Sleeper set for acoustic set at The Apex

Britpop favourites, Sleeper coming to Bury St Edmunds with their stripped back acoustic set.

Sleeper enjoyed huge critical and commercial success in the mid-1990s.

Their music is characterised by astute, observational lyrics and big, hook driven melodies.

They achieved eight Top 40 singles, including “What Do I Do Now?”, “Nice Guy Eddie”, “Sale of the Century” and “Statuesque”, across three Top 10 albums, with well over a million sales.

The band also had two tracks on the era defining soundtrack to “Trainspotting” (named as one of the best film soundtracks of all time by the likes of Rolling Stone).

Louise Wener later wrote that “we sounded not unlike the Sundays, but as time went on our music became increasingly influenced by US bands such as Hole, Nirvana and, most especially, the Pixies.”

She also admitted soliciting interest from record label representatives by sending them a fake NME review, a move she called “pure cheek and cut-and-paste fakery.”

Frontwoman Louise, along with Elastica’s Justine Frischmann, was one of Britpop’s biggest female stars.

Sleeper covered front pages the music press and appeared numerous times on music shows like “TFI Friday”, “The Word”, “Jools Holland” and “Top Of The Pops” (Louise even presented an episode).

The band was the inspiration for the phrase “Sleeperbloke”, used by the music press to describe the more forgettable members of Britpop bands who tended to just hang around at the back of photoshoots.

The “Sleeperblokes” themselves were said to be highly amused and even produced an ironic “Sleeperbloke” T-shirt to go with Wener’s “Another Female Fronted Band” T-shirt.

Sleeper reformed in 2017 to play in four British cities as part of the Star Shaped Festival, alongside other Britpop acts including Space, Dodgy and The Bluetones.

In 2019, they released a new album in collaboration with their old producer Stephen Street and in 2020, Wener and Maclure compiled unreleased material from previous recording sessions, including the George Michael collaboration, for a new Sleeper album “This Time Tomorrow”.

For this unplugged acoustic tour, Sleeper will bring a semi-acoustic performance of classics and rarities, with stories and conversation. It’s an opportunity to these favourite tunes up close, complete with a Q&A with the audience.

They are at The Apex on Friday, June 14, at 7.30pm. See www.theapex.co.uk or ring 01284 758000 for more information or to book tickets.