Dublin trio JJ72 were going to be the Next Big Thing after two successful singles and a lot of hype around the turn of the millennium.
I remember the huge hype around JJ72 when they first emerged, especially from the music press and (not coincidentally) their publicist Phill Savage.
He was convinced they would become the biggest indie band in the world, but they didn’t (and nor did his other great white hopes, Ultrasound).
But they did burn brightly for a moment at the turn of the millennium before fading from view.
The indie guitar trio formed in their mid-teens at secondary school in Dublin in 1997 when lead singer Mark Greaney and drummer Fergal Matthews found a shared love of Joy Division, Nirvana and Greaney’s “cool jacket.”
Two years later, after Greaney and Matthews had started university, they were joined by “dazzling damsel” Hilary Woods (their words) on bass guitar.
By 2000 word was getting out about the teenage trio from Ireland with the cryptic name and unique sound, characterised by slow-burn song structures and Greaney’s high yearning vocals.
Their debut single October Swimmer – a melancholy break-up song set to a euphoric soundtrack – earned them an appearance on Top of the Pops.
“I woke up and I could remember all the colours,” Greaney explained. “That’s what the line about ‘Greycoats of the infantry’ comes from, and also ‘Helsinki winners’, because in the dream I was in Helsinki.
“It’s also about a story that my mum told me about when she was on holiday in Spain, and a guy would go swimming in October three times a day regardless of the weather. It’s a defiant tune.”
Their self-titled debut album sold more than 500,000 copies in Ireland and the UK, reaching the Top 20 and spawning another minor hit single with a new version of Oxygen, the song Greaney and Matthews had first recorded as a demo and sent out to journalists and DJs in the hope of getting publicity, and a record deal.
For a while JJ72 were the Next Big Thing, with tours supporting U2, Coldplay, Embrace, Suede and Muse, a headline slot on the NME Brats tour – and an Irish Music Award for best new band in 2001. Their second album I To Sky also cracked the Top 20, followed by a tour of Europe.
Things slowed down after Woods left in early 2003. Their third album, with new bassist Sarah Fox, was due for release in 2005 but was never released after two singles – She’s Gone and Coming Home – both flopped.
In June 2006 they announced they had split up, blaming a strained relationship with their record company, and borrowing from John Donne’s epitaph in a statement that read:
“Reader, we are to let thee know / JJ72’s body only lies below / For could the grave JJ’s soul comprise / Earth would be richer than the skies.”