Beginnings In 1990, the band's first album
Ichabod and I was released on a small British indie label, Action Records. Although not a commercial success, this release brought the band to the attention of
Rough Trade Records, to whom they signed. Almost immediately after the release of the
Every Heaven EP in 1991, Rough Trade collapsed and the Boo Radleys were signed by
Alan McGee's
Creation Records. Reviewing the album's re-release in 2008, Sic Magazine wrote, "For 64 minutes they were the greatest band on the planet."
Giant Steps placed second to
Debut by
Björk in the 1993
NME album of the year list, voted by the paper's contributors, although it came in first place in the subsequent
NME readers' poll. The now-defunct
Select magazine declared
Giant Steps their album of the year for 1993. The Boo Radleys also appear on the original motion picture soundtrack to the 1993 film
So I Married An Axe Murderer with their cover of The La's song "There She Goes".
Wake Up! and beyond Despite critical acclaim and a cult fanbase, the Boo Radleys were still largely unknown to the general public by the time the
Britpop phenomenon broke into the mainstream in 1995. It made the
Top 10 in the
UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 9. The single remained on the chart for two months, by far the band's longest run for any of its singles; later, on 26 October 2009,
BFBS Forces Radio launched its live Afghanistan studio output with the track after it topped a listeners poll seeking a suitable first track. Carr describes writing the song watching
The Big Breakfast after a night on
acid. The follow-up release, "Find the Answer Within," was the band's only other single to chart for more than two weeks. Their fourth album
Wake Up! (1995), was their commercial peak. The same year the band featured on
Help with "Oh Brother", exclusive to that release. Help was a charity album aimed at raising funds for
War Child, also featuring various other artists such as
Radiohead and the
Manic Street Preachers. In 1996, the Boo Radleys released their fifth album ''
C'mon Kids''. The Boo Radleys' final album was 1998's
Kingsize. One single was released from the album, "Free Huey!". The title track was due to have been released as a second single, but the band decided to split up. Sice later told
Time Out magazine: "It was such a relief when Martin phoned me and said he didn't want to make any more records. We'd been wanting it to stop for quite a long time, but I couldn't do it – I didn't want to leave. I wanted the band to end and only Martin could have done that. There was always the fear if I left, that they would just get another singer in and I didn't want that. Never mind not having the heart to tour – I barely had the heart to go down to the studio while we were making Kingsize." A
compilation album,
Find the Way Out, was released in 2005, and a further compilation
The Best of the Boo Radleys appeared in 2007.
Disbandment The Boo Radleys disbanded in early 1999. Brown built a popular
recording studio before going on to
John Moores University for teacher training. He progressed on to teaching
information technology at St Louis's Grammar School in
Kilkeel,
County Down, in
Ulster, and also taught at Park High School in
Birkenhead. Under the name
Bravecaptain, Carr has since released six albums, including
The Fingertip Saint Sessions Volume 1,
Go with Yourself,
Advertisements for Myself (2002) and
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2004). His most recent album was titled
Distractions. Carr has since announced that he will be retiring the Bravecaptain name to work on new projects, but these will not include reforming the Boo Radleys. His first solo album
Ye Gods (And Little Fishes) was released in mid 2009 and re-released on vinyl in 2024 on the AV8 label. After signing to the Hamburg label, Tapete, he released two albums, 'The Breaks' (2914) and 'New Shapes Of Life' (2017). In 2025 he released the odds and sods LP 'The Canton Hours' on his Sonny Boy Records label. Carr has made videos for The Lilac Time, Love, Ace of Cups and Sons of Adam among others. He is also collagist. Cieka is now a member of the band Domino Bones, alongside
Mark "Bez" Berry, formerly of
Happy Mondays. After an album in 1996 (
First Fruits) under the name Eggman, while still a member of the Boo Radleys, Rowbottom walked away from music for several years after the split. Then, following a guest vocal on Bravecaptain's,
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, and also two songs with the Japanese musician Ryo Matsui's solo project, Meister, he formed Paperlung. The band featured Rowbottom on vocals, Simon Gardiner on bass, Ben Datlen on guitar and Guillaume Jambel of Transcargo on drums. They released two singles, "The Days That God Sold You" (2006) and "Do What Thou Will", and an album,
Balance (2007).
Reunion and new music In 2020, it was reported that some members of the Boo Radleys were coming together to record new music to mark 25 years since the band's heyday. In July 2021, the band released their first new single in 23 years, "A Full Syringe and Memories of You", part of an EP of the same name. Upon the single's release, it was confirmed that original guitarist Martin Carr was not invited to take part in the reunion. The band's seventh studio album,
Keep on with Falling, was released on 11 March 2022.
Eight was announced in January 2023 to be released in the same year alongside the new single "Seeker". In 2025, the band's 1992 single "
Lazarus" was used as the ending theme song for the Japanese anime series
Lazarus, directed by
Shinichiro Watanabe. The band returned in 2026 with their ninth album,
In Spite of Everything. ==Members==