The Sundays - Biography
By Marcus Kagler
In the summer of 1990 it was difficult to escape the melancholic perfection of The Sundays hit single, “Here’s Where the Story Ends” while their cover of the Rolling Stones “Wild Horses” is probably more well known to the Gen X generation than the original. Fronted by husband and wife team David Gavurin and Harriott Wheeler, the London quartet created an uncanny blend of jangly pop guitars and ambient symposiums often compared to the The Smiths and Cocteau Twins. Throughout the 1990’s the band garnered a diehard cult following and produced several hit singles before Gavurin and Wheeler walked away from music to raise a family leaving three beloved pristine pop albums in their wake.
The Sundays formed the summer of 1987 when former Jim Jiminee vocalist Wheeler teamed up with guitarist Gavurin to demo some songs for a new band. After writing a few originals the duo brought in bassist Paul Brindley and drummer Patrick Hannan to round out the line up. After developing a strong local following The Sundays incited a record label bidding war and by the end of 1988 they signed with Rough Trade in Europe and the David Geffen Company in America. Their debut single, “Can’t Be Sure” was released in January the following year to rave reviews and was #1 in John Peel’s Festive Fifty of 1989. Their debut full length, Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic (1990-DGC) was wildly successful in Europe and the U.S. due in part to the infectious jangly pop of first single, “Here’s Where the Story Ends”. The band spent the majority of 1990 on a worldwide tour in support of the album. Blind (1992-DGC) continued to mine the same vein as it’s predecessor and produced a pair of hit singles with the pop song “Love” and the ethereal Rolling Stones cover, “Wild Horses”.
After another successful world tour Gavurin and Wheeler had their first child and the band took a five year hiatus. In 1997, The Sundays returned with their third and final album Static & Silence (Geffen) with first single “Summertime” re-igniting interest in the long dormant group. After some sporadic touring, Gavurin and Wheeler left The Sundays behind for good to concentrate on raising their growing family.