The Blanche Hudson Weekend

Following the Manhattan Love Suicides' breakup in 2009, the four members of the Leeds-based indie pop group paired off to form two new ventures: the Medusa Snare and the Blanche Hudson Weekend. The latter, founded by Caroline McChrystal and Darren Lockwood soon after the group parted ways, sounded more or less identical to the Manhattan Love Suicides: a twee pop outfit whose blissfully buzzy, girl group-influenced tunes drew heavily from seminal twee pop acts like the Shop Assistants, Dolly Mixture, and Talulah Gosh. Named after Joan Crawford's character from the 1962 film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, the Blanche Hudson Weekend featured a host of rotating bandmembers in addition to the core duo of McChrystal and Lockwood, including Sasha (guitar), Chris (bass), Lee (keyboards), and Matt (drums). The Blanche Hudson Weekend's debut 7", The Letters to Daddy EP (a vinyl pressing featuring a 1920s glamour shot of a young Joan Crawford on the sleeve), was released via Squirrel Records in late 2009. Another disc, The Rats in the Cellar EP, was released on Odd Box Records the following year; Hate Is a Loaded Gun, a 7" single released via Squirrel Records, followed soon after. All of the tracks from these releases, along with a handful of new songs, were bundled together onto an odds-and-sods CD release, Reverence, Severance and Spite, which was released on Squirrel Records before 2010 came to a close.