The Tansads

Despite possessing one of the hardest-edged sounds in England, the Tansads have never achieved commercial success. Former bass player Ed Jones, now a sports correspondent for The Wigan Reporter, described his and the band's disappointments in his autobiography, This Is Pop: The Life and Times of a Failed Rock Star. Arriving on the British punk folk scene in the early '90s, the Tansads released four commercially disappointing albums -- Shandyland, Up the Shirkers, Flock, and Drag Down the Moon -- before embarking on a three-year hiatus in 1995. During their absence, the band regrouped, returning in 1998 with new lead singer Janet Anderson. Anderson's presence had little effect on the band's fortune, and sales of their fifth album, Reason to Be, failed as poorly as its predecessors. In 2001, Anderson was replaced by Laura Follin, a teenaged vocalist from St. Helens. ~ Craig Harris