Feeder are a Welsh rock band formed in Newport, Wales. They have released ten studio albums, twelve compilations, four EPs, and 40 singles. They have spent a total of 182 weeks on the singles and albums charts combined as of 2017, and have accumulated 25 top 75 singles between 1997 and 2012. At their peak of commercial success, Feeder won two Kerrang!

At the age of 14, singer and guitarist Grant Nicholas joined a band called 'Sweet Leaf', named after a song by Black Sabbath, who were the first band he had seen play live. At this time Japanese bassist Taka Hirose and drummer Jon Lee were playing in different covers bands, but did not know each other. While playing in different bands on the Newport gig circuit, Grant and Jon became friends. They formed an electronic duo called 'Temper Temper' after Jon left Newport band The Darling Buds. Shortly thereafter, they formed a band called Raindancer. Both of these bands failed to win a recording contract, with the sound of the latter once being compared by Grant with that of The Waterboys. On 20 June 1991, Raindancer were invited to appear on Stage One, a late night television show on ITV Central, showcasing up and coming bands. The gig was filmed at The Town and Country Club, London without an audience present. Going back to the drawing board, Raindancer reformed as three-piece band called 'Reel' after John Canham departed. Their bass player Simon Blight later departed from the band and the music business, before changing their name to 'Real'. During this time in 1994 they recruited Taka Hirose via an advert in Loot, which Taka placed himself. The band then changed their name to Feeder, named after Grant's pet goldfish. They won their recording contract with Echo after sending a demo tape, and then completed the deal after an employee from the label witnessed one of the band's gigs. A track called "Don't Bring Me Down", which featured on the demo appeared as a b-side on the "Day In Day Out" single, albeit a different version to the demo recording. After signing with The Echo Label in 1994, the group toured with Scarborough band B.l.o.w. who at the time, recently formed from the ashes of Little Angels. It was this tour where Feeder met Mark Richardson for the first time. Feeder's first official release was a two-track EP entitled Two Colours, released in 1995 which was only available at the band's early gigs. It was limited to 1,500 CDs and 1,000 7" vinyls. In 1996, the band released their first commercially available release, being the EP Swim and received a 4/5 review in Kerrang! magazine (KKKK). Swim was later re-released in July 2001 with extra tracks, being a selection of b-sides from their earlier singles, alongside the videos for the Polythene singles "Crash" and "Cement". Overall unit sales for Swim stand at 40,000 as of February 2005. Shortly before the release of Swim, a cassette tape titled Two Tracker was given away free with the magazines Kerrang! and Edge and contained the tracks "Sweet 16" and "Waterfall". The latter was described on the inlay card, as one of the tracks that would be on their forthcoming debut album proper, with the working title Here in the Bubble (whose name was soon changed to Polythene). The photography for the inlay of Swim was produced by Grant himself, while Chris Sheldon produced the recordings. The band released "Stereo World" as a single after appearing at the Reading festival.

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