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Mood Violet
Late 1970s New Wave band from the 2007 novel The Singer, by Cathi Unsworth (London, Serpent's Tail/Profile Books Ltd.). Their lead singer falls for Vince Smith, lead singer for punk band Blood Truth.
Lineup:
- Sylvana Goldberg, vocals
- Robin Leith
- Aliester McTavish
Sylvana, an American Jewish princess from a rich New Jersey family, had come to London to follow the Pistols in ' and never left. She'd met a young Scottish musician, Robin Leith, at a Damned gig, fallen in love and formed the band Mood Violet with him and guitarist Aliester McTavish, a schoolmate of Leith's.
Thanks to the fact that Sylvana (who generally dispensed with her surname) sounded as exotic and eerily childlike as she looked, Mood Violet soon attracted a cult following. Leith's inventiveness with synths and atmospheric guitar style lent an assured accessibility beyond the grasp of most of their goth peers. By the time Sylvana met Vince, at a New Year's Eve party hosted by Exile records' founder Tony Stevens, Mood Violet were a breakthrough act who'd had three singles in the Top 20.
