1.
The Blue Orchids were formed in 1979 in Manchester, England by Martin Bramah and Una Baines, both formerly of The Fall. They were joined by Rick Goldstraw, guitar, Steve Toyne on bass and Joe Kin on drums. With this line up, they recorded the singles "The Flood" and "Work" for rough trade records.
The group underwent a series of personnel changes before the release of their album "The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain" (1981), which faetured Bramah, Baines (keyboards), Goldstraw (now on bass) and Toby Toman on drums. This line up also released an ep, "Agents of Change" in 1982.
The group split up at the end of 1982 but Bramah and Baines reunited briefly in 1985 to record a single "Sleepy Town" before splitting again.

It wasn't until 1991 that Bramah relaunched a new version of the Blue Orchids which included ex Smiths musician, Craig Gannon on guitar. This group recorded an unreleased album before splitting in 1995.

In 2002, a compilation album called "A Darker Bloom" was released and in 2003, the band releaesed its back-catalog, including the unreleased 1993 album, now titled "The Sleeper".

In 2004, Bramah recorded a brand new Blue Orchids album "Mystic Bud" and in 2005, Goldstraw rejoined the group for the mini album "Slum-Cavern-Jest".
A live album "Blue Orchids Bomb Manchester" was released in 2007.
Martin Bramah is currently pursuing a solo career.


2.
For the English girl group, see The Orchids.
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