I suppose it’s all to do with when they emerged and the sort of music they released, but I had always thought Airhead were a Madchester act, but instead they were formed hundreds of miles to the south, in Maidstone in Kent.
They started out as The Apples, consisting of Mike Wallis (vocals), Steve Marshall (keyboards), Ben Kestevan (bass) and Sam Kestevan (drums). In due course, they were picked up by Korova Records (an indie backed by Warner Brothers) but prior to recording and releasing anything, the changed their name to Jefferson Airhead, seemingly in an attempt to provoke a reaction from the management/estate of the former American band…..
There were two singles, in early 1991, prior to them responding to the threat of a lawsuit, neither of which did anything. Gaining a little press exposure from the further enforced change of name to Airhead, their next single was a decent enough whimsical effort, in a Frank and Walters sort of way, that reached #57, and which back in the day was included on a compilation C90 cassette compiled for me by Jacques the Kipper:-
mp3: Airhead – Funny How
Just prior to Christmas, a fourth single was released, and this time the boys made the Top 40:-
mp3: Airhead – Counting Sheep
The debut album, Boing!, followed in January 1992, and while it went Top 30, a further single later in the year stalled at #50.
That was it as far as the major label went, but Airhead went on to make one further EP, on indie label Mother Tongue, in May 1993 before giving it all up and becoming a very small footnote in musical history.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 