Following a well-publicized fall-out with frontman Guy Chadwick, guitarist Terry Bickers left the House of Love in 1990 to form Levitation with bassist Laurence O'Keefe, keyboardist Robert White, guitarist Christian Hayes and drummer Dave Francollini.
A series of brilliant live gigs quickly cemented the fledgling group's
status among the British press, while interviews with the eccentric
Bickers, in which he expounded freely on topics including prog-rock
revivals, flying saucers, reincarnation, bacchanalian revelry and
Egyptology, further established the band as media darlings.
Anticipation was high for Levitation's recorded
debut, and 1991's Coppelia EP did not disappoint: a shimmering, majestic
effort highlighted by the narcotic epic "Smile," it also featured
excursions into delicate psychedelia ("Rosemary Jones") and distorted
pop ("Paid in Kind"). The follow-up, The After Ever EP,
was equally strong, and the two records were later combined with live
material and a pair of new tracks, "Squirrel" and "It's Time," as the
full-length Coterie.
In 1992, Levitation issued the superb Need for Not album, soon signing to major label Chrysalis. In the wake of the release of 1993's Even When Your Eyes Are Open
EP, the group mounted a British tour; while playing London's Tufnell
Park Dome, Bickers abruptly announced "Oh, dear. We've completely lost
it, haven't we?" and left the stage, never to return to the band and
refusing to publicly discuss his exit. (He subsequently worked under the
alias Cradle.) In his absence, the remaining members of Levitation
hired new vocalist Steven Ludwin and issued an EP, King of Mice; the
1994 full-length Meanwhile Gardens,
a patchy collection of re-recordings of old songs as well as new
material, was issued only in Australia, and was the unit's final effort.
