On this day · 61 years ago · 1965
61 Years Ago Today: Elastica Bassist Annie Holland Was Born
Annie Holland, Elastica's bassist and co-founder, was born August 26, 1965, in London. Her 1995 departure and 1999 return bookended the Britpop band's biggest chart moments.
By Lowe, Bass desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Annie Holland, bassist and co-founder of Britpop band Elastica, was born August 26, 1965, in London. She helped build the band's sound from its 1992 formation through the 1995 debut album Elastica, which became the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history at the time. Holland left the band in August 1995 citing touring exhaustion, returned in 1999, and stayed until Elastica's 2001 breakup.
From Suede's breakup to Elastica's bass chair
Annabel "Annie" Holland was born August 26, 1965, in London, per Wikipedia. She joined Elastica by autumn 1992, brought in alongside guitarist Donna Matthews soon after Justine Frischmann and drummer Justin Welch formed the group that year, following their own departure from Suede.
The band gigged briefly under other names before settling on Elastica in October 1992, then broke through with the debut single "Stutter" in 1993, a spiky, punk and post-punk influenced track that caught BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq's attention, per Wikipedia. Two UK Top 20 singles followed in 1994, and the band landed in tabloid headlines when Frischmann's relationship with Blur's Damon Albarn became public.
A record-breaking debut, then an exit
Elastica's self-titled debut landed in March 1995 and entered the UK Albums Chart at Number 1, becoming the fastest-selling debut album in the UK since Oasis's Definitely Maybe, a record that stood for over a decade until the Arctic Monkeys broke it in 2006. Lead single "Waking Up" reached Number 13, the band's highest UK chart placement. The album also drew plagiarism claims over melodic similarities to art-punk band Wire and to the Stranglers, both settled out of court, and still charted in the US on the strength of "Connection" and "Stutter" getting airplay on modern rock radio. An Elastica song titled simply "Annie," written by Matthews and a friend, is about visiting Holland in Brighton, where she still lives today.
The album's success came with almost a year of relentless touring, four trips across North America plus the 1995 Lollapalooza run. Holland quit in early August 1995, citing exhaustion and a bout of repetitive strain injury, and declined the Lollapalooza dates rather than push through. Session player Abby Travis covered the tour, and Sheila Chipperfield took the bass chair permanently from spring 1996.
Holland returned in 1999, in the months after Donna Matthews left the band in late 1998, and stayed through Elastica's second album. Damon Albarn even played uncredited keyboards on both records, hidden behind the anagram pseudonyms "Dan Abnormal" on the 1995 debut and "Norman Balda" on The Menace, which arrived in April 2000 on Atlantic Records after a label shakeup moved the band off Geffen. Elastica broke up amicably in October 2001, and the following month released a farewell single, "The Bitch Don't Work." In January 2017, Holland rejoined Matthews and Welch, three quarters of the original lineup, at Abbey Road Studios in London to remaster the 1995 debut for a Record Store Day reissue.
Super Slinky Bass (.045-.100)
Why this one: A bright, punchy 4-string nickel set in the same territory Britpop and post-punk bassists reached for. It is also the documented gauge Blink-182's Mark Hoppus plays, not a claim about which strings Holland herself used.