Urusei Yatsura were a
Glaswegian lo-fi rock indie band.
Career
Founding members Fergus Lawrie and Graham Kemp met in the summer of 1993, whilst attending the
University of Glasgow. They recruited Elaine Graham as
bassist, and the line-up was completed with the subsequent addition of Elaine's
brother, Ian Graham, on
drums. They took their band name from the
manga Urusei Yatsura, written by
Rumiko Takahashi, and contributed their first
recording, "Guitars Are Boring", to a
compilation album released by the Kazoo Club. This was based in Glasgow, and run at one point by the future
Franz Ferdinand singer
Alex Kapranos. This
record in turn brought them to the attention of the
BBC Radio DJ John Peel, who brought them in to do a
session.
Over the years they released three
albums:
We Are Urusei Yatsura (1996),
Slain by Urusei Yatsura (1998) and
Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura (2000). Albums in
America and
Japan were released under the name of Yatsura for legal reasons. The band had one
Top 40 hit single, 1997's "Hello Tiger", which reached #40 in the
UK Singles Chart.
Urusei Yatsura split in June 2001, leaving Kemp to work on
solo material and the other band members to form Projekt A-ko.
Discography
Albums
Singles /......
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