Gene were a British rock band that rose to prominence in the mid-1990s. Formed in 1993, they were categorized by the UK music press as a Britpop band and often drew comparisons to the Smiths because of similarities to Morrissey in the demeanor and lyrical style of lead singer Martin Rossiter. Gene's music was influenced by the Jam, the Smiths, the Style Council and the Clash. History The Go Hole and Sp!n Gene's origins lie in a previous band which was first called The Go Hole, named after a fictional "Beat" club in John Clellon Holmes' novel Go, and later renamed Sp!n when they became a four-piece. The band was formed in 1988 by Lee Clark (vocals/guitar) and Darryl J. Walton (bass). Soon afterwards, John Mason took over playing bass and Matt James joined on drums. Their first single, recorded in the same studios as The Ruts' "In a Rut", appeared on their own Big Pop Records label. A John Peel session fueled their early success, where they mixed with the music and artistic community in Camberwell mingling with members of The House of Love, My White Bedroom and Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. Self-managed, apart from a couple of brief interactions with aspirant small-time music moguls, John Mason would organize and negotiate much of the group's gigs, contracts and press especially later when they were a four-piece. After 18 months Clark, Mason and James invited John's brother Steve Mason to play lead/rhythm guitar and thereby free Clark to focus on vocals. Two singles, "Scratches (In the Sand)" and "Let's Pretend" were released in 1990 and 1991 respectively as an album had been recorded with Stephen Street as producer. Then, Sp!n were involved in a road accident. John Mason suffered a serious head injury and went into an 11-day coma. The day prior to the accident, Clark had offered his resignation in a letter to the rest of the band, due to his dissatisfaction with the way the band and its record label, Foundation, were guiding its course. "The final straw for me," stated Clark, "was calling the Spin album In Motion - a play on word-association which was so naff, that it beggared belief." A further EP, titled Hot Blood, was released in late 1991. The music press ceased to portray the band as new and vibrant, instead substituting headlines of road crashes and injuries, necessitating an overhaul of