Thousand Yard Stare (band)

The band's debut effort, the Weatherwatching EP was released in November 1990 on Stifled Aardvark Records, the band's own record label. Both the Easter 89 and Tumbletown EPs were demo tapes made up by the band and sold at gigs prior to their first official release, the 12" vinyl only Weatherwatching. In a response to this record, NME nominated Thousand Yard Stare as "brightest hope for the future". Following in June 1991, the Keepsake EP reached the top spot in both the NME and Melody Maker independent charts. That summer the band performed at the Reading Festival, further raising their profile and leading to their stint as support for James in October and November of that year. In the Autumn, the band began the sessions for their first album, Hands On, the first fruit of which was another EP. Seasonstream EP was released on Stifled Aardvark Records in 1991, their last independent release on their own label. The Seasonstream EP began with a track titled "0-0 a.e.t", (which means "No Score After Extra Time"), a football metaphor laden song that featured Martin Bell of The Wonder Stuff on fiddle. 0-0a.e.t appeared as the first track on the Hands On LP. This single again topped the Indie music charts, and reached number 65 in the UK Singles Chart.[1] With the backing of the major label Polydor, Thousand Yard Stare went on to release a further three EPs, and two studio albums. Hands On and Mappamundi were both produced by Stephen Street, who had already produced records for The Smiths and Blur. In the summer of 1992, Thousand Yard Stare played the NME Stage at the Glastonbury Festival.

However, neither of the albums made much of an inroad into the mainstream market, and the band became eclipsed by the burgeoning Britpoppers such as Suede, Blur and Elastica, and Mappamundi proved to be their final release in 1993.

After the band split, Barnes went on form a new band Click with, amongst others, Philip Wigg (Wiggy), a long-time collaborator with Billy Bragg. Click released one single, Julia's Reactor, and two albums, If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It and 'Til The Cows Come Home. The remaining members of Thousand Yard Stare teamed up with Nick Steele, their engineer and occasional producer, to form Euphoria - they also released one single, Stationary Man. Duffy later went on to feature in another band, Republic of Heaven, in 2005.

Outside of Thousand Yard Stare, Bostock worked as a chiropractor in the Slough area, Barnes worked as a music plugger and band manager in Bristol, Moxon moved to Dunfermline and worked as an accountant, and McDonough became a social worker in Brighton.

However, the band reformed in 2015, and have made further recordings and live appearances, including releasing two albums, The Panglossian Momentum in 2020 and Earthanasia in 2022.

• Stephen Barnes (vocals)
• Dominic Bostock (drums)
• Giles Duffy (lead guitar)
• Floyd Foreman (rhythm guitar)
• Sean McDonough (bass guitar)

Former members

• Alex Lidgate (rhythm guitar)
• Kevin Moxon (rhythm guitar)

• Official website
• Thousand Yard Stare at Bandcamp
• Thousand Yard Stare at AllMusic