How I met EBTG

I first saw duo's video for Missing on MTV. The song was amazing, the music was outstanding. Because my English was not good enough back then, I was confused the band's name with the song's name. So it took a while before I figure out the band's name.

Then I saw the videos of Single and Wrong and I realized that I enjoy their music. I went to music shop with my high school savings and I bought their albums on casette. The first albums I had were Amplified Heart, Walking Wounded, and the Best of Everything But The Girl

I listened to their albums over and over again, following the lyrics and enjoying every single word and every single tune of it. As I got a CD player and enjoying their music, I started collecting every studio album they released. It took a while of course. And it took backwards. So I enjoy the old tunes, different tunes, and every songs they made.

I collected information about them and started collecting every song, not included in their albums. I got a total collection at last

Finally I also bought Ben's book called Patient, I am still reading it (I am a very slow reader)

Someday I wish to meet both of them, and this is my only wish maybe... I LOVE THEM

About EBTG

Everything But The Girl was born in 1982 when the early pop careers of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, who were both students at Hull University, converged.

As teenagers during the post-punk years of the early 80's both Ben and Tracey were signed separately to London independent label, Cherry Red – Tracey initially with her first band, Marine Girls, Ben solo. After a clutch of critically acclaimed and chart – topping independent releases on the UK Indie scene including two Marine Girls albums, a collaborative single (using the name Everything But The Girl for the first time) and their respective minimalist solo albums A Distant Shore (1981) and North Marine Drive (1982), the pair finally shelved their other projects and signed as Everything But The Girl to the fledgling London label Blanco Y Negro (distributed buy WEA) in 1984.

Everything but the Girl debuted in 1982 with a samba interpretation of Cole Porter's "Night and Day"; the single was a success on the U.K. independent charts, but the duo nonetheless went on hiatus as Thorn recorded a solo EP, A Distant Shore, while Watt checked in with the full-length North Marine Drive in 1983. EBTG soon reunited to record a cover of the Jam's "English Rose"; the track so impressed former Jam frontman Paul Weller that he invited the duo to contribute to the 1984 LP Cafe Bleu, the debut from his new project, the Style Council.

The name Everything But The Girl was inspired by the shop that is pictured in Hull, North Humberside, UK, where Ben and Tracey lived during the early 80's. The shop, which stood on the Beverley Road sold brand new but dated household furniture to newly married couples. A sign placed in the window of this local furniture shop claimed "for your bedroom needs, we sell everything but the girl." Stuck in a retro time warp, the shop closed and was knocked down during the late 80's.

Between 1984 and 1991 EBTG released six studio albums -

• Eden (1984, featuring the European hit, Each And Every One, and later released as Everything But The Girl in the US with new sleeve and 6 different tracks on side 2),
• Love Not Money (1985),
• Baby, The Stars Shine Bright (1986, incl. Come On Home),
• Idlewild (1988, incl. UK No. 3 hit I Don't Want To Talk About It, and Apron Strings, written for John Hughes' film She's Having A Baby),
• The Language Of Life (1990, including US VH-1 hit, Driving) and
• Worldwide (1991).

Three compilation albums appeared in the early 90's -

• Acoustic (1992, a mixed collection of 'acoustic' tracks for North America only, including all four songs from the UK No.13 hit single, Covers EP),
• Essence And Rare (1992, a Japan-only retrospective and rarities compilation) and
• Home Movies (1993, a non US/Japan retrospective compilation incl. hits and popular album tracks).

Since 1992/3 and Ben's lengthy recovery from an unexpected and near fatal illness, EBTG have returned to work with renewed dedication. 1994 saw the release of their seventh studio album Amplified Heart (1994) which garnered some of the best reviews of their career and then, a year later, spawned a massive multi million-selling worldwide hit with Todd Terry's thumping melancholy house remix of Missing - US Billboard Hot 100 No.2, UK No.3 (and Top Ten for over three months), Germany No.1, Canada No.1, Italy No.1 (for six weeks), and Top 5 in another six major European countries). EBTG played almost ninety concerts throughout North America and Europe in support of Amplified Heart and Missing, their longest ever run of touring. They performed both with a band and as a duo.

In the same period, Tracey sang lead vocals and co-wrote two songs (one with Ben) for Massive Attack's second album Protection (1994) and both she and Ben guested on dates on Massive's 1995 tour. Tracey also sang on Massive's recording of Smokey Robinson's The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game for the Batman Forever soundtrack album.

The rest of 1995 was spent dividing their song writing time between spells in London and New York, and then recording EBTG's eighth studio album, Walking Wounded (1996) in London. The album, released in May 1996, has proved the most successful of their career so far, spawning four hit singles, Walking Wounded, Wrong, Single and Before Today. The album signals the adoption of a whole new set of influences from the burgeoning dance and breakbeat scene - influences hinted at on their previous album, Amplified Heart, and furthered in subsequent work with Massive Attack and the remixes of Missing. Their beginning sound was folksy-acoustic and somehow coming to the ambient, drum 'n bass sound they use today. Some fans are disappointed with the change and some welcome the change and think it's necessary for the band's survival.

Walking Wounded establishes EBTG as one of the few groups of their generation to successfully bridge the gap between the 80's and the 90's.

Everything but the Girl dove headfirst into electronica, crafting sophisticated, assured excursions into trip-hop and drum'n'bass. In 1999, the duo reappeared with Temperamental. Back to Mine was issued by Ultra in spring 2001.

After these albums, they released two more best-of albums. Like the Deserts Miss the Rain album came along with a DVD version of the album with the same name, containing group's videos for their various songs throughout their career. Of course, there was missing videos in it, like "Wrong" but it is a great collection item. Adapt or Die came afterwards in 2005 with the album name decribing how adaptation to changes kept them alive for so many years. The album contains best of the remixes to their songs.

Trivia

They have their own studio so called "Little Joey's".

EBTG picked up the Best International Artist Award at Germany's Viva Music Awards in 1997, travelling to Cologne to collect the trophy.

Watt and Thorn are also a couple; they are intensely private about their relationship and personal life. It was not a publicized fact for some time that they were a couple, or that they had subsequently married. The duo have a strong desire to raise their three children outside of the spotlight.

The group performed in front of probably their largest audience (250,000 people) in August as part of Italy's Festival Bar TV show in Naples.