Blue Apple Boy

As an ostensible celebration for finally luring in what appeared to be a solid lineup, longtime indie heroes Sleepy People ignored their decade-long streak of bad luck and rotating cast members and furnished themselves with a new name, Blue Apple Boy. Now with Mark Dunphy (lead vocal), Paul Hope (guitars), Graeme Swaddle (drums), Rachel Theresa (vocal, flute, moog), Norman Fay (keyboards), and Bill "Cowboy" Bailey (bass guitar), the band released their debut single, "Who's That Calling?," on Oxford-based Shifty Disco in the summer of 2000, which, due to the new moniker or the fact that ex-Ultrasound's Richard Green slotted an appearance, caught the attention of the mainstream press for the first time in the band's career. "Freak," their second single, was quickly issued later that year on their own Bad Apple Records, and long-ago member and Ultrasound vocalist Andrew "Tiny" Wood even returned to the flock to help record the provisionally titled Salient debut LP in the summer of 2001 after Dunphy dropped out.