Peeps into fairyland was formed in the summer of 1996, inspired by country walks, country music and carnoustie. michael angus and paul herbert alternated between singing with an acoustic guitar and keeping rhythm on an old drum kit whilst school friend graeme williamson played along on electric guitar. Over the next year they wrote and recorded many songs accompanied by hamish fulford on bass and didgeridoo. in early 1998 they released their first record, the "wise witch e.p.", a 3 song 12'' on their own wise witch recordings imprint. After graduating from dundee university, michael, paul and hamish moved to glasgow and with new members j. j. mills (guitar and stuff) and d. john ferguson (drums and things) began playing live. At the turn of 1999 hamish left to pursue a more sublime path - to study for priesthood - and peeps recruited local d.j. martin bate on bass. the limited edition single "muddy water/last day" was released that spring and to their surprise it was played by john peel and applauded by the nme as "a swaying off-kilter song that manages to be both intimate and anthemic at the same time". that summer peeps played all the big uk festivals - t-in-the-park, reading, leeds and the 1999 legendary celtic watersports festival - then went to chem 19 studios to record a new e.p. The release of the "rain and wires e.p." in december 1999 brought peeps wider attention and strangely made kerrang single of the week. in spring of 2000 peeps withdrew to the studio to record their debut album. they emerged only to record their ledgendary radio1 evening session in march 2000 and to play t-in-the park and glasgow green festivals. Their debut album "the shot" came out in september 2000 and was recorded completely live at glasgow's stuffhouse studios. bleak, wintry and understated, it was described by the times as "an album of majestic small-town beauty". the tour unfortunately ended before it began when their van exploded. over the next few months they took time out to work on various side projects and martin left to concentrate on another band stupid acting smart. In a year of disaster and ill fortune peeps somehow managed to record their second album "happiness". it was recorded in various inspirational locations throughout 2001 and released in January 2002. slowly and silently becoming recognised as an underground classic, for peeps it was an unsurpassable creative zenith. in spring 2002 they decided to embark on an indefinite hiatus and concentrate their energies on different ventures such as ritterskamp and foxface