The Field Mice


The Field Mice were an English indie pop band on the independent record label Sarah Records. Originally a two-piece but ultimately expanding to five members, they released three albums and numerous singles and EPs on the label, recorded a session for John Peel and had top 20 success in both the UK Independent singles and albums charts.

Career

The Field Mice initially formed as a duo from the south London suburb of Mitcham comprising Robert Wratten and Michael Hiscock. The pair had first met in the lower sixth form at Tamworth Manor School as 16-year-olds, drifting apart until being reunited following a chance meeting in the Croydon branch of Our Price two years later.
The group's first single, "Emma's House", was released in November 1988, and reached number 20 in the UK Independent Chart. But it was with their second single "Sensitive" that they first received significant critical attention, with the unique feat of Les Inrockuptibles naming it a unanimous single of the month among their writers, giving them a top-20 indie hit and with a subsequent placing in John Peel's 1989 Festive Fifty. Debut mini-album Snowball reached number 3 on the UK Indie Albums Chart.
The original duo were joined by Harvey Williams on guitar in July 1989, initially to bolster the band's live sound, the two-part The Autumn Store single set having been still recorded as a two-piece, with the first recorded fruits of this new line-up being the Skywriting mini-LP and the So Said Kay EP. In late 1990 the band then expanded further to include Anne Mari Davies on vocals, keyboards and guitar, and Mark Dobson on drums. This five-piece line-up later recorded what was to be their final album, For Keeps.
Over a five-year career, the band were often dogged with the reputation of having a post-C86 indie pop, or generic Sarah Records sound, despite producing tracks with numerous styles and influences. Early singles and even their sleeves harked back to early Factory Records bands such as New Order and The Wake, with many tracks often featuring sequencers and samples. Many of the group's recordings, notably "Triangle" and their epic seven-minute swan song, "Missing the Moon", displayed a strong influence from the popular dance music of the time. Most of the group's records were produced by Ian Catt, whose studio was in his parents' house's spare bedroom and was just around the corner from where Wratten lived. Catt later went on to develop the pop dance sound of "Missing the Moon" further with Saint Etienne.

Split and legacy

The Field Mice split up in 1991 after a fractious tour to promote the For Keeps album, during which, at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow, Wratten announced to the rest of the band he was leaving. The following date, at Tufnell Park Dome in London, proved to be the band's final act.
Later, Wratten and Davies, who had begun a relationship during the last year of the band's existence, briefly formed Yesterday Sky with Dobson before the trio became the more synth-oriented outfit Northern Picture Library. Following the end of his relationship with Davies, Wratten went on to form Trembling Blue Stars in 1995 and then Lightning in a Twilight Hour. Hiscock's later band The Gentle Spring released their debut album, Looking Back at the World, in 2025.
A double-album compilation of the now long-deleted Field Mice releases, Where'd You Learn to Kiss That Way?, was released in 1998 and sold more copies than any Field Mice record ever sold at the time. Their entire back catalogue was reissued on CD for the first time by LTM Recordings in 2005.

Discography

;Studio albums
  • Snowball
  • Skywriting
  • For Keeps
;Compilation albums
  • Coastal
  • Where'd You Learn to Kiss That Way?
;Singles and extended plays
  • "Emma's House"
  • "Sensitive"
  • "I Can See Myself Alone Forever" b/w "Everything About You"
  • "The Autumn Store Part 1"
  • "The Autumn Store Part 2"
  • So Said Kay
  • "September's Not So Far Away" b/w "Between Hello and Goodbye"
  • "Missing the Moon"
  • "Burning World"
;Peel session
  • "Anoint"/"Sundial"/"Fresh Surroundings"/"By Degrees". All four songs were written specially for this session and were not released on any of their records.