Do you blame her for the moonlit sky and the dream that died? Or is it just you don’t know where she is? Well don’t blame this sleeping satellite.
Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1963, Tasmin Archer worked as a machine operator and a magistrates clerk before joining the group Dignity as a backing vocalist in the late 1980’s. She joined with musicians John Hughes and John Beck to form the group The Archers but soon branched out on her own and won a recording contract with EMI in late 1990. She spent the next year and a half writing and recording and in August 1992 released her debut single “Sleeping Satellite”.
It quickly rose from the lower depths of the UK singles chart to the very top in September spending two weeks at the summit and becoming one of the biggest sellers of that year. It also found an audience over in the US where it made No.32 there, as well as charting top ten across Europe and just missing the top ten in Australia and New Zealand. She released her album “Great Expectations” the following month which would peak at No.8 in the UK and No.115 in the US, as well as being a moderate hit throughout the rest of the world. In January 1993 she released her second single “In Your Care”, a song about child abuse and donated proceeds from the single to the UK child charity Childline. The song made No.16 there.
In February she won the Best British Breakthrough Act award at that year’s Brit Award ceremony but later joked that she kept her award in the back of her kitchen cupboard, using it for cracking nuts and tenderising steak! Two further singles were released from the album “Lords Of The New Church” (UK No.26) and “Arienne” (UK No.30) during 1993. At the beginning of 1994 she released the “Shipbuilding” EP containing her cover of Elvis Costello’s 1982 song as well as three other new and unreleased tracks. It peaked at No.40 in the UK but failed to gain an audience elsewhere.
Tasmin dropped out of sight for a few years, returning in 1996 with her follow up album “Bloom” and the single “One More Good Night with the Boys” which faltered at No.45 in the UK. The album too could not live up to the title of her debut and upon reaching No.95, melted away and largely forgotten. She left EMI soon after.
Suffering from writer’s block, Tasmin spent the next few years in hiding with Hughes, now her partner, and once fully recovered, began work on a new album to be released on his own label Quiverdisc. It wasn’t until 2006 that anything materialised in the form of the single “Every Time I Want It (Effect Is Monotony)”. The album “On” was released in September that year and to date remains Tasmin’s last commercially released work. She has made the odd live appearance but generally seems to of retired from music completely these days…unless you know different…
You can follow Tasmin through her WEBSITE and on TWITTER
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