Cornershop

by Steve Huey
It may have taken Cornershop a few years to perfect its innovative hybrid of Indian music, British indie rock, and contemporary dance, but with the release of a third full-length album, When I Was Born for the 7th Time, the racially integrated groups multi-cultural fusions made band instant critics darlings. Taking their name from a common stereotype of Indians in England — that they all own small, corner grocery shops — Cornershop was formed by singer/songwriter, guitarist, and dholki player Tjinder Singh and guitarist, keyboardist, and tamboura player Ben Ayres after the 1991 breakup of a previous group, General Havoc. The remainder of their initial lineup featured Singhs brother Avtar on guitar and former Dandelion Adventure drummer David Chambers. Following the groups first gig in Harlow, they signed with the small indie label WIIIJA.
Cornershop issued two EPs over the course of 1993 (In the Days of Ford Cortina and Lock Stock and Double Barrel, later collected as Elvis Sex-Change), but attracted more attention for their strong anti-racist politics — specifically, their public denunciation of indie icon Morrissey. In response to Morrisseys flirtation with skinhead imagery, the group blasted him in the press and took to burning pictures of him in concerts, at press conferences, and even outside the offices of his record label. The backlash in the British music media suggested that Cornershop was nothing but publicity hounds, pointing to the amateurish, messy qualities of the bands music as evidence (indeed, the group even took a certain pride in their lack of technical know-how during their early days, although they would later become much more accomplished). Fairly or not, Cornershop was, for the most part, dismissed as incompetent.
Through all the controversy, the group kept honing its sound, adding sitarist Anthony Saffery (who also played keyboards and harmonium) and guitarist Wallis Healey for their 1994 debut album Hold on It Hurts. Chambers and Avtar Singh both left the group in 1995 and the new, reshuffled lineup brought on drummer Nick Simms and percussionist Pete Hall. The same year, David Byrnes world beat-oriented Luaka Bop label signed Cornershop to a deal and released Womans Gotta Have It, the groups first widely accessible album. Singhs playful humor and English/Punjabi lyrics spoke to the inclusiveness of the bands vision and hypnotic tracks like 6am Jullandar Shere attracted positive word-of-mouth from critics and luminaries like Brian Eno, helping land the group on the second stage of that years Lollapalooza. Healey and Hall both left following the records release, however, and percussionist Peter Bengry took the latters place.
The reception afforded Womans Gotta Have It set the stage for the breakthrough of When I Was Born for the 7th Time. Released to hugely positive reviews in 1997, the album mixed pop songs with hypnotic, hip-hop-flavored instrumentals and featured guest spots from Allen Ginsberg and Tarnations Paula Frazer, plus production contributions from Dan the Automator. The catchy single Brimful of Asha, a tribute to the prolific Indian film singer Asha Bhosle, became a genuine hit in the U.K. after a remix by Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) and actually hit number one on some charts in early 1998 — a far cry from several years before. The success led to an opening slot on Oasis American tour and Spin magazine named When I Was Born for the 7th Time its Album of the Year. In the wake of this success, Singh and Ayres put the group on temporary hiatus and returned to their more dance-oriented side project, Clinton, which had released a couple of singles in 1995-1996. The debut Clinton full-length, Disco and the Halfway to Discontent, was released in the U.K. in 1999 and picked up for American distribution by Astralwerks the following year. The long silence from Cornershop gave rise to rumors that Singh had broken up the band, but he and Ayres finally returned (with Bengry, Saffery, and Simms in tow) in early 2002 with Handcream for a Generation. Reviews were somewhat more mixed this time around (the records pleasures were acknowledged to be more on the surface), but still generally complimentary.