Thanks to Joel I have re-discovered The Catherine Wheel, well I never really forgot about them just hadn't listened for a long time. Joel had Rob Dickinson on his myspace as a friend which led me to pull out Adam & Eve probably my favorite cd of theirs. The Catherine Wheel go back to the early 90s and their most famous song was "Black Metallic" off of Ferment. I actually won a contest back in high school for their debut cd, at the Record Exchange there was a drawing that I entered and got a poster and the cd. Catherine Wheel had some radio play but it was never anything that would propel them into stardom just enough to keep them on the radar. Crank, their 2nd release was amazing, it a mix of heavy fuzzed out guitar and beautiful melodies. By their 3rd cd, they lost a lot of the shoegazer stuff and put together a rockin cd which was on par with the current American music scene. It was good but it seemed like they were losing their sound. Luckily for Adam & Eve the Catherine Wheel went back to the lush landscape that made them such a great band and put out their most melodic and amazing cd to date. "Delicious" has you singing along with lyrics "I think I was Bruce Lee, I mighta been Michael Cane". When it comes to the ballads Rob doesn't sound like a pansy british wanker, he is able to sing hard then bring it down to orchestra level. Every song on this cd is great, I won't write about them all just take my word for it. The Catherine Wheel also released a b-sides cd Like Cats And Dogs and for as much people write about it you would think this was their White Album. I admit the cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" is downright perfect, the rest of the cd good but not great. In 2000 came Wishville the worst cd they ever made, it was back to the Happy Days heavy guitar but was so thin that I could never get thru the whole cd. I do like a few of the tracks on it, but overall not really worth it. This spelled the end of Catherine Wheel, they broke up never to be heard of again. Rob Dickinson released a solo record last year, I don't know much about it but I do want to hear it.

I have also been told by my friend Jen that its my fault that Catherine Wheel broke up, I went and saw them in concert and that was it. For as many times that the band toured I missed every one of their shows so I was convinced that I would never see them. Finally in 2000 they came to St Andys where I got to see them perform and it was probably the next day that they broke up. When I get the solo cd I will post a review to let you know if its worth it or not.