Cornershop

Leicester

Cornershop formed in Leicester in 1991 around Tjinder Singh, his brother Avtar Singh, Ben Ayres and David Chambers. Singh and Ayres had been put in a house-share while studying at Lancashire Polytechnic in Preston, and had already played together in a band called General Havoc. The name comes from the stereotype of British Asians owning corner shops. Singh worked as a barman at the Magazine pub in Leicester, a music venue, and the band played its first gigs there.

Their first EP, In the Days of Ford Cortina, was produced by John Robb and pressed on curry-coloured vinyl. The debut album Hold On It Hurts followed on Wiiija on 31 January 1994. David Byrne liked it and signed the band to his label Luaka Bop. Chambers left and Nick Simms took over on drums. The group regrouped around sitar, tamboura, dhol drum and harmonium, a change Singh said was made so the whole band and its gear could fit in an estate car. Woman's Gotta Have It came out on 23 October 1995, and the band toured the United States, including some Lollapalooza dates, and Europe with Beck, Stereolab and Oasis.

Brimful of Asha

When I Was Born for the 7th Time appeared on 8 September 1997. Singh produced it with Dan the Automator and Daddy Rappaport over about two months, in studios in London, San Francisco and Preston. It mixes indie rock, Britpop, electronic music and hip-hop, and its guests include Allen Ginsberg, Justin Warfield and Paula Frazer. It opens with Sleep on the Left Side, runs through Good Shit and Candyman, and closes with a Punjabi-language version of Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).

Brimful of Asha is Singh's tribute to the playback singer Asha Bhosle. The original reached number 60 on the UK singles chart in 1997. A faster remix by Norman Cook, who records as Fatboy Slim, was released as a standalone single and went to number one in February 1998, displacing Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On. The song topped John Peel's Festive 50 in 1997. The album reached number 17 on the UK Albums Chart and was certified Gold. Spin put it first in its Top 20 Albums of the Year for 1997, and it came third in the Village Voice Pazz and Jop poll. Robert Christgau wrote that its mix of styles was subsumed into its own "song-based catchiness".

Clinton and Handcream

Cornershop took a break from touring in 1998. Singh and Ayres worked as DJs and formed the side project Clinton, whose album Disco and the Halfway to Discontent came out in 2000. Around then Cornershop left Luaka Bop. Handcream for a Generation was recorded between mid-2000 and June 2001 at West Orange Studios in Preston and Eastcote Studios in London, with Singh producing, and released on 1 April 2002. It reached number 30 on the UK Albums Chart, and its lead single Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III peaked at 37. Noel Gallagher plays guitar on Spectral Mornings, and Otis Clay acts as MC on Heavy Soup. Pitchfork's Rob Mitchum called the record the most globalist musical statement since Michael Jackson's video for Black or White. In October 2002 Wiiija released the band from its contract because of poor album sales.

Ample Play

Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast, in 2009, was the first album in seven years. The band had been dropped by Beggars Banquet, set up its own label, Ample Play, and sold the record through its website and local shops. In 2011 came Cornershop and the Double 'O' Groove Of, made with Bubbley Kaur. It included Topknot, which had been a single in 2004 that John Peel played heavily. Urban Turban (2012) gathered tracks from the Singhles Club, a subscription series, and Hold On It's Easy (2015) re-recorded Hold On It Hurts with the Elastic Big Band.

England Is a Garden followed on 6 March 2020, again on Ample Play, and scored 82 on Metacritic from ten reviews. The Guardian's reviewer thought it never as transcendent as the 1997 album, but heard "liberation, celebration" in the opening St Marie Under Canon. In July 2026 they released the single Bounce and Salute, again with Bubbley Kaur.