The Relationships are legendary purveyors of tweedy psychedelia and sparkling powerpop from Oxford, England. Their music mixes twelve-string guitar, postpunk urgency, and touches of prog with classic English songwriting in the vein of the Kinks, Robyn Hitchcock, and XTC.Songwriter Richard Ramage and guitarist Angus Stevenson first crossed jangly guitars in mythic 80s ensemble Here Comes Everybody, which also featured Peter Momtchiloff – soon to become a founder member of John Peel favourites Talulah Gosh – and inspired Andy (Ride/Oasis) Bell to buy his first guitar. Diversifying via Razorcuts (Angus) and The Anyways (Richard), our two heroes regrouped in a desolate 90s landscape of grungy indie and Britpop-by-numbers to create the Relationships, who soon caught the eye of Californian label Twee Kitten. The band’s EP Country Catalogue (1998) and first album Trend (2000) followed. Andy Bell stepped in to contribute some wig-out guitar to the album, and Amelia Fletcher (Talulah Gosh, Heavenly) put down some lovely backing vocals too. With rhythm section Andy Smith (formerly of The Bigger The God) on bass and top sound engineer Tim Turan on drums the Relationships released their second album Scene on Trailer Star records of Nottingham (2005) and third album Space on Big Red Sky (2009). Reviews:Twelve-string guitars might shimmer and chime with the idle elegance of The Byrds, but ‘Scene’ feels as English as Elgar and semi-detached houses – Nightshift magazineThe Relationships are masters of the perfectly crafted pop song. Imagine a less dramatic Smiths, Robyn Hitchcock without the excess Barrett-isms... and you’ll get a pretty decent idea of what this group sounds like – Americana-UK Philip Larkin fronting The Feelies – Flyin’ ShoesNostalgic, gently spaced out and rather posh, this is lovely stuff indeed – Bearded MagazineStipe meets Betjeman, if you will – Oxfordbands.comRamage’s alternate realities include the British Empire expanding into the galaxies, strange Victorian séances and living with Brian Jones - Shindig magazine