Early days (1977–1983) In 1977, brothers
Paddy and Martin McAloon formed the Dick Diver Band. By 1978, the name had changed to Prefab Sprout, a name McAloon had created years earlier when, as he has said, "all the groups had names like that". Music journalist
Stuart Maconie described the track as "enigmatic, melancholy, tuneful and therefore perfect for a jobless literature graduate with girlfriend problems". Their lineup expanded shortly after to incorporate vocalist Wendy Smith, and they recorded a second single "
The Devil Has All the Best Tunes / Walk On" that September.
Peak commercial success (1983–1992) Prefab Sprout were signed by Keith Armstrong's
Kitchenware Records in March 1983, after Armstrong heard their music played in the
Newcastle branch of
HMV he managed. Their two singles were reissued by Kitchenware and attracted notice including praise from
Elvis Costello. Following the departure of Michael Salmon as drummer, the band recorded their debut album with session drummer Graham Lant in a 24-track studio in
Edinburgh on a budget of £5,000. Entitled
Swoon (an acronym for Songs Written Out Of Necessity), it was released on the Kitchenware
label in March 1984. and it reached No. 22 on the
UK Albums Chart. The album attracted the attention of musician
Thomas Dolby, who began producing a new batch of what McAloon would describe as simpler songs with the band. Graham Lant's relationship with Prefab Sprout ended soon after recording of
Swoon, so
Neil Conti joined the band as drummer. The resulting album, 1985's
Steve McQueen (released in America as
Two Wheels Good in anticipation of displeasure from
McQueen's estate), was highly praised by critics and gave the band its first hit single on the
UK Singles Chart, "
When Love Breaks Down". finally seeing release in 1989. In 1988, the band released their follow-up to
Steve McQueen,
From Langley Park to Memphis. The album gave the band their biggest commercial success in the UK with the single "
The King of Rock 'n' Roll". The song is written from the perspective of a washed-up singer who had a
one-hit wonder in the 1950s with a
novelty song featuring the chorus "Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque". It reached No. 7 in the
UK Singles Chart, their only single to reach the Top 10.
From Langley Park to Memphis included guest appearances from
Stevie Wonder and
Pete Townshend, and used multiple producers including Thomas Dolby, who could not commit to working on the entire album. In 1990,
Jordan: The Comeback, fully produced by Thomas Dolby, was nominated for a
BRIT Award. Though the music was more accessible than their earlier material, the lyrics and subject matter remained characteristically oblique and suggestive. McAloon has alluded in interviews to several albums' worth of songs that he has written but are unreleased/unrecorded including amongst others,
concept albums based on the life of
Michael Jackson, the history of the world (
Earth: The Story So Far) and a fictional superhero (
Zorro the Fox). Their greatest hits,
A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout, gave them their biggest US hit, "If You Don't Love Me", which spent several weeks in the Top 10 on the
dance chart. McAloon joked in the album liner notes about the band's lack of touring over the past decade.
Line-up changes (1997–2001) After a five-year hiatus, Prefab Sprout released their first new studio album since 1990's
Jordan,
Andromeda Heights, in 1997. After its release, Wendy Smith left the band to pursue a new career as a voice instructor. A double album anthology, the
38 Carat Collection was released by CBS in 1999 as the group was leaving the record label. but that he remained fond of and grateful to his former bandmates. On 3 March 2017, McAloon's manager Keith Armstrong, one-time head of Kitchenware Records, posted a short clip on
Instagram of McAloon performing a new song "America" to a camcorder; operated by McAloon himself. A longer version appears on Armstrong's
YouTube page. On 8 November 2018,
Rough Trade announced the availability of vinyl LP and CD versions of
I Trawl the Megahertz, including a white vinyl special edition of 1000 copies. On the same day, Sony Music announced the release under their "Legacy" brand. The Sony press release notes that although this was originally a solo album, it is now fitting to classify it as a Prefab Sprout record. Since 2023 bass player Martin McAloon has toured and performed Prefab Sprout material as a solo artist.
Unreleased material Several interviews have described a significant vault of unreleased material, credited either to Prefab Sprout or to McAloon himself.
Crimson/Red was based on tracks from the vault, and ''
Let's Change the World with Music'' was released in a form that was substantially similar to its 1993 demo form. On 10 December 2018, Paddy McAloon did an interview on the
Today programme on
BBC Radio 4. McAloon said that Sony would be making further releases, and that since 2013 he had been working on an album of unreleased material,
Femmes Mythologiques, to be issued in September 2019. During the radio appearance, he played a segment of a song called "Cleopatra". ==Band name==