The Heart Throbs formed in 1986, initially by
Rose Carlotti and
Stephen Ward, both college students, who recruited Rose's sister
Rachel DeFreitas and
Mark Side. Rose and Rachel are sisters of the late
Echo & the Bunnymen drummer
Pete DeFreitas. After two further singles on their own label, Profumo (a reference to
John Profumo), the Heart Throbs were signed by the UK label
One Little Indian Records. Guitarist Alan Barclay a.k.a. Alan Borgia joined at this time, allowing original guitarist Ward to move to keyboards. Their first album,
Cleopatra Grip, was distributed in the US by
Elektra Records, after which they were signed by
A&M Records, who released
Jubilee Twist in the US. After disappointing sales, however, A&M elected not to distribute their third and final album,
Vertical Smile. The first and third albums were named after euphemisms for female genitalia, while the jubilee twist is a martial combat technique for attacking the male genitalia. The Heart Throbs' single "Dreamtime" reached a peak position of number 2 on the
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1990, and their single "She's in a Trance" reached number 21 in the same year. Following the
Cleopatra Grip tour, the rhythm section left the band, and were replaced by
Noko (ex-
Luxuria) on bass and Steve Monti (ex-
Blockheads) on drums. By the third album, the band had switched to a third rhythm section of Colleen Browne on bass (formerly of
the Parachute Men, who later joined
Pale Saints) and Steve Beswick on drums. After the Heart Throbs split up in 1993, Rose Carlotti and Steve Beswick formed the group Angora, who then changed their name to Tom Patrol before eventually disbanding. ==Members==