THE HEART THROBS were a band formed in Birmingham by college students Rose Carlotti (lead vocals/guitar) and Stephen Ward (guitar) that further developed in Reading in 1986, when Rose’s sister, Rachael DeFreitas (bass/backing vocals), and Mark Side (drums) completed the line-up. Rachel DeFreitas and Rose Carlotti (real name: Rosemarie DeFreitas) are sisters of the late ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN drummer Pete DeFreitas, who tragically died in a motorcycle accident in 1989 at the age of 27. The band’s 1st single, the 12" vinyl of ''Toy'', was released in mid-1987 on Marc Riley's In-Tape independent label, followed in 1988 by the singles ''Bang'' and ''Too Many Shadows'' on Rough Trade, both hits on the UK Independent Chart. After two further singles on their own label, Profumo (a reference to the politician involved in the sex scandal that shocked Britain in the 60s), the band got signed by One Little Indian Records in the UK, affiliated with Elektra Records in the USA. Now joined by guitarist Alan Barclay (aka Alan Borgia) and with original guitarist Stephen Ward moving to keyboards, the band released their long-awaited debut album titled 'CLEOPATRA GRIP' (a name that is a euphemism for female genitalia) in August 1990, preceded by the two brilliant singles "I Wonder Why" (March 1990) and "Dreamtime" (July 1990). The superb "She's In A Trance" included in the album was ear-marked as a potential follow-up single in US and even a promo CD with remixes by Mark Saunders was released on Electra Records, boosting the song into the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks, where it stayed for 4 weeks peaking at #21 on October 27, 1990. Distinguished by a hypnotic rhythm section and the dark subject matter of its lyrics, "She's In A Trance" was accompanied by an equally hypnotic promo video directed by Angela Conway and produced by Richard Bell’s famous production company 'The State'. Yet it took the band 2 whole years, a new line-up and a new contract with A&M Records for the USA, before properly releasing the track as a single in UK, and that was after their 2nd album 'JUBILEE TWIST' had come out in June of 1992! A year later, with their 3rd and final album 'VERTICAL SMILE' (another euphemism for female genitalia) being already released on One Little Indian in June 1993 , they completed their final tour on December & disbanded in early 1994.

Lyrics

A thought of fury haunts her eyes
A sudden stripping from the skin
and harnessing her thighs
she’s moving closer in
Impossible to read
Impossible to write
Now you understand
why the feeling must be clean

A chain of thoughts starts to glide
Sweet nothing is revealed
Criss-cross on our sights
‘til the light becomes obscene
Impossible to see
Impossible to breathe
Accompanied by spell
of dirty lying dreams (?)

Thousand miles to the door
Her belly button is the key
Now she floats across the floor
Her spirit craves to be weak
And now you understand
why the feeling must be clean
Accompanied by spell
of dirty lying dreams (?)