Placebo

Placebo are...

• Brian Molko - vocals, guitar
• Stefan Olsdal - bass
• Steve Hewitt - drums
• Robert Schultzberg - drums (left 1997)

Observe. In 1996, with the UK stuffed to the gills with stodgy leftovers from britpop, Placebo were a psychosexual freakshow of ambiguous sexuality (and, to the casual observer, gender). They were such only two years on from their debut and 12 months after their first single (‘Bruise Pristine’ on Fierce Panda, late 1995!) they squelched into the charts at Number Four with ‘Nancy Boy’ and went gold with their superbly atmospheric eponymous debut album.

In 1998, when the nod from Weller or Noel was the golden ticket to stodge-rock superstardom, Placebo were a lone beacon of narcotic glamour - hanging out with Marilyn Manson and Bowie and making cameos in the glam rock movie Velvet Goldmine. Placebo’s darkly seductive second album Without You I’m Nothing sold over a million copies and a Top 5 single with ‘Pure Morning’.

By 2000 and the triumphant, Blondie-flecked electro-punk-pop of Black Market Music’, the devout Placebo faithful were legion on all continents. Come the end of the tour in October 2001, having spent six years challenging everything from homophobia to medical thinking about drugs being dangerous and winning, Placebo had nothing else to challenge but themselves. Within a month of getting home the threesome had bought identical mini-studios and begun toying with ideas for the fourth album, circulating musical sketches on CD. Six months later they had 25 songs demo’d, and hit a string of UK studios starting with Townhouse in July 2002, recording for a total of four months with - bizarrely - UNKLE and DJ Shadow producer Jim Abbiss. One imagines the Blur/Fatboy Slim collaboration but with the ability to rock skyscrapers to the ground. From that, Sleeping With Ghosts, their fourth album, was born.