The toughest part of pulling this page together was finding a fucking photograph that didn’t make us want to throw up on our shoes. The Delgados: unwitting founders of the behemoth that became Chemikal Underground, our aspirations for the label when we started out were modest but ambitious all the same. That the label continues to release great music after sixteen years is a real source of pride, even if it is tempered with considerable disbelief.
Anyway, The Delgados. You’ve heard all this shit before so really, what’s the point in rehashing it again? Formed in 1994; released ‘Monica webster/Brand New Car’ (CHEM001) in February 1995; released five studio albums in ‘Domestiques’ (1996), ‘Peloton’ (1998), ‘The Great Eastern’ (2000), ‘Hate’ (2002 – on Mantra Recordings) and ‘Universal Audio’ (2004); disbanded in 2005; released a 2CD of Peel Sessions (2006).
We got a Mercury nomination in 2000 for ‘The Great Eastern’ (losing out to ‘The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast’ by Badly Drawn Boy) and beyond that, spent an unbroken period of ten years having the time of our lives on tour, falling out in the rehearsal room and recording studio and generally having Chemikal Underground-related nervous breakdowns in between.
Wouldn’t change a thing right enough.
