Talulah Gosh were an English guitar-pop group from Oxford, and one of the leading bands of the indiepop movement. They released several singles and one compilation on independent record labels between 1986 and 1988. Members of the group later formed Heavenly.
History
The band formed in 1986 after Amelia Fletcher and Elizabeth Price, both wearing Pastels badges, met at a club in Oxford. Their original line-up comprised Amelia Fletcher (vocals, guitar, principal songwriter), her younger brother Mathew Fletcher (drums), Peter Momtchiloff (lead guitar), Rob Pursey (bass), and Elizabeth Price (vocals). Pursey left early on, to be replaced by Chris Scott. They took their name from the headline of an NME interview with Clare Grogan. These singles, especially the former, were unashamedly cutesy, something also reflected in the names the group had adopted for themselves: leader Amelia was "Marigold", while Elizabeth became "Pebbles". Mathew Fletcher was rather less flatteringly nicknamed "Fat Mat". Their appearance led to them being labelled as an "anorak indie" band.
For their third single, the group returned to a song they had first recorded in a session for Janice Long's show on Radio 1 in August 1986, "Talulah Gosh". Elizabeth Price left toward the end of the year to form The Carousel with Razorcuts frontman Gregory Webster, and so the single, released on 30 May 1987, was the first to feature replacement Eithne Farry (vocals, tambourine). was made for it which was played on The Chart Show (then shown on Channel 4), giving the band some mainstream exposure. The single was produced (some critics suggested it was over-produced) by John Rivers, as was the follow-up "Bringing Up Baby",
After the split, Peter joined Razorcuts, while Amelia issued a one-off solo single, "Can You Keep a Secret?". Amelia and Mathew Fletcher and Peter Momtchiloff regrouped as Heavenly in late 1989,