Popinjays were a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 indie pop

Indie pop

Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...

 band

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

, active between 1988 and 1994, the majority of whose records

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 were released on the One Little Indian Records

One Little Indian Records

One Little Indian Records is a London-based independent record label that rose from the ashes of punk record company Spiderleg Records. It was set up in 1985 by members of various anarchist punk bands, and managed by ex-Flux of Pink Indians Derek Birkett. The first success came with A.R. Kane and...

 label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, and Epic

Epic Records

Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...

/One Little Indian in the US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Career

The band was formed by Wendy Robinson (vocals) and Polly Hancock (vocals, guitar), initially with a drum machine

Drum machine

A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...

, and a girl called Emma on bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

. This line-up recorded their debut "Don't Go Back" EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 (released on Big Cat records in August 1988). They then recruited Dana Baldinger, who replaced Emma, and signed to One Little Indian, releasing the "Perfect Dream Home" single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

. Baldinger left, to be replaced by Anne Rogers. In December 1989, the British music magazine, NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

reported that the Popinjays, along with others such as Power of Dreams

Power of Dreams

Power of Dreams are a Dublin, Ireland based pop/rock band, built around the vocals and songwriting of Craig Walker.-Career:They released their critically acclaimed debut EP "A Little Piece of God" on Keith Cullen's London-based Setanta Records in 1989. Following a six-figure bidding war between...

, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine and The Charlatans, were their pick as 'stars of tomorrow'.

Their debut album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 Bang Up To Date With The Popinjays was issued in April 1990. 1991 saw further line-up changes, with Rogers being replaced briefly by Emma Newton, who was subsequently replaced by ex-Airhead bassist Ben Kesteven, and with drummer, Seamus Feeney, ousting the drum machine, remaining until the band split up in 1994. Emma Newton now plays guitar and sings in her own band 'The Archie Newton Trio'

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions	Album
		US Modern Rock
1988	"Don't Go Back"
1990	"Perfect Dream Home"		Bang up to Date with the Popinjays
	"Vote Elvis"	17
1991	"Please Let Me Go"		Bang up to Date with the Popinjays
1992	"Monster Mouth"		Flying down to Mono Valley
	"Too Jung"
1992	"I'm a Believer"

Albums

• Bang up to Date with the Popinjays (1990, One Little Indian)
• Flying Down to Mono Valley (1992, One Little Indian)
• Tales from the Urban Prairie (1994, One Little Indian)