The Housemartins were an English indie rock group formed in Hull who were active in the 1980s and charted three top-ten albums and six top-twenty singles in the UK. Many of their lyrics conveyed a mixture of socialist politics and Christianity, reflecting the beliefs of the band. The group's a cappella cover version of "Caravan of Love" was a UK number one single in December 1986.
From left: Dave Hemingway, Paul Heaton, Norman Cook, Stan Cullimore
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent record labels, by the 1990s it became more widely associated with the music such bands produced.
The Chills performing at Indietracks in rural Derbyshire in 2014
British band The Jesus and Mary Chain performing in California in 2007
My Bloody Valentine pioneered the indie rock subgenre shoegaze
The Stone Roses' 1990 Spike Island concert was the highest attendance performance by an independent artist of its time