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Juniper were a rock band from Co. Kildare in Ireland, most widely-known today as a precursor to Damien Rice and Bell X1.
Beginning
The band was founded by Damien Rice, Paul Noonan, Dominic Philips and Brian Crosby in 1991 whilst they were attending Salesian College secondary school as students. In 1994 the band recorded and independently released an EP entitled “J-Plane” and began performing in local bars. Guitarist Dave Geraghty joined the band shortly after they left secondary school and contributed to the recording of the band's second EP, “Manna”, which was released in 1996.
Polygram
Juniper had by this time gained a significant following and the band signed a six-album deal with Polygram in 1997. The band began recording sessions at Windmill Lane for single releases that year. Polygram were highly influential in the choice of the first single and pushed for the band to release their most radio-friendly tracks. “Weatherman” was released in February of 1998 and went to number 9 in the Irish singles charts, remaining in the charts for seven weeks. This was quickly followed by World Is Dead in May, which fared less well and entered the singles charts at number 19. Rice claimed in later interviews that he had hoped to release fan-favourite “Eskimo” as the second single but that he had been effectively over-ruled by the label. Bootleg material certainly suggests that a studio version of Eskimo was recorded during Juniper's Windmill Lane sessions along with a work in progress called Volcano. The band announced that their next single would indeed be “Volcano” during a sell-out concert at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in the Summer of 1998 . However, this single never materialised.
The end of Juniper
At the end of 1998, front man Damien Rice left the band and moved to Tuscany, Italy to work on solo material. The planned album sessions in southern France were cancelled. The remaining band members continued to play together and eventually reformed as the well-known band Bell X1 with Noonan now as their vocalist. Rice, meanwhile, has become a world-famous folk artist, most noted for his albums O and 9.
Discography
- J-Plane (EP) - 1994
- Manna (EP) - 1996
- Weatherman (Single) - 1998
- World Is Dead (Single) - 1998
- Natural Born Elvis (Compilation Album) - 1998