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Adorable
L to R Robert Dillam, Stephen 'Wil' Williams, Piotr Fijalkowski, Kevin Gritton
Background information
Origin	Coventry, England
Genres	Alternative rock Shoegazing Indie rock
Years active	1991–1994
Labels	Creation Records EMI Records North America (US)
Associated acts	Polak The Balloon Farm The Zephyrs The Pristines
Past members	Piotr Fijalkowski Robert Dillam Stephen 'Wil' Williams Kevin Gritton

Adorable were a British alternative rock band. They formed in Coventry in 1991, and consisted of band members Piotr Fijalkowski (vocals, guitar), Robert Dillam (guitar), Stephen 'Wil' Williams (bass) and Kevin Gritton (drums).

History [edit]

Adorable formed in September 1990. Prior to that the band was known as The Candy Thieves, and their only record included an early version of "Homeboy" and another song "Underwater" that fit the then current baggy trend. The single was released on Trolley Records in 1990. However guitarist Wayne Peters left the band out of frustration with their lack of success and was replaced by Robert Dillam, prompting the name change to Adorable.^[1]

Adorable's first gig was in Coventry at the Tic Toc club^[2] on the night that the first [Gulf War] started in January 1991.^[3]

After recording a 12" of "Sunshine Smile" ("I'll Be Your Saint" and "Breathless" on the B-side) that was pressed up to be released on record producer Pat Collier's 'Money To Burn' record label, the band received a positive review in the NME. However, the single was never released. They signed to Creation Records in 1992, and after a UK tour supporting Curve, they released their first single, a re-recording of "Sunshine Smile", in May of that year.

"Sunshine Smile" was NME 's 'Single of the Week', and topped the UK Indie Chart. The band released "I'll Be Your Saint", "Homeboy" and "Sistine Chapel Ceiling" (another NME single of the Week), which all went into the Top 5 in the Indie chart. Their album, Against Perfection was released in 1993, and peaked at No. 70 in the UK Albums Chart.^[4] The band toured the US, Europe, Australia and Japan.

The second album, Fake, provided two singles "Kangaroo Court" and "Vendetta", which again entered the UK Indie Chart, but the album failed to dent the mainstream UK Albums Chart. Strained relations, both within the band and with Creation, resulted in the band announcing their split onstage in Brussels in late 1994.

A retrospective of their work entitled 'Footnotes' was released by Cherry Red in 2008, featuring extensive liner contributions from all four members of the band where they spoke candidly about their experiences whilst in Adorable.

Subsequent to the band's demise, Robert Dillam moved to Scotland where he joined The Zephyrs and is teaching computer networking. Stephen Williams remained in Coventry and is currently the Assistant Director of the International Office at the University of Warwick, whilst Fijalkowski using the anglicised version of his name (Pete Fijalkowski) went on to form the band Polak, who released two albums on One Little Indian. Shortening his name to Pete Fij he joined up with guitarist Terry Bickers of fellow former Creation label mate The House of Love and Levitation under the title of 'Pete Fij / Terry Bickers';^[5] Kevin Gritton is currently deputy headteacher of a comprehensive school in Derby.

Discography [edit]

Albums [edit]

• Against Perfection (Creation / CRE 138) - March 1993 - UK No. 70^[4]
• Fake (Creation / CRE 165) - September 1994
• Footnotes: Best of 92-94 (Cherry Red / CDMRED327) - January 2008

Singles [edit]

• "Sunshine Smile" (Creation / CRE 127) - April 1992
• "I'll Be Your Saint" (Creation / CRE 133) - July 1992
• "Homeboy" (Creation / CRE 140) - October 1992
• "Sistine Chapel Ceiling" (Creation / CRE 153) - January 1993
• "Favourite Fallen Idol" (Creation / CRE 159) - April 1993
• "Kangaroo Court" (Creation / CRE 172) - April 1994
• "Vendetta" (Creation / CRE 177) - September 1994

Equipment [edit]

Guitar rig and signal flow [edit]

• A detailed gear diagram of Robert Dillam's 1993 Adorable guitar rig is well-documented.^[6]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Official [edit]

• Adorable on Myspace
• Pete Fijalkowski on Myspace
• www.petefijterrybickers.com

Fansites [edit]

• Kratzke's Homepage
• The Proper Adorable Homepage
• Adorable (Unofficial) on Myspace

News and media [edit]

• Pete Fijalkowski writes about his time in Adorable at Creation Records (2000)
• Interview with Pete Fijalkowski at Dead Flowers (Feb 2007)