Theaudience (band)

theaudience were founded by guitarist Billy Reeves, formerly of the indie group Congregation.^[3] The group was fronted by Sophie Ellis-Bextor and included drummer/producer "Patch" Hannan (ex-The Sundays), keyboard player Nigel Butler (ex-The Bridge), guitarist Dean Mollett (ex-Porcupine) and bass guitarist Kerin Smith.^[4] Their one self-titled album received critical acclaim and reached No. 22 in the UK Albums Chart, with two of four singles released reaching the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart.^[3]

Reeves left the band in December 1998,^[3] and although the remaining band members wrote and demoed at least 33 songs for a second album, it was rejected by record label Mercury Records, who then dropped the band, which split in 1999.^[2] Approximately half of these tracks were leaked onto the internet, most of which appeared as a fourteen-track bootleg album in 2009 under the fan-made title Quiet Storm.

Ellis-Bextor started a solo career in major label artist-driven dance-pop music following the success of her collaboration with Spiller on "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" in 2000.

The discography of Theaudience consists of one studio album, four singles and four music videos. The album track "Keep In Touch" was earmarked as a potential fifth single.

Thirty three songs were recorded as full band demos in 1998-1999 for a second album, just over half of which circulate as bootleg/download tracks. One such track, "Out With The Old School" was released contemporarily on NME sampler cassette "Wicked Women" in late 1998.

• "Entertainment feature". BBC News. 16 August 1998. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
• Theaudience page at Sophie-Online.net
• Album review