Pale Saints

Pale Saints started in Leeds in 1987 with singer and bassist Ian Masters, guitarist Graeme Naysmith and drummer Chris Cooper, and at first they were just another jangly indie pop band with a soft spot for early Primal Scream. Then they got stranger. By the time of their first EP, Barging Into the Presence of God, in 1989, they'd drifted into darker, noisier weather: Masters's ethereal choirboy voice floating over atmospheric guitar squall, "Sight Of You" and "She Rides The Waves" both hanging in the air like mist over a motorway. Ashley Horner of Edsel Auctioneer joined on guitar for a spell that same year.

4AD boss Ivo Watts-Russell signed them after their very first London show, which says a lot about how fully formed they already sounded. The debut album, The Comforts of Madness, came out in 1990 with John Fryer and Gil Norton producing, made the UK top 40 and found room for a cover of Opal's "Fell from the Sun".

Late that year Meriel Barham, the original singer of Lush, came aboard as second guitarist and vocalist, first on the Chris Allison-produced Half-Life EP and then for good. Masters left in 1992, Colleen Browne arrived in 1993, and the band ran on until 1996.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.