in it' hook was the most obvious, anthemic example, but the tragically sad 'A Minor Turn' with it's simple acoustic guitar and sighing vocals was perhaps the era's most heart-tearing tune.

Sadly, after that fine first album, things went decidedly pearshaped. Singer John Matthews apparently ended up in an institution after his drink was spiked, and when the comeback eventually, um, came they'd discovered rawk music. The dirgey single 'Better Left Untold', with its chorus of 'it's just a story and it's better left untold' was, unfortunately, more a case of 'it's just a shadow of your former glories, and it's better left unheard'.

Which is pretty much how it panned out. By the time we saw them on a Sunday night in Derby's Warehouse in about 93 their star had plummeted. There were literally 7 people there. The band looked gutted. And they split soon after.

But while they might never have enjoyed the success of the Roses, or even the infamy of some of the other players, The High's 'Somewhere Soon' remains the album to play to anyone claiming the Madchester era was all shallow swagger and empty drugs-references.