London, United Kingdom (1995 – present)
Morcheeba are a British band that mixes influences from rock, trip hop, rhythm and blues and pop. The word “morcheeba” means “the way of marijuana” (“MOR” - the middle of the road & “Cheeba” - informal name for cannabis).
Formed in 1995, they consisted of Paul Godfrey (dj), Ross Godfrey on guitar and keyboards with Skye Edwards as the primary vocalist fronting the band. While churning up interest through an underground presence mostly in London, the band finally broke through when featured on the Ultra-Chilled series.
Their first two releases seemed to portend a trip-hop based modern psychedelia that they seemed to completely eschew for a meatier, beatier, mom pop-centric sound on 2000’s Fragments of Freedom. This completely confounded some fans and critics who immediately wrote them off — many of whom would later return and eat their words. The band took another big turn in 2005 with The Antidote.
Daisy Martey (formerly of the band Noonday Underground) joined in 2005 to succeed Skye Edwards. In 2003 the Godfrey brothers made the decision to part with Skye and asked her to leave Morcheeba, she went on to pursue a solo career. However, as Skye Edwards and her voice had become a very integral part of the Morcheeba sound in the minds of many of the band’s fans, the rather abrupt switch to a new lead singer had met with mixed reactions, including criticisms that the “new” Morcheeba was no longer as electrifying in person. Perhaps because of this, the Godfrey brothers replaced Daisy with yet another singer - Jody Sternberg - for their live performances.
