Prefab Sprout

Prefab sprout were a progressive pop rock band that hailed from the North East and made there name during the 1980s.

The band started in 1982 with lead singer and chief songwriter Paddy McAloon being the chief architect of the group. They released the single 'Lions in my own garden:exit someone' and a debut album took some two years later named 'Swoon' with a guitar based sound and they were quickly compared to Aztec Camera.

The follow up album 'Steve McQueen' which was produced by Thomas Dolby and received great response by music journalists and the public alike. 1988 saw there greatest commercial success in the UK when the single 'King of rock and roll' reached number 7 in the UK singles chart. It was taken from the album 'From Langley park to Memphis' which was a huge success. Also the album featured the single 'cars and girls'. The album also featured contributions from Stevie Wonder and Pete Townshend.

The bands name was unusual and there two popular thoughts on how the name was derived the first was mishearing a lyric on a Nancy Sinatra song where the lyric said 'hotter than a pepper sprout' and McAloon interpreted it as 'prefab sprout' or another was the reference to the prefab houses that went up after world war two!

During the 1980s the band released four studio albums with all going top 30 with 'From Langley park to Memphis' reaching the top 10. They also released 10 singles with two hitting the top 30 with 'Love breaks down' peaking at 25 in 1985 and 1988 saw there only top 10 'king of rock and roll'.